SHADOW OF THE HAWK
Canada, 1976, 92 minutes, Colour.
Jan-Michael? Vincent, Marilyn Hassett, Chief Dan George.
Directed by George McCowan?.
Once again Jan-Michael? Vincent stars as the sympathetic hero of a small budget entertainment (Baby Blue Marine, Buster and Billie, White Line Fever). Marilyn Hassett is the attractive heroine. With nods to the Exorcist genre, this film delves into Red Indian rituals, traditions, mysterious presences offering some scary sequences as the central characters make their way through a dangerous forest, with animals, suspension bridges etc. Chief Dan George gives his dignified presence to the themes as well as the adventure, making us ponder the impact of modern lifestyles on traditional Indian ways and beliefs as well as the predicaments of Indians trying to survive culturally in modern America. A modest film, but interesting and entertaining.
1. The significance and focus of the title? Indian reference, indication of themes and treatment?
2. The film as small scale, short in time, modest budget? Success within its limits? The use of city and forest locations, Indian reservation sites? The contrasting of city and country? The importance of the musical score and its atmosphere?
3. The contribution of special effects: Indian ritual, ghosts and magic, haunting, the fights, the visions and hallucinations? The atmosphere they created?
4. The use of symbols and spirits: the hawk and its benevolent protection, the owl and its hostility, the savage bear, the brutal dog, the artificially colured snake, the death mask, fire, circles, dolls and witchcraft? The background of religion, ritual, superstition? Explanation and lack of explanation?
5. The atmosphere of the opening and the work of Old Hawk as a medicine man? His going on his journey through the countryside, into the city? A healer and a searcher? The contrast with Mike and his swimming pool incident, party, work? A man of the city? Questions of Indian heritage, Indian pride? Mike's rejection of his Indian background? The two environments and their contrast?
6. Mike and his haunting experiences: his swimming and being strangled, the sequence in bed and the mask at the window? Old Hawk and being a victim of witchcraft with the doll and the pin, his collapse in the city street, the apparition in the hospital? The hawk's being pursued by malevolence two hundred years old? Old stories, evil tribes, their trying to deteriorate and eliminate the Hawk tribe?
7. The personality of Old Hawk? As a healer, as victim, his journeying, walking the city streets, collapse, his experience in the hospital, his leaving, his asking for Maureen's help, his presence at the party and his demands, Alike's response, his eating and reaction to the menacing Indian at the window with the car? The journey? Strength of character, Indian heritage, power, age? His will to pass on his powers to Alike, his love for his grandson (photo in his hut), his being his guide, controlling him in difficulties, the advice? The mutual bond between the two during the journey? The initiation and his explanations to Mike, the snake bite and the need for returning hone to survive, his willingness to die? His finally going to to fish? A presentation of Indian dignity?
8. Mike and his way of life in the city, relationship with Fay? His skills, work in the office? The party and his reaction to Old Hawk? Driving him back, leaving him at the bus station but returning, the influence of Maureen? The driving and the crashes, the snake, seeking the water and fighting the bear? Reacting against his heritage, finally accepting it, understanding it? The initiation? His breaking the circle for the hallucination of Maureen? His final achievement for his people? The new generation Indian?
9. The portrayal of evil: the family and their hut, magic and witchcraft, Old Hawk staring at the car and its driver, the pursuit by the car, the crash, the gas, the vision, the fights? The hut exploding into fire in an apocalyptic manner?
10. The character of Maureen - her presence as a journalist, her assistance to Old Hawk in his illness, driving him, persuading Mike to drive his grandfather, her presence during the journey, her character and its explanation, love for Mike, her being in the hut and the suspense, the hallucination of her, her presence at the end?
11. The impact of the action sequences and their contribution to the plot: the various crashes, Mike's fight with the bear, the long journey over the bridge and the parts falling, the fight with the dog and the finale?
12. For what audience was the film made? Interest in the story, a quest, success in the challenge of evil?
