18
Wednesday, September 13, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
FILM: Adaptation
of book has
garnered acclaim
Continued from page 3
PHOTO BY GARY MILLER
Normandy combat zone as a
D-Day paratrooper and danc-
ing with Marilyn Monroe,
and acting in films (see The
Bunkhouse Chronicle, page
19). Neither Wolf Nor Dog
was his final role, and it
spoke profoundly to his heart.
“He saw it before he
passed and said it’s the only
film he’s been in about his
people that told the truth,”
director Steven Simpson said.
Simpson is Scottish, but
he had unique credentials to
bring Kent Nerburn’s novel
to the screen. Simpson has
made three films in South
Dakota and the Pine Ridge
Reservation, including “Rez
Bomb” and the documentary
“Thunder-Being Nation.”
Nerburn approached
Simpson to bring his beloved
story to life “from the reser-
vation out, rather than from
Hollywood in.” The filming
of Neither Wolf Nor Dog
is nearly as extraordinary
a story as the one the film
depicts. Crowd-funded, it was
shot by a crew of two, with
Simpson handling almost all
of the technical duties, on
a short schedule that had to
accommodate for the limited
physical capabilities of a
then-95-year-old lead actor.
If audience and critical
reaction is any indication,
Simpson succeeded at every
level. The film has garnered
critical acclaim and — more
importantly — has deeply
moved audiences.
In an interview with The
Nugget, Simpson noted that
Neither Wolf Nor Dog may
be one of the rare films where
it is best to see the movie
before reading the book.
That’s thanks to Dave Bald
Eagle’s performance as Dan.
“Dave Bald Eagle was
beyond perfect for the role,”
Simpson said. “With anyone
else it would just be a fraction
of the film.”
It is delightful, the direc-
tor said, to read the story with
the actor as your image of the
character of the Lakota elder.
“He left a piece of his
spirit with the film,” Simpson
reflected. “He goes to an
incredibly deep place in the
last scene at Wounded Knee.”
Wounded Knee, in the
Dakota Badlands, was the site
of one of the most devastating
actions of the long conflict
between Americans and the
Lakota Nation, on December
28, 1890.
Some 200 Lakota Sioux
men, women and children
were gunned down in the
snow on that day, in a scuffle
that turned into a confused
firefight, which became a
massacre that stained the
honor of the United States
Army and ripped the heart out
of the Lakota Nation.
Simpson said that he
threw out the script for the
scene set at that sacred place,
and David Bald Eagle impro-
vised a heartfelt monologue
that touched on the lasting
scars of that tragic day. At the
end of the long take, Simpson
recalled, “he turned to Chris
Sweeney (who plays Kent
Nerburn) and said, ‘I’ve been
holding that in for 95 years.’”
Wounded Knee has rever-
berated across a century and
more. In 1973, armed activ-
ists of the American Indian
Movement initiated a take-
over of the site in protest of
the conditions under which
Indian peoples continued
to live. That inaugurated a
weeks-long siege, which
included significant long-
range gunfire from police
and government officials sur-
rounding the AIM encamp-
ment. Simpson notes the
irony of the fact that Bald
Eagle, who fought in World
War II, and Sweeney, who
was awarded the Silver
Star for combat actions in
the Persian Gulf War, were
actually under fire for fewer
days than their fellow actor,
Richard Ray Whitman, who
was never in the service, but
spent days under fire during
the 71-day occupation of
Wounded Knee.
The subject matter of
the film is fraught — the
injustices perpetrated on the
native peoples through a long
and tortured history, and the
intractable problems that con-
tinue to plague the contempo-
rary Native American experi-
ence. Yet audiences have con-
nected deeply with the story.
“People fall so madly in
love with Dave Bald Eagle on
the screen that by the time he
tells those hard truths, their
heart is open,” Simpson said.
“They’re listening in a differ-
ent way.”
Limitations of budget
pushed Simpson both techni-
cally and in the effort to dis-
tribute the film. Somehow,
all obstacles have been over-
come to create an intimate
independent film that has
seen remarkable success on
an exceptional number of
screens for a film of this type,
sometimes outperforming
the ha
541-549-
8771
PHOTO PROVIDED
Chief David Beautiful Bald Eagle
plays a Lakota elder in “Neither
Wolf Nor Dog,” which starts at
Sisters Movie House September 15.
big studio blockbusters at the
multiplex down the street.
“Budget becomes irrel-
evant,” Simpson said. “It’s all
about the heart on the screen.
You can have a half-a-billion-
dollar budget — you can’t
buy heart.”
For more information on
screening times, visit www.
sistersmoviehouse.com.
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