Thunderheart (1992)
In the 1970s, Ray, an FBI agent who is part Sioux, is sent to the reservation in the Badlands of South Dakota in to solve a murder. Ray doesn’t take his heritage seriously but he does take his job seriously. But as Ray gets deeper into the mystery of the murder, he gets deeper into the problems of the Sioux there.
Crow Horse (Graham Greene) is the main reason to watch this movie. The movie is a mix of real people playing parts and actors playing parts. Crow Horse is the only one who seems like a real person you’d meet.
The other reason to watch this movie is the beautiful shots of the landscape of South Dakota. It’s breathtaking on the small screen. I imagine that it was close to a religious experience on the big screen.
The main problem I had with this movie is that characters seemed to be representatives of different viewpoints of the political situation rather than people struggling to live the best way they know how. It’s a bit dry in places.
There is a documentary Incident at Oglala about the same crime which might be more satisfying.
This entry was posted on October 10, 2007 at 5:36 am and is filed under movies, mystery with tags crime, FBI, Native Americans, Sioux, true stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
