Overrated

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Trudell is a doc on John Trudell, the Native American activist, poet, recording artist & sometimes actor. Salutary in the extreme, we come to know him, his myth & his politics but the filmmakers support of the man comes at the expense of objectivity that a good documentary demands. Brilliant man, flawed presentation.

I'm blown away to see one of my top pictures given a rather low rating. Ever other movie I love and checked out on this board everyone seems to love as well. How could 47 people not love this movie? Maybe they are all former FBI counter-pro agents who knows. I get what he is talking about. Things he has to say are very important to our people's survival. He is a clear thoughtful great thinker. It's too bad for some that they are unable to see that but to each there own. This is a great American very under-appreciated in his time, a person of great personal and spiritual strength which is inspiring. You have to respect him and what he has given up for the native people. You have to respect him for what has been taken away from him for his beliefs. This is a excellent documentary of his life to date, I'm waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail soon. It will have a place of honor in my video/DVD collection.

John Trudell is such a charismatic man, with such a dramatic adult life story and articulate passion in word and song that the documentary "Trudell" is fascinating despite the frustrating limitations in the film. While Trudell's early biography is very briefly covered in the first five minutes, the writing/directing team of Russell Friedenberg and Heather Rae are at their best throughout in uncovering a broad range of period news coverage, video and film, from U.S. and international sources, home collections, and more, from news events to interviews to rallies to performances. While the bare, contextual historical documentation of the 1960's and 1970's was probably limited by the budget, as it includes many stock stereotyped shots, including old Hollywood images of Indians, what comes across strongly is how consistent Trudell has been throughout his life as a forceful spokesman for Native American rights and related environmental stewardship. How many baby boomers or older could appear next to old footage of themselves and appear so consistent, visually and politically and still an activist? As someone who became more aware of Trudell's contributions through his music (and I still haven't seen either Michael Apted's documentary "Incident at Oglala", which is excerpted in this film, or his fictionalized adaptation "Thunderheart" in which Trudell also appeared and its star Val Kilmer is quoted here), the film is very frustrating in passing over his art, except as therapy in getting over politically tainted tragedies. The film particularly neglects how his songs extend beyond narrow issues to the broader culture, such as his classic "Baby Boom Che" which metaphorizes enlisting in Elvis's Army, an influence that does not come across in the film. We only see a verse or two of mostly political songs, as well as a lovely romantic remembrance of his late wife and not even one full concert performance, some with annoying music video pretensions. We get more banal, predictable endorsements from musicians like Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and an Indigo Girl than actually hearing his music. His combination of rock with native cultural percussion and vocalization is covered, though not how this has influenced the growing bands of rez rockers. The closing song over the credits is Kris Kristofferson's song about Trudell.What we do get extensively is Trudell's overarching philosophy. While he is eloquent, he does talk in whole paragraphs, so I can understand why artsy images are inserted during his long monologues. The last time I heard a similar brilliant environmentalist speak so extensively extemporaneously with such a three-dimensional ideology that encompassed everything was R. Buckminster Fuller who could also talk for hours at a time. The more recent biographical elements of a healing life and second family in Canada were very confusing factually, as I wasn't clear of the relation of some of the family members interviewed.I would have liked for the film to include Native American issues in the post-casino corruption world. The film does include natural resources exploitation issues and we get some hints of conservative tribal elders vs. activists but not much.I wasn't able to get in to see the film at the Tribeca Film Festival, so appreciated being among the few at a matinée screening during its one week commercial run in NYC.

I've read about John Trudell for years, heard his poetry and political/spiritual philosophy, heard him speak in person, and am familiar with the abuse he suffered while working as a full-time activist. So I was very interested to see the film when it came within driving distance (two hours) of my home. I did learn some things about his personal life, from childhood on, and think the film pursues the personal and family life without prying or being voyeuristic. I also learned some details about his evolution as a speaker. I saw no attempt to candy-coat either his public image or the lasting damage that his personal tragedies have wrought. I was particularly interested by the different ways that journalists responded to him during interviews and that celebrities summarized their impressions after working with him. Overall, I came away with a deepened appreciation for his spirit, a strengthened critique of the culture we all find ourselves living in, and admiration for his uncompromising love of human beings and for his persistence. I would have been very interested to hear the commentary of mainstream political figures, in order to watch them publicly negotiate the presence of an eloquent, critical voice who is more often ignored or discounted as a radical or a nut just because it is difficult to hear some of what he says.This is an excellent documentary.