The Exiles (1961)

91% of critics liked it
(33 reviews)
77% of users liked it
(254 ratings)

The independently produced The Exiles was warmly received at the 1966 Venice Film Festival, then inexplicably fell into obscurity. This is a shame: though made 30 years ago, the issues raised by the film are just as potent and powerful today. The story concerns a trio of young Native Americans who… More The independently produced The Exiles was warmly received at the 1966 Venice Film Festival, then inexplicably fell into obscurity. This is a shame: though made 30 years ago, the issues raised by the film are just as potent and powerful today. The story concerns a trio of young Native Americans who decide to leave the reservation. Once they've reached Los Angeles, the three protagonists find themselves just as lost and isolated as they would have been in the middle of the desert. Non-professionals Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish and Tommy Reynolds offer strong, naturalistic performances; in fact, they don't seem to be acting at all, but instead living their parts. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 12 min.
Directed By: Kent MacKenzie, Richard Kaplan
Written By: Kent MacKenzie
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Aug 1, 1961 Wide
On DVD: Nov 17, 2009
Studio: Milestone Film & Video

Critic Reviews

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
A ghostly and startling tale of Native Americans in Los Angeles -- a fusion of documentary and fiction -- in the late '50s. Never previously released, it's a revelation.
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
The Exiles ... presents one boozy night in the lives of Homer, Cliff, Tommy and Yvonne, from a convertible joy ride through the Third Street Tunnel, to an early-morning powwow.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Kent Mackenzie's magnificent, long-undistributed, unclassifiable first feature, The Exiles, stands as a rare consideration of the inner and outer lives of American Indians in a big American city.
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Rife with astonishing black-and-white images of an unknown L.A. and clashing sounds of bars, cinemas and poker games, The Exiles is one of those movies that functions as both artifact and fresh discovery.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Its moving portraiture is refreshingly free of cliches and moralizing platitudes, and the high-contrast black-and-white photography and dense, highly creative sound track are equally impressive.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
A cinéma vérité look at the rootless Native American community that once upon a time lived in Bunker Hill and hung out in downtown bars such as Club Ritz, this Kent Mackenzie film is a brooding picture of a darkly beautiful, long-gone Los Angeles.
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
A sorrowful and beautiful film, the kind you never see from mainstream Tinseltown studios, then or now.
Sarah Boslaugh, Playback:stl
At its best, The Exiles achieves the same kind of visual poetry found in neorealist classics such as Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief)...
Sean Axmaker, Seanax.com
There's no uplifting message here and the internal monologues that accompany their wanderings speak of desires and anxieties and disappointments that appear doomed to repeat themselves.
Kam Williams, Sly Fox
Best if approached as a nostalgic curiosity shot a half century ago rather than as a conventional flick offering a satisfying cinematic experience.
Dan Lybarger, eFilmCritic.com
Kent Mackenzie's 1961 movie 'The Exiles' was so revolutionary that even now it seems gutsy.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
Kent MacKenzie's 1961 groundbreaking classic about Native American urban alienation, unfolds like an Edwin Hopper painting in motion as intimate noirish voiceover soliloquies of these three troubled protagonists.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It's an essential film that hardly anyone saw upon its release in 1961.
Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward.com
For its beautiful black-and-white aesthetics, docudrama realism, and, sadly, still fresh portrait of off-reservation Native Americans, an excellent rediscovery
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
The amateur actors, many of whom in reality met sad ends on those same streets, are utterly convincing. You have the sense again and again that you've unearthed a time capsule -- a sensation that cinema alone of all the arts can impart.
Andy Klein, Los Angeles CityBeat
Mackenzie imposes no obvious attitude or mediating outsider's perspective on the material; he just presents it to us, a snapshot of an otherwise unknown culture, with details specific to its time and place.
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
Just because a movie was lost and found doesn't mean it's worth your $8.75.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Eric B

I don't know how to react to this film. Am I supposed to empathize with these lazy, sluggish Indian men? Aimless, callous, unemployed spongers who do nothing but drink, smoke, flirt, fight and play cards? It's as if the script aims to reinforce negative stereotypes.… More
I don't know how to react to this film. Am I supposed to empathize with these lazy, sluggish Indian men? Aimless, callous, unemployed spongers who do nothing but drink, smoke, flirt, fight and play cards? It's as if the script aims to reinforce negative stereotypes. "The Exiles" has virtually no dramatic shape. The men do nothing useful, while the women work and quietly endure their unhappiness. The story spans about a day, and nothing transformative occurs. And most of the dialogue and ambient noise is awkwardly looped in post-production -- this is alienating. In particular, the casual chatter in bars and cafes is painfully stiff. The filmmakers deserve credit for making a worthwhile sociological statement on a non-existent budget but, beyond that, there's little to recommend "The Exiles" beyond some interesting glimpses of early-'60s Los Angeles.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]At its best when photographing the exteriors of a lost city, "The Exiles" is an ethnographic docudrama about a trio of American Indians(Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish & Tom Reynolds) over a twelve hour period in Los Angeles. The men hang out, play… More
[font=Century Gothic]At its best when photographing the exteriors of a lost city, "The Exiles" is an ethnographic docudrama about a trio of American Indians(Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish & Tom Reynolds) over a twelve hour period in Los Angeles. The men hang out, play poker, and get drunk. For them, they have lost confidence in the future, being twice removed from their traditional lives. Yvonne who is pregnant is lonely as she goes to the movies while the men make the rounds before spending the night at a friend's place. For herself, any hope for the future she reserves for her unborn child for whom she is staying in the city to give him a better chance at leading a rewarding life.[/font]