Attribution: Lorie Shaull, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s credentials as a movie critic ran out sometime shortly after “Bambi” so he was out of his league when he took in “Bad River” at the Fitchburg theatre. After first managing to sit through the incredibly offensive previews and advertising junk that preceded the feature film, the keeper and Phyllis were treated to a very well-done movie showing how the Lake Superior Ojibwe people have defended their land against the powerful Enbridge oil company and its offending pipeline that now presents the real threat of a disastrous rupture with the potential of contaminating not only the Bad River but Lake Superior itself.
Contrasting scenes of the Native American historical abuse and suffering, and the arrogant indifference of a huge corporation told a story much more on the historical mark than “Bambi” which was a childish animated tear-jerker that riled up the deer hunters.
The keeper once spent a 30-below zero night sleeping in a Bad River deer yard to gather column writing material. If he thought it would help the Ojibwe cause, and if he could get it past Phyllis, he would volunteer to go sleep next to the rusting Enbridge pipeline.
As a non-movie critic who once shared a Trib. office with Gene Siskel, the keeper gives “Bad River” two thumbs up and says to go see it!
Photo by Bill Stokes