Official Review: "Sacred Mountain Rising.&qu...
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CataclysmicKnight
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Official Review: "Sacred Mountain Rising.&qu...
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of ""Sacred Mountain Rising."" by John Gillevet.]
2 out of 4 stars
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The life of Ira Hayes has quite a few twists and turns, making it a fitting focus of John Gillevet's screenplay Sacred Mountain Rising. The story follows Ira's life from childhood, growing from a troubled child to an even more troubled teen. Catching him and his friend Duffy attempting to loot from a chief's grave, his Uncle Jesse and Grandfather (the only name he goes by) attempt to straighten him out and make him appreciate his heritage. Ira is a member of the Pima tribe but lives off-reservation; his father Henry blames the white man for all of his troubles while still having no pride in his own heritage, something that's rubbed off on Ira.
One day, however, Henry dies. His mom is unable to take care of him, so he's sent off to a Catholic boarding school where he's bullied and mistreated. Sometime after this, he enters the military and his life takes a wild turn. An iconic photo - Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima - captures him and 5 others and makes them war heroes, but Ira's life is far from glorious, great or even normal.
I'll admit that this is the first time I read a screenplay without watching the movie it was written for first, but I do have a little experience with reading scripts for movies I loved (I read the scripts for Spaceballs and Airplane! online in an effort to help memorize lines). It's been about 15 years, however, so I can't tell how many of the issues I have about the book (I'd assume most) are issues with reading screenplays in general. Scenes and actions are very briefly and coldly detailed which leads to never really feeling like I was there in the scene myself. Some of the bigger moments are a page or less, in fact, making them feel really unimportant and entirely forgettable. There's also a lot of jumping around, with things like Ira's entire military career taking place in a ridiculously short amount of time. Often there really isn't an explanation given for why something is happening or how Ira got there - using the military as an example again, he jumps from boot camp to marine to war at a breakneck pace.
The beginning of the story kicks off with some folks on a tour bus that breaks down, hearing the story of Ira from his mother. It's from this moment that the main theme kicks off - the oppression of Native Americans. This part of the book I really enjoyed - it's sprinkled throughout the story in both subtle and clear ways. Even the story of Ira himself speaks volumes about it - he's a Native American who becomes an American soldier not even a century after Native Americans were being killed and put into reservations by American soldiers.
Unfortunately, the story itself suffers from lackluster characters and a plot that moves at lightspeed most of the time as I mentioned before. Ira comes off as a fickle character at best and at worst is an absolutely unlikeable character who sometimes just doesn't seem realistic at all. The rest of the cast is weak as well, with not a single character I really liked. Most weren't bad by any means, but were just okay. There was a lot of cliche in the screenplay, from characters to speech to actions. Also, while the book was successful with humor sometimes, it typically felt like a kids movie that just tried too hard.
The crazy thing about comparing it to a kids movie, though, is that it would absolutely be rated R if made into a movie. There's a lot of foul language here overall and even a bit of gore due to the war. This makes it impossible to suggest the book to kids, and the fact that it needs stronger characters and a more solid plot makes it hard for me to recommend it to anyone else. As such, I'm rating the book 2 out of 4 stars. It has a heart, but it needs much more soul to go with it.
******
"Sacred Mountain Rising."
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2 out of 4 stars
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The life of Ira Hayes has quite a few twists and turns, making it a fitting focus of John Gillevet's screenplay Sacred Mountain Rising. The story follows Ira's life from childhood, growing from a troubled child to an even more troubled teen. Catching him and his friend Duffy attempting to loot from a chief's grave, his Uncle Jesse and Grandfather (the only name he goes by) attempt to straighten him out and make him appreciate his heritage. Ira is a member of the Pima tribe but lives off-reservation; his father Henry blames the white man for all of his troubles while still having no pride in his own heritage, something that's rubbed off on Ira.
One day, however, Henry dies. His mom is unable to take care of him, so he's sent off to a Catholic boarding school where he's bullied and mistreated. Sometime after this, he enters the military and his life takes a wild turn. An iconic photo - Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima - captures him and 5 others and makes them war heroes, but Ira's life is far from glorious, great or even normal.
I'll admit that this is the first time I read a screenplay without watching the movie it was written for first, but I do have a little experience with reading scripts for movies I loved (I read the scripts for Spaceballs and Airplane! online in an effort to help memorize lines). It's been about 15 years, however, so I can't tell how many of the issues I have about the book (I'd assume most) are issues with reading screenplays in general. Scenes and actions are very briefly and coldly detailed which leads to never really feeling like I was there in the scene myself. Some of the bigger moments are a page or less, in fact, making them feel really unimportant and entirely forgettable. There's also a lot of jumping around, with things like Ira's entire military career taking place in a ridiculously short amount of time. Often there really isn't an explanation given for why something is happening or how Ira got there - using the military as an example again, he jumps from boot camp to marine to war at a breakneck pace.
The beginning of the story kicks off with some folks on a tour bus that breaks down, hearing the story of Ira from his mother. It's from this moment that the main theme kicks off - the oppression of Native Americans. This part of the book I really enjoyed - it's sprinkled throughout the story in both subtle and clear ways. Even the story of Ira himself speaks volumes about it - he's a Native American who becomes an American soldier not even a century after Native Americans were being killed and put into reservations by American soldiers.
Unfortunately, the story itself suffers from lackluster characters and a plot that moves at lightspeed most of the time as I mentioned before. Ira comes off as a fickle character at best and at worst is an absolutely unlikeable character who sometimes just doesn't seem realistic at all. The rest of the cast is weak as well, with not a single character I really liked. Most weren't bad by any means, but were just okay. There was a lot of cliche in the screenplay, from characters to speech to actions. Also, while the book was successful with humor sometimes, it typically felt like a kids movie that just tried too hard.
The crazy thing about comparing it to a kids movie, though, is that it would absolutely be rated R if made into a movie. There's a lot of foul language here overall and even a bit of gore due to the war. This makes it impossible to suggest the book to kids, and the fact that it needs stronger characters and a more solid plot makes it hard for me to recommend it to anyone else. As such, I'm rating the book 2 out of 4 stars. It has a heart, but it needs much more soul to go with it.
******
"Sacred Mountain Rising."
View: on Bookshelves
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Screenplays ranged so wildly in terms of their descriptions, don't they? Some have it excessively, some leave it to the imagination of the director.
Anyway, is this a screenplay that you think could translate well into film if it had a good director behind it? Or is it more of a 'needs a lot of rewrites' kind of thing? Or is it even worth trying to salvage the story at all?
Thanks for the review!
Anyway, is this a screenplay that you think could translate well into film if it had a good director behind it? Or is it more of a 'needs a lot of rewrites' kind of thing? Or is it even worth trying to salvage the story at all?
Thanks for the review!
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