Turning "Say Phoenix" into Smoke Signals

If I were to adapt "...Phoenix, AZ" into a film, I would prolong different scenes in a way that would highlight the historically heavy themes. I would take care to prolong the airplane scene in which Thomas and Victor hang out with the former gymnast white chick. There's a metaphor there that I'd like to be made more apparent to myself and can even be further interwoven throughout the rest of the film's story. The conversation Victor and Thomas have with her could be expounded on in the film. In the story, it's described in a single sentence: "The three of them talked for the duration of the flight." I like that the author describes their common thread being about feelings of disagreement toward the US government, and I'd like to learn more about this.
The fight between Victor and Thomas described prior to the flight is also heavy- one can tell from the way it is re-addressed. The aggressiveness and any sense of helplessness during the fight can be accentuated by flashing between the fight between the two boys and whatever cacophony was going on with the crowd, raising the volume of noise.
I don't think movies have to be long, or anything. An hour of sitting still is a lot for me. However, analyzing how I would 'stretch' different parts of the film causes me to realize that time does not work the same in books as it does elsewhere, at least in movies. The te over tradition among modern Natives