In early 1990s Hollywood wholeheartedly embraced “political correctness” and one of the first signals of that trend was the series of films trying to right serious wrongs of US history by depicting it from the perspective of Indians or, as they began to be called at the time, Native Americans. One of the more interesting representatives of the trend is Thunderheart, 1992 thriller directed by Michael Apted.
Unlike most of such films, that were depicting white people’s conquest of North American continent, Thunderheart deals with its modern day consequences. The plot is inspired by the real events that occured in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1970s. Protagonist, played by Val Kilmer, is Ray Levoi, FBI agent sent to Sioux reservation in South Dakota in order to assist FBI agent Frank “Cooch” Coutelle (played by Sam Shepard) to investigate the murder of tribal council member. The local community is divided into two factions – militant activists from Aboriginal Rights Movement (ARM) that want Sioux to return to traditional ways and tribal government led by Jack Milton (played by Fred Ward) that advocates co-operation with federal government, and the differences between the two resulted in violence. Levoi learns that his assignment was partially political – as part Sioux himself, he is supposed to help win co-operation from the locals. Levoi resents this, because his half-Sioux father used to be an alcoholic and he had worked all his life to suppress his identity. He immediately clashes with tribal policeman Walter Crow Horse (played by Graham Greene). While initial clues suggest that the murder was committed by ARM militants led by Jimmy Looks Twice (played by Johnny Trudell), Levoi reluctantly begins working with Crow Horse on discovering true perpetrator and meets Grandpa Sam Reaches (played by Ted Thin Elk), old medicine man who would help him reconnect with his long-suppresed Sioux heritage.
Screenwriter John Fusco has spent few years living on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in order to make his work as authentic as possible. The result is a film that carries the political message on its sleeve – Native Americans have been subjected to conquest, genocide and persecution not only in the past, but in the modern time. Reservation is shown as place of terrible poverty and violence, run by corrupt tribal government that is ultimately aided by federal authorities that would stop at nothing in order to keep troublesome activists in check, even if it means framing them for crimes they did not commit. British director Michael Apted tries to convey this message by contrasting oppressive state of reservation with its natural beauty, although his attempts to bring elements of western to the story don’t always succeed. His direction is mostly satisfactory, but it can’t compensate for some of the flaws in script and casting. Val Kilmer, although being part Cherokee in real life, isn’t that convincing or memorable as straight FBI agent and doesn’t succeed establishing proper “buddy buddy” dynamic with Graham Greene, who is much better at playing hippie-looking cynical lawman, a Native American character so different from the one he played in Dances With Wolves few years earlier. The best performance is given by elderly Native American actor Ted Thin Elk who plays the most likeable of all characters and provides something of a comic relief. The problems for Thunderheart start when the relatively straight story of political corruption, oppression and violence is muddled by mystical visions that would be more at home in Oliver Stone’s films and somewhat anti-climactic ending. While making Thunderheart, Apted simultaneously covered the same subject in documentary Incident at Oglala dealing with murders of two FBI agents and Leonard Peltier, leader of American Indian Movement, being jailed for it, which many American leftists believe to be blatant miscarriage of justice.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
