I ordered Trudell-The Movie last week. It came in the mail yesterday, so I had a private screening of the film. The wife and I were the first ones on our block to watch the film on DVD. The movie was worth every penny I shelled out for it!
John Trudell is an outstanding native poet who deserves all the success he can get from his films and CDs. The film covers his life from his rez days in Nebraska, to his going into the Navy and serving two tours of duty in Vietnam, to his involvement in the American Indian Movement (in the over 17,000 pages the government has on him, there is a FBI memo that states "He is extremely eloquent...therefore extremely dangerous") the film covers the death of his five family members in Nevada and how he then put his poetry to music to cope with his loss.
The film ends with Kris Kristofferson singing an outstanding song he wrote about John Trudell. The song is called "Johnny Lobo" and the lyrics to the song are below.
Johnny Lobo
Once upon a dusty reservation...Somewhere in the land of Sitting Bull... Johnny Lobo played with fire and dreamed of open spaces...Locked inside a heaven gone to hell...All the dreams were gone but not forgetten...Murdered like the holy buffalo...But Johnny Lobo knew the rules and grew into a warrior...fighting for his people and his soul
Chorus: Oh.....Johnny Lobo/Oh......Oh Johnny Lobo
Loaded down with lessons that he carried...Home from Viet Nam to Wounded Knee...Johnny Lobo burned a flag he knew had been dishonored...Paid the price for thinking he was free...Someone set his house on fire, burned it to the ground...With his wife and children locked inside...Later when the bitter tears were falling to the ashes...Something good in Johnny Lobo died
Chorus: Oh...Johnny Lobo/Oh......Johnny Lobo
In a darkened corner of a tavern...Burning down old memories again...Johnny Lobo stares into the smoke and dreams of clouds...Running like wild horses with the wind...Holy Phoenix rising from the ashes...Into the circle of the sun...Johnny Lobo's warrior heart was burnished in the embers...And the battle's just begun.
Chorus: Oh.....Johnny Lobo/Oh......Johnny Lobo
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