The Exiles

No glamorization, No romanticizing, no Hollywood-ization. Realistic, gritty, authentic, and with people you really care about. Highly recommended.

Whether you consider this film to be docudrama or documentary (a case could be made for either), THE EXILES is one of the greatest "night" films ever made. If you asked Mr. Peabody to fire up the wayback machine and transport you to Los Angeles in 1958 for a night on the town (when most of the film's action was actually filmed), this is what you might see. In other words, the production provides a brilliant time capsule of a specific time and place. The nighttime cinematography is breathtaking, rivaling that of the best film noir efforts. The ambience is punctuated by many forgotten vintage rock/blues/doo-wop songs playing constantly in the background as the characters move from place to place. Some of that music is instrumental tracks performed by the Revels.The period is further brought to life via some of the accompanying featurettes. There are documentary studies of Bunker Hill and Angels Flight (the funicular railway) that reveal the grandeur that had fallen into decay by 1958. There are also some native American featurettes.The two-disc set has something for everyone, spanning elements of history, architecture, sociology, and psychology. The film is no musty lecture, but a living document that brings the past back to life. The DVD's transfer and supplemental features are superb.

The previous reviewers have done an excellent job of describing the contents of this DVD set.It should be noted that there are no positive-feelings (hopefulness) or happy-endings to any of the features.There is also nothing new/ancient (knowledge) to learn about the Native culture(s) or our history.It's simply the "urban" version of Native life versus the "rural" Reservation version of our reality/culture.The DVD's main feature also has the option of having (overdubbed) audio commentary by two contemporary Natives.This option is recommended during viewing, since there is no real script or meaningful plot to follow, as this commentary can give the viewer a much better insight as to what is being shown and how it is viewed/interpreted by the Native culture.Conversely, if the audio is turned-off completely, the viewer cannot even distinguish that the movie is about/includes Native Americans...except for the still-photos at the beginning of the main feature. (sic)The DVD set is a "must-have" for collectors of Native American culture documentation (due to it's rarity), but would disappoint anyone looking for action, drama, plot or some kind of (Native) wisdom/lesson.Hope this helps in your research & decision-making.

This movie is an early version of American Graffiti with a Native American cast living on Los Angeles' disappeared Bunker Hill. It is the finest time capsule of the late 50's early 60's period depicting the once great LA neighborhood of Bunker Hill. This long lost movie is a national treasure and for all those who love LA yesterday, today and tomorrow a must see. There are also some other short films in this two volume set by the director The Exiles.

I was very interested in seeing this movie as I'm a product of the Native American LA experience of the 1950's. When it arrived I wasted not time in putting it into my player. The movie was what I expected so I thought I'd watch the second disk. When I went to take it out, it folded into a cd taco. I was bummed.

Few remember the history of Bunker Hill or the power of real, raw cinema verite. This film has both--a group of friends, Native Americans exiled to the poverty of Bunker Hill in Los Angeles, during a night when each of them is out searching.If you've had enough of screenplay-guru-influenced, pre-digested American film, buy or rent this movie today!

As Sherman Alexie stated in the commentary, the director had to have known about and been very close to Indins to tell this story the way he did. An incredible and unbiased look into the lives of a handful of natives living off the rez. Beautifully shot too. Highly recommended.

One of our "repeat" visiting professors likes to use this for his class, so it's a welcome addition to our video library.

Thom Anderson made such a big ado about "The Exiles" in his movie, "Los Angeles Plays Itself," that I had to buy this film. He was right. L.A. finally becomes a true modern city with real multitudes in this masterpiece of urban cinematography and documentary. Maybe celebrities live there and maybe it serves as the capital of the film industry. But you'd never know it as this group of young alienated American Indians live out their heartbreakingly purposeless lives. Although their 'acting' seems a bit self-conscious at times, Mackenzie's astonishing cinematic, directorial and editing skills make this movie as compelling visually as Robert Frank's contemporaneous photographs in "The Americans." Indeed, this is a cinematic counterpart to that legendary book. A true pinnacle of filmmaking.

Magnifique filmTHE FILMAward-winning Spokane/Coeur d'Alene author Sherman Alexie and noted Los Angeles director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) present Kent Mackenzie's remarkable 1961 debut feature THE EXILES.While attending the University of Southern California, director Kent Mackenzie made his first film, the controversial short documentary Bunker Hill - 1956, chronicling the planned demolition of a vibrant urban community. Excited by the challenge of working with nonprofessionals, filming on location and collaborating with his fellow film school grads, Mackenzie turned away from the mainstream moviemaking of the 1950s and embarked on a new kind of cinema. With such other free-spirited and groundbreaking filmmakers as John Cassavetes, Lionel Rogosin and Shirley Clarke, Mackenzie helped create an innovative American Independent movement that profoundly influenced the resurgent Hollywood new wave of the late 1960s.Bunker Hill, where most of THE EXILES is set, was once the glory of downtown L.A. - a haven for wealthy Los Angelenos set on a steep hill with a magnificent view. But by 1960, the area was a run-down neighborhood of decayed Victorian mansions and skid-row apartment buildings. The seedy charms of Bunker Hill have been celebrated in the novels of John Fante, Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski. For the men and women featured in THE EXILES, the neighborhood is an escape from the monotony of life "back home." The guys spend their night barhopping and gambling while the women try to hold their homes together and go to the movies to dream.THE EXILES is now a precious artifact of a lost time and place. In the early 1960s, developers and city planners not only razed the existing homes and tenements of Bunker Hill, they actually leveled much of the hill itself - replacing a residential neighborhood with high-rises, office buildings and more recently, the Walt Disney Concert Hall.Gritty, realistic and far ahead of its time (in a period when Hollywood films featured noble savages), the script for THE EXILES was created exclusively from recorded interviews with the participants and with their ongoing input during the shooting of the film. Native American writers and activists have long considered the film as one of first works of art to portray modern life honestly and as an important forerunner for the cultural renaissance of American Indian fiction, poetry, filmmaking and theater starting in the 1970s.