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.
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.
The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, before going into commercial release on June 2, 2023.
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.
This film provides examples of:
- Anachronic Order: The film jumps back and forth between different times in Aline's life.
- Asshole Victim: 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 Boom, Headshot!
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished:
- Averted in the case of Adam, who was a handsome young man, much more so in military uniform, before he headed off to fight in World War 2. The war itself has left him with severe facial scars and having lost An Arm and a Leg.
- 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 stomping her hand out of 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.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: 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 Meaningful Look and nod to hasten her escape. But Aline during her trip to the Vatican publicly reveals that he sexually abused her when she was a student in the school.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: 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 Noodle Incident. It becomes a Resolved Noodle Incident when it's revealed that Father Miller sexually abused her when she was still a child in the residential school.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: 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.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Adam, along with numerous British and Canadian soldiers, uncovers a concentration camp in the Netherlands. He's hit with a massive Heroic B So D 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.
- Domestic Abuse: Aline suffers plenty on account of Adam, who is suffering from plenty of issues of his own and taking them out on her.
- Driven to Suicide: Adams hangs himself in the barn when he sees no hope for improving his life past all the problems foisted upon him as a Shell-Shocked Veteran (see below).
- Drowning My Sorrows: How Adam copes with all of the problems he suffers from as a Shell-Shocked Veteran (see below for details).
- Green-Eyed Monster: 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.
- It's All About Me: 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 Pet the Dog moments with Indigenous children, such as when he gives Sister Ruth a Bitch Slap for stomping on Aline's hand, only tend to come out when that glory and legacy is in some way threatened.
- Karma Houdini: Now Archbishop Miller is convinced he will become one, even after Aline publicly outs him in front of the pope as being a Pedophile Priest 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 Smug Snake in saying it. We never see by the movie's end whether his prediction becomes true.
- Meet Cute: 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.
- 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.
- "Not So Different" Remark: 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 throws it back in her face with "The Reason You Suck" Speech that Ruth still can't imagine how much worse the Indigenous children still have it even compared to the nuns, and that it's still no excuse for how Sister Ruth treated her and the other Indigenous children.
- Patched Together from the Headlines: 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.
- Pedophile Priest: Father Miller sexually abused Aline in the residential school during their piano lessons.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: 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.
- Shame If Something Happened:
- The RCMP officers threaten Aline's parents with imprisonment if they do not surrender their children to the residential school.
- 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.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Fighting in World War 2 has left Adam with a badly scarred face, and having lost An Arm and a Leg, 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 discovery of the concentration camp that 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.
- Smug Smiler: 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
Fridge Horror when Aline outs him in front of the pope for being a Pedophile Priest who abused her in the school. The Fridge Horror 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. - Sinister Minister: 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 elevate his own status and legacy in the eyes of not just the Catholic church but larger Canadian society as well.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: Aline, aside from her sexual abuse by Father Miller, is treated relatively better then the other Indigenous children in her school. The reason is that she is talented as a pianist, and thus both Father Jacobs and Father Miller hope she will prove that the residential school is a success in "civilizing" Indigenous children.
