Imagining The Indian (2022) [Movie review]

Imagining the Indian captured my attention because it wants to persuade me so bad. Not the me in the individual sense, but in the demographic sense. After all, being the traditional football audience member has lent itself to a certain degree of zeitgeist shade. Instead of being one of the many useless Boomers and anti-woke feeding a never-ending culture war, I wanted to try something different. I decided to hear multiple takes on the issue.

Stating fresh with the material

Having watched a few of the directors’ prior documentaries, I kinda knew what to expect. However, I still missed the full pitch of Imagining the Indian. That being, I don’t feel like I need to be educated on the issue. However, I also haven’t staked my cultural views in either party’s arena. So, where does that leave the casual and non-aligned viewer?

It’s Just A Name!

It’s weird to see so many casual sports fans suddenly care about name changes and other tangential things to do with professional sports. That being said, culture wars never follow perfect lines. What starts as casual annoyance with Taylor Swift having the pop culture blanketing impact of Michael Jackson in the Bad era means you must hate women. Couple that with the talking heads on the Right who see any attempt at acknowledging that history cycle ends for the future to continue as a personal affront.

So, what is the common person to do? Well, what Imagining the Indian asks you to do is understand why they are mad about the mascots. It’s a deep-set cultural issue that is a constant reminder that First Nations and Native tribes have faced for nearly 200 years. Consider that there is a reason people are upset and it’s not about making you look at personal pronouns or mind what you say.

But your Uncle found a poll saying that Native Americans are cool with the Washington Football Team

The Washington Redskins keep getting hit with both sides of this cultural affair. However, most casual fans will assume the issue is resolved by calling them The Commanders. For those that don’t know, the Redskins’ name came into play as a loving tribute to Jim Thorpe. But, that doesn’t address the issue that Redskin has been a derogatory term throughout North America from the 1880s to the team’s inception.

So, it would be like if someone renamed a sports team into a slur against LGTBQIA people and said they did it as a tribute to Liberace. It doesn’t track and the documentary does a great job of highlighting that. The mascots aren’t about misplaced adoration. It’s about turn of the century people used to drink Turpentine and say crazy crap. Lay off the tide pods and quit saying the same garbage in 2024.

Imagine a compelling documentary

If anything hurts Imagining the Indian, it’s going to be that it is very easy to tune out on it. I delayed the review for a few days, so I could watch it with a more right-leaning friend. There are those of you out there that would paint me with a certain brush, but I’m more of an Anarchist with a flawed sense of humor. After watching this with a focused Neo-Con, I asked what they thought and it sounded the same.

I don’t believe Imagining the Indian has anything to gain by appealing these people. But, it also feeds into their same traps. You can’t guilt people into changing, as they will dig in their heels. However, modern cultural statemates aren’t motivated by hearing from experts on how the matter has impacted them. If anything, Imagining the Indian shows how the lack of empathy more than anything else has jeopardized the national discourse.

And that is why I’m picking The 49ers to win tomorrow’s Super Bowl by 4 points.

Imagining the Indian is now available on Amazon, AppleTV and DVD