Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Micransix Crappy film

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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.

metalrox_2000 Wow, this quite simply has to be one of the most entertaining films ever made. Never before has the plight of the Native Americans been handled in such a manner. There is no stereotypical handling at all, and the beliefs are treated and handled with care.Everyone excels in their roles. Val Kilmer is amazing as Ray Levoi, the FBI agent with native blood who's running from his past, mainly because of shame over his father, who was a drunk. Graham Greene is perfectly cast as Walter Crow Horse. Sam Sheppard as Levoi's corrupt partner investigating a murder on Indian land with Levoi. Ted Thin Elk gives one of the bets performances as the lovable Grandpa Sam Reaches. Sehlia Tousey is great as well in a supporting role as the ill-fated Maggie Eagle Bear.The film moves swiftly, with twist and turns set against the perfect back drop. Too see a nation of people reduced to living in the squaller that they are in this film is unsettling, and serves as the perfect backdrop to the plot and story. Vetern actor Fred Ward also performs well, if be it a little underused, as to evil JAck Milton. Look for Iconic singer David Crosby in a cameo appearance as a Bartender.The murder of a Tribal leader named Leo Fast Elk unearths a plot between Sheppard's Frank Coutelle and Ward's Milton to mine the Indian land for a valuable mineral. This is learned by Levio as he and Crow Horse attempt to unravel the mystery, all the time, keeping guard against the corruption of Coutelle and Milton. Coupling this dilemma, Levoi is becoming more and more in touch with his Indian blood, as the line between honor to blood, and duty to country become increasingly blurred.This is an excellent dramatic film set against a real story. Next to his performance as Jim Morrison, this ranks as perhaps Val Kilmer's best work. This is a must see film for everyone, and quite simply, could be one of the greatest films in American movie history.

user-29957 I just watched Thunderheart in the middle of the night, having heard about it, but never having watched it until now. In October of this year (08) a book I helped write with Darrell New Plenty Stars, a full blooded Oglala Lakota on the Pine Ridge Rez, was newly released. "From the Flames of Wounded Knee to the Center of God's Will" follows Darrell's life from the Rez to Vietnam and back, arriving in home just in time to become involved with the 1973 Wounded Knee standoff, from which the film Thunderheart was based. Darrell and his wife Rose live there today amid continued unrest on the Rez. In the film, when the dry grass is parted when the character searches for his relative's name, "Thunderheart", you can see also on the Wounded Knee Memorial stone,the name Red Fish, Darrell's great great grandfather. I've developed a website where you can learn more about Darrell New Plenty Stars and his book at: www.GodLovesNativeAmericans.org. If you check it out, please leave us a message.