Reznet

'Blue Gap Boy’z' Laughs It Up in Navajo Theaters

By Andi Murphy

From the makers of "Turquoise Rose" comes a comedy with above-par Rez comedy contradicted by a lacking storyline.

"Blue Gap Boy'z" entered Navajo theaters — theaters close to the reservation — last month. Even after three weeks of show time, seats were full at Gallup, N.M., theaters.

Of course, the film stars some real Navajos who have made names for themselves in other films and gigs: Ernest Tsosie, from "Mile Post 398" but more famously from the comedy duo James and Ernie; Beau Benally, also from "Mile Post 398;" Vincent Craig, comedian/musician, and James Bilagody, musician.

"Blue Gap Boy'z," directed by Travis Hamilton, is about three musicians accidentally traveling all the way to Phoenix to audition their Rezband for a big-shot German venue owner, a tour in Europe and $20,000. The Blue Gap Boy'z — Tsosie, Craig and Bilagody — make their way to the big city for the first time, Rez style: in a lemon quality/colored pickup truck with one passenger wind-burnt in the back cab.

The clash of down-home Rez and city life is hilarious. The journey sequence, from Blue Gap, Ariz., to Phoenix, offers too-true humor on the lives of three men who live in a hogan, one of whom is a janitor at a school. The other two offer no clues of their occupation.

Mystic Love, a Navajo punk-indie band, makes its way onto the big screen and is competition for the Blue Gap Boy'z. So is a local female singer, but she is quickly removed because she is a woman and Germans don't want women. She is beautiful and has more music talent than the main characters. The Blue Gap Boy'z, on the other hand, wouldn't have a fighting chance to make the next round in "American Idol."

This movie took 10 months to produce, as reported by the Gallup Independent newspaper, and that might be a bad thing. Sure, it was funny, with Rez humor sprinkled all over the place. Sure, it had familiar brown faces in the cast — faces that are Navajo favorites. But that doesn't make up for some bad acting and a vague storyline.

You can't help but leave the theater with questions like: "What was the point of the story?" "Was there even a plot or rise in action?" "Wasn't the one-sided phone conversation overused just a bit?"

If you were to put a moral or point to the story, it would be that luck comes in one burst of events that gets you a trip to Europe. Even if you forget all about your talented brothers at home and forget to get a passport ... I don't know where it goes after that — which is kind of silly.

It might just be me, but I like to have a good ending to a movie — or a bad ending, nonetheless an ending. Not just something that leaves you hanging and a bit puzzled.

But I have to give it kudos for humor that shook the audience well beyond the usual dull roar. Hamilton was going for that, and he hit the funny bone right on target.

Andi Murphy, Navajo, is a student at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. A graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2007 American Indian Journalism Institute, Murphy interned as a reporter at The Daily Times in Farmington, N.M., and, last summer, at the Great Falls Tribune in Montana.