Reservations and City Lights

The credits roll with Images and the chanting of traditional native americans. Than were taken straight into the heart of the exiles.

The exiles takes place in Los Angeles during the 1950's. It follows a group of young native americans living in the city outside the reservations. We start on a young girl at the market, she begins to think to herself, stream of conciseness, much like malick's days of heaven. The narration isn't elegant, were literally hearing these people think. Its honest even as they sit at a table and pound beers, its honest when you see this young lady sit in the theater alone, as she thinks how she had gotten her, she thinks about her child, how she thought that would make him happy because he likes children. As he waits for a fight to break at the bar. One character drinks to the point of insanity, and he tells you why he's so fucked up. Because he wants to. and thats that. There no elegant and wordy explanation for their wild nights.

The film ends with a string of the young native americans you meet throughout gathering on a hill and shouting wildly till the morning light. Dancing and chanting. And its here were brought back to the way things used to be for them, to their roots. Its very much a traditional ceremony of the young and fucked up ones, the unleashed beast who choose not to stay on the reservation. soaking up all of the place they wandered into.

The exiles is a beautiful social commentary and case study, one that ends with them walking down the streets stumbling, it never wraps up. Were left as observers for an hour of their lives than left assuming they'll do it all again tomorrow night, some minor details would be the only thing to distinguish their spontaneous explorations of the night. And case studies never end anyways. It cuts to the wild human heart without cheap conventions.