Predrag A very under-rated film from way-back. This film continues to illustrate the historic, persecution of a part of America's native heritage, and sets a scene of greed and exploitation on an Indian reservation. In the film, influenced by events that took place in the seventies, Val Kilmer (Ray Levoi) convincingly plays the part of an FBI agent, whose part-Sioux background makes him the prime choice to investigate a death on this Indian reservation. Teamed up with an infamous, older agent, played by Sam Shepard, the investigation leads Kilmer to the realisation that the U.S. government has framed an innocent man. This movie was very well done and gave examples of how the Indian culture really is and Graham Green played a very important part in educating us. Greene is one of my favorite Native American Indian actors. He is from the Six Nations Reservation tribe in Canada.The arid location, the Indian actors, and the haunting music of James Horner, easily takes hold of the imagination; transporting one back to the time when a culture viewed the inquisitive, intrepid explorers of old with suspicion. The intriguing Chief Ted Thin Elk, the reservation's religious leader, knows the secret of Levoi's (Kilmer) lost heritage. Wisdom emanates from this old Indian, but as the leader of a defeated people, he looks to Levoi, and sees in him the spirit of the historic 'Thunderheart'. During a touching sequence in the film, the Chief tells Levoi that he is their modern- day 'Thunderheart' and that he must make for the 'Stronghold' the historic Thunderheart was unable to reach. As the film draws to a close, Levoi finds the evidence he needs to expose the plot, despite Shepard's efforts in eliminating the witnesses. Pursued by Shepard and his henchmen, Levoi makes for the ancient, mountainous stronghold. There above him in the mountains, when all seems lost, he finds the support the old chief said would be there. This film is a must for those who can sense the legacy left to us by one of the world's deeply spiritual, nomadic nations.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

gimili Ray Lavoy is a part American Indian FBI agent assigned to work at the Bear Creek Indian Reservation in South Dakota to help diffuse tensions between "traditional" Indians and "pro-government" Indians. He works with another longtime legendary agent named Frank Coutelle. A murder of a tribal member who was a pro-government American Indian has turned the reservation into a hot zone of unrest. At first Lavoy works along government lines with Coutelle and follows protocol in trying to solve the murder. But along the way he begins to discover that not everything is what it seems, with the investigation, and with his American Indian ancestry. Throughout the investigation a local police chief named Walter Crow Horse(Graham Greene) tries to convince Lavoy that his murder investigation of a particular suspect is wrong and that he needs to rely on his American Indian roots to help him find the way.What I admired most about this movie was the scenery and how the movie used a fictional murder investigation to portray and try to tell the story of the real life American Indian Movement of the 1970's. If you know anything about AIM(American Indian Movement), you will constantly find yourself thinking during this film, "That character is based on....from AIM." In the movie, the traditional group is called ARM(Aboriginal Rights Movement). In the movie the fictional Bear Creek reservation looks to me like Pine Ridge reservation in Pine Ridge, SD.There were only two aspects of the film I did not enjoy. First was trying to understand the time frame, whether it was present day or sometime before. I got the impression the film was present day 1992, but because of all the history you start to think it is the 1970's. Second, the portrayal of FBI was a little over the top. Other than Ray Lavoy, the rest of the agents were portrayed as individuals who disrespect and mock American Indians and American Indian tradition. I imagine this was to help single out FBI agent Lavoy and how he struggles to understand American Indian culture.This is a great old film with a soundtrack that really makes the viewer feel like they are tied to the spiritual connection of the sacred land portrayed in the film. Solid acting, solid soundtrack, and solid plot make this a movie worth seeing.

Robert J. Maxwell A murder has taken place on the Sioux's Pine Ridge Reservation in the Dakotas. Since it's a major crime, it falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI, which is superordinate to the Tribal Police.The FBI sends Val Kilmer to investigate, under the supervision of his chief, Sam Shepherd. Kilmer finds that he's in the middle of a kind of tribal civil war, with two factions -- one cooperating with the government and the other a nativistic movement whose goal is to return to the traditional lifeways of the Sioux.Supporting characters are the head of the tribal police, Graham Greene, and the Indian school marm, Sheila Tousey, a graduate of Dartmouth. Things get complicated as an outsider, Fred Ward, is found to be drilling for uranium on the reservation. A find would demolish the place in the interests of national security.The photography captures the weird beauty of the South Dakota badlands perfectly. One wants to wander alone among the cinerous buttes, pinnacles, and spires. It makes your head reel, as I know.The apparent squalor of the Oglala reservation is also nicely sketched in. The houses are unpainted, tumbledown shacks with burlap curtains. Deceptively suspect, they're not really uncomfortable inside, and the discarded bedsprings and the skeletal furniture on the lawn are of no importance to the residents. They abide.Kilmer's FBI agent, it turns out, is part Sioux himself, although he's disavowed his ethnic roots because of his old man's drunkenness. His acting is of the usual professional character. Sam Shepherd is Sam Shepherd, in life an avant-garde playwright whose work is subtle but unnerving. Graham Greene delivers as the Indian sidekick. And there is one of those mystical but savvy old Indian men, all brown and wrinkled; in this instance, Ted Thin Elk. He slouches along is the most endearing way.Shiela Tousey is the kind of "native" woman who shows up in movies from time to time and is usually a hereditary princess or something. Ordinarily, the character is staggeringly beautiful, which makes it easier for the hero to fall in love with the girl, even if she must die at the end to prevent interracial marriage and justify the hero's blowing the villain's heads off. It's okay to schtupp them but you can't marry them. Fortunately, Shiela Tousey is not some Miss Nicaragua of 1995. She's rather zoftig and her facial features are sharp and penetrating. I don't know about anyone else but this parade of Miss Nicaraguas has gotten tiresome. Let's hear it for ordinary looking minority babes.The movie is just about undone by a familiar mistake on the part of the writer and the director, a mistake that John Huston deftly avoided in "The Man Who Would Be King." The Indians here have a bond with the earth. The wind tells them things. The owl is a messenger. They have visions that come true.In fact, they don't have more visions than the rest of us although customs of the past are present all over the place. As an anthropologist I lived with, and studied, four Indian tribes including two of the Sioux's neighbors on the high plains, the Blackfeet and the Cheyenne. What visions they may have, come from the occasional peyote ceremonies that are religious in nature, not at all recreational. That they have a bond with the earth that most of the rest of us can never know is unquestionable. The Cheyenne reservation at Lame Deer, Montana, abounded with sacred springs decorated with lavender ribbons and little bags of Bull Durham tobacco. They loved to eat boiled ribs (resembling buffalo) and potatoes (prairie turnips) and despised the TUNA FISH SANDWICHES. Well, let me not get into it.That big mistake -- introducing mysticism and preternatural powers -- almost blows the rest of the movie away, aside from the fact that the narrative itself is confusing and sometimes seems pointless. Even Graham Greene, who knows his way around outside "the res" is given the powers of Sherlock Holmes. He can tell if a man carries a pistol strapped to his ankle by the way he walks. He can tell a man's weight by the depth of his footprint in the dust. Whew.If you can put all of that aside and not worry so much if a few scenes lead nowhere, then you can sit back and enjoy the scenery, the occasional bursts of violence, and its omnipresent threat. The final shot is nicely done. Kilmer, having rediscovered his roots, drives off the reservation on a dusty road that abuts a highway. The car stops. It could go either way. But it doesn't move. Fade.

bkoganbing There's been a murder on a Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota and it's connected to reservation politics. Assistant FBI director Fred Dalton Thompson thinks it would be a good idea to specifically assign an agent with an Indian and specifically a Sioux heritage to investigate the homicide, figuring that the insular Sioux might better cooperate with him. Agent Val Kilmer fills the bill and he's assigned to one of the bureau's top operatives Sam Sheppard who reluctantly takes him along. Even Sheppard who's a loner sees that Kilmer just might be useful here.To say that there is more on this reservation than meets the eye is putting it mildly. And Kilmer finds he has a destiny here and he does in fact solve the case with the help of reservation cop Graham Greene.When referring to Indians in the USA their various tribes are called this or that nation. Calling them a nation as far as Thunderheart is concerned is correct in more ways than one. The reservations have their own autonomy in a lot of things, but they are also covered under the Constitution of these United States although you wouldn't think so the way tribal chief Fred Ward runs things. In fact the scenes of his reservation police disregarding basic fundamental rights could come out of some third world nation. That is the scariest part of Thunderheart and the part you will remember best.There's not just murder here, there's corruption on a grand scale and that is the destiny that Val Kilmer has in this film, to root it out and expose it. Just what is going on and who is involved you have to watch Thunderheart for.Although this is a part Lou Diamond Phillips should have played, Val Kilmer does fine in the lead. Another memorable role is that of Sheila Tousey, schoolteacher and Indian activist who has a good idea of what's going on and makes no bones to Kilmer about where his loyalties should lie.Sam Sheppard's role as an FBI agent is one that never would have seen the light of day if J. Edgar Hoover was alive. You'll see what I mean when you watch Thunderheart.Thunderheart is a fine drama, nicely photographed on location with fine performances uniformly from the cast. We can only hope that tribal leaders like Fred Ward are some kind of aberration among the American Indians.