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Black Cloud

2005, Movie, PG-13, 97 mins

Black Cloud: Review

You don't have to be a boxing fan to enjoy this heartwarming story of a resilient young athlete whose promising career is jeopardized by a few wrong moves. Having made a name for himself on the local boxing circuit and attracted the attention of an Olympic boxing scout (Peter Greene), hot-tempered Navajo fighter Black Cloud (Eddie Spears) is the pride of his reservation. But though he has a shot at the kind of opportunity most athletes only dream of, Black Cloud is handicapped by the same roiling fury that makes him a formidable adversary in the ring. His self-destructive need to take his aggression to the streets regularly gets him in trouble, and he needs to master some anger-management skills if he's going to have a real shot at the Olympics. Unfortunately, a barroom brawl with tough-as-nails cowboy Eddie (Rick Schroder, also making his directing debut), who needles Black Cloud for "stealing" his girlfriend, leaves Eddie in the hospital with a punctured lung and Black Cloud looking at an attempted murder charge. Word gets around the reservation, and Black Cloud is convinced his life is in an irreversible downward spiral. Further complicating matters, Black Cloud — who has always felt oppressed by white men, particularly the local sheriff (Tim McGraw) — learns that he's of mixed blood. The promising fighter is ready to hang up his gloves, but his levelheaded girlfriend, Sammi (Julia Jones), brings some much-needed perspective to the situation; she counsels Black Cloud to take pride in all his ancestral ties, rather than trying to deny part of who he is. Black Cloud rallies for the Olympic tryouts in Las Vegas, buoyed by the strength of his close-knit community to make the most of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to show the world what he's made of. Though the story starts off slowly, it puts an engaging spin on age-old "triumph of the human spirit" cliches. --Allison Corneau