‘War Pony’ Review – A Powerful, Persistent Portrait Of Life On A Native Reservation

The “American Dream” is often portrayed on film as one of the most noble pursuits one can chase after, and it’s something a lot of people in America can relate to. Whether one was born here or moved here, it’s likely that the “American Dream” has permeated the thoughts and desires of many. Tales of driven men and women overcoming adversity to make a name for themselves in a business venture or claiming power have filled popular culture for decades. The majority of these stories involve major successes that inspire audiences to chase their dreams. War Pony, helmed by first-time directing duo Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, shows the downside of the culture perpetuated by the “American Dream”, spotlighting its effect on a Native American community.

War Pony follows 23-year-old Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) and 12-year-old Matho (LaDainian Crazy Thunder), two Oglala Lakota men that reside on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, as they struggle with the harsh realities of life. The film is set up as two parallel stories, cross-cutting its focus between Bill and Matho as they individually strive to capitalize on their newfound opportunities. 

At the beginning of the movie, Bill is the epitome of modern-day hustle culture, reminiscent of the stereotypical high school character that opens his trench coat on the playground to reveal food and various gadgets in an effort to get rich quick. At every turn Bill is looking for ways to score a little cash, whether by buying a dog to breed puppies, asking anyone he sees if they’re hiring, or charging a man whose car has broken down several hundred dollars to give him a ride home. The man he helps out, self-made business owner Tim (Sprague Hollander), ends up taking Bill under his wing and offering him a job at his turkey processing factory. 

Matho, on the other hand, is just trying to stay out of his abusive father’s way and hang out with his friends. Early in the film he finds some of his father’s hidden stash of drugs and starts selling it with his friends. After being caught, he runs away to live with a woman who houses troubled boys like Matho, only to discover they are all under her employ to sell drugs at the local school and share in the profits with her. As he becomes more and more comfortable with his role in this small drug empire, it becomes increasingly apparent that he is digging a hole that may be too deep to crawl out of. 

For the first two acts, the arcs of the two main characters are nearly perfect mirror images of each other, with Bill improving his means by working a seemingly steady job for Tim and getting out of the constant hustle of flipping car parts and Playstations and Matho becoming more engrained in the local drug trade. Even with the relative improvements for both characters, their self-destructive and ingordigious nature is ever lurking in the background. This is a brutal reminder that fortunes don’t turn on a dime and involve much more complexity than history might have you believe. 

While the film primarily focuses on the small snippets of Bill and Matho, the surrounding characters and community are interesting cases to follow as well. The whole community seems to have a cloud of disinterest and defeat surrounding it. The older adults have little motivation, and the kids have nothing to do outside of school except look for trouble. It’s easy to see how an average kid like Matho can quickly find himself enveloped in life-altering mischief in a downtrodden culture like this. You can feel the years of neglect and isolation by the surrounding non-Native communities as the story unfolds. They’ve been left to fend for themselves for generation after generation, and that’s taken a toll on the psyche of the whole reservation. 

War Pony’s score, written by Christopher Stracey and Mato Wayuhi, is interwoven masterfully with needle drops that remind us that there is an abundance of overlap between the different cultures found in America. The movie opens with a short scene of a man by a fire speaking softly to himself, and is quickly followed by Bill blasting XXXTentacion’s “Look at Me!” as he drives around town in his small beat-up car. The audience is constantly experiencing sonic whiplash as every other scene flips from low instrumentals underscoring the mundanity of life’s in-between moments to booming hip-hop. 

The film portrays a more broken version of the “American Dream” mythos and its effects on underserved cultures in devastating fashion not often shown in film. War Pony serves as an admonition to the audience that selfish ambition and greed might only take you so far in forgotten and isolated fragments of our country. Leads Jojo Bapteise Whiting and LaDainian Crazy Thunder effectively characterize the anxieties that this type of hustle culture provokes. 

With help from Pine Ridge Reservation Natives Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy and a standout performance by newcomer Jojo Bapteise Whiting, debut writer-directors Riley Keough and Gina Gammell deliver a gut-punching glimpse into parts of life on a Native reservation. On the surface, War Pony could be the story of anyone from small-town America, but the layers of appalling history bring a unique weight that is difficult to ignore. 

War Pony will debut in select theaters and On Demand on July 28, 2023 courtesy of Momentum Pictures. 

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