Pine Ridge South Dakota. Located in the Southwestern part of South Dakota and a place that is miles away from any other towns. Pine Ridge is a place not known by many Americans that live in the states and what many don't know is that it also has the lowest per capita income in the entire United States. A place that seems like is forgotten by many and with virtually no films made in the US about the people of Pine Ridge. It takes a lady from Beijing, China named Chloe Zhao to come to the United States and film this slice of the country. Zhao films the landscapes and the people with such honesty. There are scenes of viewing the rocks of the Badlands, seeing the traditional ways of the Native Americans, and seeing the faces of these people. I can't help but get misty eyes throughout this whole film.
The beauty of this film is something to behold and Zhao achieves this by filming the film in a Neo realism style. Most of the people you see in this film are actual people that have lived on the Reservation their whole life, this is home for these beautiful people. But it is also a broken, and at times hopeless place it seems to live. Because of our society cutting off these people from the world and is one of the biggest current tragedies of the United States that this level of poverty, ignored by the governments, and isolation is still going on in the country to this day. Most American filmmakers I would say wouldn't even try to make a film about the people of Pine Ridge. But here Zhao does something almost groundbreaking. Showing all the sides of the Reservation, the beauty of it, the big problems the people face on the Reservation, and of the soul of the land and the people.
This film stars a brother and sister, the brother's name is Johnny who is 17 and the sister's name is Jashaun who is 11. And they both seem to be looking for hope throughout the whole film. Since Pine Ridge is a dry county, in order for Johnny to make ends meet he goes over the border to Nebraska in a town named WhiteClay and buys liquor to sell back in Pine Ridge. While Johnny is able to buy a truck for himself with the money, it is also a vice that taints the land and the reservation. It's a double edge sword, in order for Johnny to have any hope at this point is to do an act that is not of the traditional ways. And this is one of the big scars that we witness during the film of Pine Ridge.
If one is not familiar with Pine Ridge and watches this film. One might be shocked at times of the conditions that the people live in, of the violence, and of excessive drug use. This whole film is a gut wrench to watch, because these people are constantly crying. Not in the literary sense, but are without even knowing it. We see the excessive drug use, the sadness on the faces of the people on the reservation, and even tragic death happens in the film. When the father of Johnny dies in a house fire. For most of the film, Johnny has a plan to make it out of the reservation and make it out to L. A with a girl he has a love interest in. The girl is going to L.A to go to attend college, while Johnny wants to go to have some sort of hope.
However, there is something that seems to want to keep Johnny in Pine Ridge. You have to understand that even as poor and as hard as it is to live on the reservation. This is home, the land of the dear Lakota people of Pine Ridge. We see scenes when Johnny and Jashaun visit the sacred lands and mars like scenery of the Badlands. These badlands live through both of them. We see at one point after Johnny gets beaten by a group of men because of Johnny selling alcohol on the reservation and stepping on their territory. When Johnny is in a coma, he has a dream of him and the girl he wants to go to L. A with roaming the Mystic Badlands. It's a scene that is very moving because this land and dream live in Johnny. It's all his soul wants, he wants the girl, yes but also that land is what makes not only him but the people of Pine Ridge whole.
While Johnny is facing the hardship of surviving on the Reservation, we have the other side of the film with his sister Jashaun. Jashaun seems to be more in tune with the traditional ways of the Lakota. However, she also deals with trying to avoid all the dark vices that the reservation has. We see her smoke weed, go to a party where all drinking and drug use is going on, and even gets arrested by the town's police. But what she learns from all of these actions she takes throughout the film is that these aren't the actual people, these are people that are lost, broken, and simply looking for a way to make it through the pain of the reservation. Jashaun knows the connection more than most of the people in this film. She meets a man named Travis that is an artist. He does many things like making blankets, dresses, shirts, and even gives tattoos to other people of the reservation. This man teaches Jashaun the traditional ways and culture of Lakota to her. Like most of the people in this film and on the reservation he is not a bad guy. He also has a connection to the culture and the land.
We have a touching scene at one point in the film when Jashaun asks Travis "Why do you like seven so much?" Travis responds "Seven, seven I can't even start why. That, there's way too many reasons, way too many. Seven is the most influential and used number in the Bible, and it is our culture's most sacred and revered number." Travis looks out on the sun setting of the beautiful land of Pine Ridge and goes on to say "Crazy Horse said, "Everything will all seem to have ended at Wounded Knee, but it'll all begin again with the seventh generation," you know?..... That's you." This is when Jashaun learns and why she knows this is her purpose and why she is on this reservation for. She is the number seven, she is the one that will bring understanding to the people of her culture and of these lands. She is the next in line that will rise up and show the way to the people of Pine Ridge. It's hope that the young will be able to show the way someday
Sadly, however, Jashaun will find Travis giving into all the vice that makes these people not see the way. She sees him getting high, drinking, trying to not feel the pain. I feel at that moment that is when Jashaun makes the change and tries to do the best she can to do the right thing and bring hope to the people of Pine Ridge. However, her brother can't quite understand how important his culture is even if he does feel it he doesn't quite ever understand it like his Sister can.
As Johnny says his goodbyes to everyone in town and goes to the Badlands one last time he feels and touches literally the rocks of these moon-like hills. There is a fight going on inside of him in this scene that is uneasy. Uneasy because it seems that he knows that he wouldn't be at peace with the land or himself if he leaves these lands now. We then see Johnny go walk over to the girl's house, he finds they are having a goodbye party for her. As he looks from a distance he decides to walk away up the hill on the gravel road deciding to stay. This decision puts him on a path of more peace and of being able to be connected to his culture and land. He gets a job at an auto shop in town and what seals his past away from good is when the girl from Whiteclay that he was also attracted to throughout the film pulls into a gas pump at the auto shop. He asks her "Are you leaving?" We then jump to her simply driving out of the reservation with the Badlands in the background of a car driving away and a sign that says "Leaving Pine Ridge Reservation".
For some it's just as simple as just driving away, however, for most it's simply not possible. For Johnny, i think it's the right decision that he made staying and what is meant for him. While he and his family will still live in a poverty-environment, he will try to live it with honesty and understanding from this point on. Johnny quotes at the end of the film as we see scenes of a Pow Wow, Johnny riding Horses, a drum beating to a fire looking over the great plains, "My sister Jashaun, she's got a thing about this place. She sees things I don't. She's a good one. Whenever the storms are comin', the old-timers would teach us to watch the cloud. And when the wind is too strong, we all know to lean into it, so it doesn't blow us away." As Johnny then goes back to his and the Lakota people's beloved Badlands. And takes a handful of dust and throws it in the air. And the film ends here.
This film is an emotional ride but is a priceless film of the struggle of following in a tradition, and of poverty, but also the beauty of the Lakota people. Zaho is now connected to these lands of South West Dakota after shooting "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" and "The Rider" just as John Ford and John Wayne were to Monument Valley in Arizona. "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" is a special film and films like this only come once in a lifetime as other Neo-Realism films of the past. Zaho has kept the genre alive with this film and explodes the people and a place never captured in a full-length film. Johnny and the people of Pine Ridge will forever be captured in this film. And may even teach people of the hard ace and poverty that is still going on to this day right in the United States. And it took a director from overseas to film this landscape with such beauty and honesty. The Badlands and the Great Plains are sacred places and this film has given awareness of the lands and the people of these lands. It's pain and beauty that's what the people of Pine Ridge have felt for the last 140 or so years and with people like Johnny and Jashaun it can hopefully change and rebuild back to what the traditions of the Lakota are.
