A grandfather who believes in tradition. A teenager who believes in today.
Dreamkeeper is a 2003 television film.
In the story, a young man from the Lakota tribe, Shane Chasing Horse (Eddie Spears), is asked by his mother to drive his grandfather Pete Chasing Horse (August Schellenberg), a storyteller, to the All Nations Powwow. At first he does not want to, but being in trouble with a local gang makes him change his mind. As they travel, his grandfather tells him several stories.
Tropes in this work:
- Abhorrent Admirer: The Old Woman in the cave that utilizes Eagle Boy’s essence to free herself of her old shell. She is quite hideous with warts, skin tags, and dark patches of sunken skin. One of her eyes is also deformed.
- Bland-Name Product: The All Nations Powwow is a stand-in for the Gathering of Nations.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Shane does this to Sam when they are reunited.
- Cool Big Sis:
- Talks A Lot acts like one to Tehan.
- Quillwork Girl becomes this to the Youngest Brother.
- Cool Old Guy: Shane’s grandfather, Pete.
- Deadpan Snarker: Grandpa Pete can be pretty snarky…Grandpa: Who the hell's chasing us?
Shane: Just some guys, Grandpa.
Grandpa: They must be after Three Moons, my war horse.
Shane: No, they're after my ass!
Grandpa: Better off with my horse.also…Grandpa: It has been said that the young people of today are our warriors of tomorrow. I look at you and say, 'we're in big trouble.'
Shane: You know, sometimes you can be a mean old man.- Shane can be pretty snarky too. His encounter with the Red Headed Hitchhiker is rife with this. Also his initial encounter with his father is pretty snarky too.
- The spirits in the opening sequence with Eagle Boy's singing are very clearly annoyed with him for making so much noise. One of them even asks, "Is your name No Ears?"
- Dirty Belly’s grandmother is pretty snarky herself, "What does Chief Loud Mouth say today?"
- Coyote and Iktomi
- Sky Woman when referring to the Thunder Spirit in the story of She Crosses the Water
- Delinquents: Shane has shades of this. Verdel’s gang is definitely this.
- Disappeared Dad: Sam, Shane’s father.
- Incest Subtext: Sort of the case in Quillwork Girl and her seven brothers, though no one makes a pass at ANYONE and Quillwork Girl is completely unrelated to the brothers. While she is doing some work around the teepee, the brothers are watching her from a distance. One of the older brothers comments on how good her cooking is, how efficient she is at curing meat and how impressive her quillwork is when another brother complains, “Yeah but did she have to be so fine looking? A sister should be fat and ugly.”
- Distressed Dude: Tehan becomes this when the white soldiers "rescue" him and bring him back to their fort where he is forbidden from making contact with the Indians. His sister Talks A Lot gets a group of men together to help save him.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Thunder Boy is the child of a spirit and human woman.
- Informed Ability: The youngest brother from Quillwork Girl and the Seven Brothers. The Eldest Brother reprimands him for "using his strange gift" to bring Quillwork Girl. It’s implied that whatever he dreams comes true.
- Interspecies Romance: The Thunder spirit is, well, a spirit and She Crosses the Water is a human woman.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Shane. He isn’t especially nice to most people he encounters. When Verdel and his crew’s car plunges into the Rio Grande, Shane wastes no time in diving and saving their lives. Mind you, only moments earlier they had been trying to kill Shane and his grandfather.
- Broken Lance is also this from the story of Talks A Lot and Tehan. He’s a real dick to Tehan for being white and stealing their ways of life. When the American soldiers are approaching the camp and the tribe is forced to evacuate, Broken Lance stays behind-not for some macho reason as the audience is lead to believe initially- but to give the women, children, and elders a head start in evacuating. He also fully understands that he will not come out of the confrontation alive.
- Mayfly–December Romance: She Crosses The Water and the Thunder Spirit
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Kills Enemy, Blue Bird Woman’s father. Red Deer, High Horse’s best friend, even lampshades it. "Find yourself another woman, one whose father’s name is not Kills Enemy!"
- Troubled, but Cute: Shane
- Eagle Boy too.
- A good portion of the male leads fit this trope.
- Eagle Boy too.
- Vision Quest: Eagle Boy is on one when the movie begins.
