Line #32 Film/BonesOfCrows


1	''Bones of Crows'' is a 2022 Canadian drama film, written, produced, and directed by Marie Clements. The film stars Grace Dove as Aline Spears, a Cree woman who survives the Indian residential school system to become a code talker for the Canadian Air Force during World War II.
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3	The film's cast also includes Summer Testawich and Carla-Rae as Aline Spears in childhood and older age, as well as Phillip Lewitski, Rémy Girard, Karine Vanasse, Michelle Thrush, Glen Gould, Gail Maurice, Cara Gee, Joshua Odjick, Jonathan Whitesell and Alanis Obomsawin in supporting roles.
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5	The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, before going into commercial release on June 2, 2023.
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7	It will be followed in 2023 by a five-hour CBC Television limited series, which delves more deeply into Spears' extended family history over 100 years.
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10	!!This film provides examples of:
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12	* AnachronicOrder: The film jumps back and forth between different times in Aline's life.
13	* AssholeVictim: The trader at the beginning of the film taunts some starving Cree people with a needlessly cruel joke about promising food, but then showing them his empty post and mocking them. Several Cree warriors reward him with a BoomHeadshot
14	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished:
15	** Averted in the case of Adam, who was a handsome young man, [[GoodLookingPrivates much more so in military uniform]], before he headed off to fight in World War 2. The war itself has left him with [[FacialHorror severe facial scars]] and having lost AnArmAndALeg.
16	** Zigzagged by Aline. She does sometimes look awful, bloody and bruised, during some of her brutal episodes. Especially after Sister Ruth subjected her an especially severe punishment that included [[{{Fingore}} stomping her hand]] out of [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]]. But she usually recovers quickly, looking good as new. She ends up looking very dignified and regal in her old age even after everything she's been through, not necessarily in a way that's meant to provoke sexual desire, but in a way that commands reverence.
17	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Father Miller among all the clergy is the most visibly supportive of the Indigenous children, as shown when he speaks out against Father Jacobs' deliberate starving of the children of the school into malnutrition as inhumane. He also does not give betray Aline to Father Jacobs when she begins her escape, instead giving her a MeaningfulLook and nod to hasten her escape. [[spoiler: But Aline during her trip to the Vatican publicly reveals that he [[PedophilePriest sexually abused her]] when she was a student in the school.]]
18	* CrazyJealousGuy: Adam becomes abusive towards Aline on an occasion when she doesn't seem as sexually available as he'd like. He grabs her by the chin and asks her how many men she had before meeting him. Aline has trouble saying anything, but it's obvious she is bottling something up which suggests a NoodleIncident. It becomes a ResolvedNoodleIncident when it's revealed that [[spoiler: Father Miller sexually abused her when she was still a child in the residential school]].
19	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: A necessity when it comes to a story like this. It holds nothing back when portraying how Indigenous peoples were treated from one decade to another during the 20th century.
20	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Adam, along with numerous British and Canadian soldiers, uncovers a concentration camp in the Netherlands. He's hit with a massive HeroicBSoD as the horror of the conditions sinks in, and a small Jewish child tries to comfort him. Both Adam and the audience can easily note the very real similarities between the Holocaust and the residential schools. Both pursued genocidal objectives. While some Canadian authorities were not explicitly about outright murdering Indigenous peoples into extinction and were content with forced assimilation (i.e. cultural genocide), other Canadian authorities were frustrated that the "Indian problem" persisted in that Indigenous peoples were apparently refusing to die off in spite of the horrific conditions imposed on them. Both policies were motivated by a dominant society trying to rid itself of a "problem" on account of a perceived inferior race in their midst. And it's not an exaggeration to say that the conditions in both the concentration camps and the residential schools were similarly horrific. And indeed, it is pointed out in various points in the film that many Indigenous children died for numerous reasons (physically killed, starved, disease, exposure while running away) and were left in unmarked graves near the schools.
21	* DomesticAbuse: Aline suffers plenty on account of Adam, who is [[FreudianExcuse suffering from plenty of issues of his own]] and taking them out on her.
22	* DrivenToSuicide: Adams hangs himself in the barn when he sees no hope for improving his life past all the problems foisted upon him as a ShellShockedVeteran (see below).
23	* DrowningMySorrows: How Adam copes with all of the problems he suffers from as a ShellShockedVeteran (see below for details).
24	* GreenEyedMonster: Sister Ruth towards Aline, as Aline's talent as a piano player makes her the apple in the eyes of the male clergy who run the school.
25	* ItsAllAboutMe: Father Jacobs values one thing above all else, his own glory and legacy should he prove that the residential school he runs be successful in "civilizing" "savage" Indigenous children. Even his rare PetTheDog moments with Indigenous children, such as when he gives Sister Ruth a BitchSlap for [[{{Fingore}} stomping on Aline's hand]], only tend to come out when that glory and legacy is in some way threatened.
26	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Now Archbishop Miller is convinced he will become one, even after Aline publicly outs him in front of the pope as being a PedophilePriest who preyed on her and other Indigenous children in the residential school she attended. He's been placed on leave by the church, being extradited to Canada, and will now face prosecution for his crimes. But he reasons his lawyer can delay punishment in court long enough to last for what's left of his life. And he's a total SmugSnake in saying it. We never see by the movie's end whether his prediction becomes true.]]
27	* MeetCute: Aline and Adam meet when each approaches the town fountain at the same time to throw a coin into it for a good luck wish.
28	* {{Montage}}: Numerous residential school survivors describe during interviews near the end of the film how they were treated in the schools, and the effects it had afterwards.
29	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Sister Ruth tries to relate to Aline that the other nuns and herself are themselves abused and mistreated and unprivileged compared to the male clergy who work the residential schools. Aline [[DefiedTrope throws it back in her face]] with TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that Ruth still can't imagine how much worse the Indigenous children still have it even compared to the nuns, and [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse that it's still no excuse for how Sister Ruth treated her and the other Indigenous children]].
30	* PatchedTogetherFromTheHeadlines: The film tackles not only the physical and sexual abuse that took place in the residential schools themselves, but many other social problems that have afflicted Indigenous peoples over the years and have received extensive media attention. Examples include but are not limited to: the intergenerational trauma that spreads from generation to generation in Indigenous communities and families, Indigenous over-incarceration, Indigenous over-representation in child welfare apprehensions, Indigenous suicides, Canadian state efforts to minimize its own expenses with respect to Indigenous social problems, Indigenous war veterans losing their Indian Act status but not gaining any recognition or benefits for fighting on Canada's behalf during World War 2, the numerous unmarked graves of Indigenous children near the former residential schools, and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
31	* PedophilePriest: [[spoiler: Father Miller sexually abused Aline in the residential school during their piano lessons.]]
32	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Almost any significant non-Indigenous character that Aline comes across qualifies, whether it's Sister Ruth, Father Jacobs, Father Miller, any of the other clergy, or the RCMP officers who force her parents to surrender her to the residential school, and the family whose father she nurses. Racial slurs, racist double standards, and discriminatory treatment plague her steps and the steps of everyone she loves. Even the white character who treats her the best, the military officer who recruits her into the code speaking program, lets on to viewing women as given to gossip who can't be trusted with a secret unless they're firmly told to keep their mouths shout as a military order.
33	* ShameIfSomethingHappened:
34	** The RCMP officers threaten Aline's parents with imprisonment if they do not surrender their children to the residential school.
35	** Father Jacobs outright threatens to kill Perseverance if she does not reveal where Aline and her other siblings are hiding, and promises that no one will care enough to investigate or find her if he carries out that threat.
36	* ShellShockedVeteran: Fighting in World War 2 has left Adam with a [[FacialHorror badly scarred face]], and having lost AnArmAndALeg, literally. He gets by with a wooden arm, a wooden leg, and a crutch for support. He's haunted by the memories of the war, including the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything discovery of the concentration camp]] that [[CloseToHome reminded him of his own experiences in the residential school]]. He lost his Indian Act status after fighting in the war, but never received a veteran's status or pension for fighting in the war like white veterans did. The only thanks he receives is a one time $300 payout, while he has no job prospects on account of his physical disabilities and being an Indian who will be discriminated against constantly.
37	* SmugSmiler: [[spoiler: Now Archbishop Miller is wearing it thick years later when Aline arrives in the Vatican to describe the horrors that took place in the residential schools. It becomes FridgeHorror when Aline outs him in front of the pope for being a PedophilePriest who abused her in the school. The FridgeHorror is that much more applicable for all the smiles he gave her during the early parts of the film when they were younger, which the audience can be forgiven for thinking were smiles of approval and kindness for his pupil when in hindsight they were smug predatory smiles for someone savoring his control over his victim.]]
38	* SinisterMinister: Father Jacobs is heavily invested in the success of the residential schools in turning Indigenous children from "savages" into something resembling "civilized" human beings in the eyes of mainstream Canadian society at the time. He's convinced that it will [[ItsAllAboutMe elevate his own status and legacy in the eyes of not just the Catholic church but larger Canadian society as well.]]

Context Film / BonesOfCrows