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Trudell
Balcony Releasing

Trudell reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 48 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
10.0 out of 10
based on 14 reviews
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How did we calculate this?
based on 2 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring John Trudell, Robert Redford, Kris Kristofferson, Sam Shepard, Amy Ray, Val Kilmer, Jackson Browne, Darelle 'Dino' Butler, Wilma Mankiller, and Bonnie Raitt

In this documentary filmmaker Heather Rae the engaging life story of Native American poet-prophet-activist John Trudell and his heartfelt message of active, personal responsibility to the earth, all of its inhabitants and our descendents. (Appaloosa Pictures)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
WRITTEN BY: Russell Friedenberg  
DIRECTED BY: Heather Rae  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: March 20, 2007 
Theatrical: February 24, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Also known as "Trudell: The Lives and Words of John Trudell"; Documentary Special Jury Award, 2005 Seattle International Film Festival; Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Documentary), 2005 Sundance Film Festival

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
It's an intriguing portrait, but it makes no pretense at objectivity, erring on the side of hero worship.
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75
Boston Globe Erin Meister
A thought-provoking and graceful portrait of a tenacious peace warrior whose frankness is his greatest weapon.
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70
Village Voice Mark Holcomb
Unfortunately, Rae's film is split down the middle, and the appeal of its latter half depends on your tolerance for earnest politico-poetry set to wailing rock guitar and Native American chants and extraneously endorsed by celebrity talking heads. The backstory portion of the film, though, is riveting.
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63
TV Guide Ken Fox
Rae's 80-minute film isn't able to answer every question or flesh out important details of these events, and she spends more time on Trudell's artistic endeavors than on his direct political action.
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60
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
No one in the film has a bad word to say about Mr. Trudell, despite his 17,000-page F.B.I. dossier; and by the time Robert Redford assures us that meeting him is not dissimilar to meeting the Dalai Lama, you may feel that all this worship does not do justice to an unusually stormy and complicated life.
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60
Variety Joe Leydon
More hagiography than history, Heather Rae's long-in-production portrait of Native American activist and poet John Trudell has the uncritically admiring feel of authorized biography.
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58
The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Anyone looking for history lessons from Rae's documentary will have to be patient and alert enough to pick through the poetry.
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50
The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
Feels padded in some places, truncated in others. It also feels too respectful, especially when its subject is such a deep thinker and questioner of authority.
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50
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Rae does offer a riveting introduction to the American Indian civil rights movement.
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50
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Unfortunately, absent a more objective context, Trudell's gnomic utterances do little to support those sentiments. By preaching so relentlessly to the choir, this film misses an opportunity to show what got them to sing in the first place.
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40
LA Weekly Tim Grierson
How could a movie about someone with one of the nation's longest FBI files be this dull?
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40
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The man whom the FBI described as "extremely eloquent, therefore extremely dangerous" here seems about as threatening as Mother Teresa.
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40
Film Threat Bob Westal
While Trudell has a few interesting and emotional moments in its second half, from the start it is badly hobbled by its worshipful tone.
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25
New York Post V.A. Musetto
Politics aside, Trudell plays like an infomercial for its subject rather than a serious examination of the man and his beliefs.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
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