Thunderheart (1992)

To me, this movie is perfection.

A lot of fun.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The original showed Val Kilmer's character drinking peyote before the scene in the middle with the fire. This has been poorly edited out because we don't want people to experience anything spiritual in this day and age. Now that whole scene makes no sense at all... Why is he freaking out in front of the fire and having visions? Why does the Indian Sheriff say 'I know you're scared' when Val Kilmer pulls his gun out... Is he afraid of the dark? Is he afraid of the fire? No, they just edited out the whole point of the movie in that he couldn't solve the crime using just his logical brain, he had to step out of the normal state of mind and seek help from his ancestors and the spirit world through the use of OMG! DRUGS!.. But of course we can't allow that in this technical nightmare of a world that is coming... So, remember why peyote is illegal in the first place to keep people from communicating with the other realms... So better enjoy the digital realm because the real world is turning into hell quicker than you can say 'Why did they edit that out?'... Very disappointing and now the movie and that whole scene makes much less sense.

"Nobody ever told us they were human." - Lt. Calley (My Lai hearings)An underrated thriller, Michael Apted's "Thunderheart" sees a young FBI agent (Val Kilmer) attempting to solve a series of murders on a South Dakotan Indian Reservation. The film was part of a wave of Hollywood pictures which attempted to delve into America's violent relationship with Native Americans ("Geronimo", "Dances With Wolves", "Last of the Mohicans", "Powwow Highway" etc).At its best, "Thunderheart" conveys well the way in which certain forms of violence echo through time and reverberate, loudly, in the present. Apted's Indian Reservations are run down, decrepit, and are at the mercy of modern "Colonialists", backed by the state. That a legacy of racist exploitation - racism is a key mechanism for the stabilization of capitalism and the legitimization of inequality - is alive and well in the present, is a lesson which our young FBI agent learns. Apted makes this most apparent during sequences in which car chases in the present are mirrored to military raids in the past, and in which the dead bodies of women echo the sand covered corpses of the Sioux and Cherokee. "They're a conquered people," one FBI agent says. "That means their future is dictated by the nation that conquered them." Unlike most films which uniformly "glorify" Native American Indians, "Thunderheart's" Indian Reservation is lorded over by different, warring sects. Some groups are fiercely "nationalist", some are well meaning, some are essentially power hungry dictators and others are beholden to the FBI, which for a long time ran illegal operations - offshoots of COINTELPRO - designed to disrupt Native Indian activists. "What makes you such a threat?" our hero asks one militant character. "We know the difference between the reality of freedom, and the illusion of freedom," comes the reply (from poet/activist John Trudell). "It's about power. They have to kill us because they cant break our spirit".Michael Apted's responsible for a number of documentaries, most notably "Up" and "Incident at Oglala", the latter also about deaths on an Indian Reservation. Like his best documentaries, "Thunderheart" is oft low-key, haunting and languid, though this tone frequently gives way to more heavyhanded brush-strokes: over-the-top violence, lots of "bad white man"/"good Indian" stereotypes, an overindulging in silly "spirtual/mythical" sequences and a generic last minute rescue. The film's climax, in which it is revealed that strip mining corporations are behind several murders, also reeks of "Chinatown", despite being a truth which occurs with frequency throughout history."Thunderheart" was shot by the renowned Roger Deakins. His aerial and night-time photography are excellent, the film's dialogue is often exceptional, and the film boasts fine performances by Graham Greene and Sam Shepard8.5/10 – Veers from powerful to cartoonish. See "Frozen River", "Lone Star" and "Hombre".

Val Kilmer plays a gung-ho FBI rookie and half-breed Sioux Indian who rediscovers his cultural heritage in the Badlands of South Dakota, while investigating a series of inter-tribal murders. The film is a well-meant but heavy-handed crowd-pleaser with a message, delivered by director Michael Apted with all the glossy, heartfelt sincerity of a sledgehammer blow. John Fusco's busy screenplay all but apologizes for every injustice against Native Americans dating back to the first voyage of Columbus, but 500 years of grievances can't be resolved in a single, two-hour melodrama and still leave time for all the car chases. The film as a result wavers between being an obvious social studies lesson (from which Apted could have made an interesting documentary) and pure Hollywood claptrap, complete with routine doses of gunplay and arcane Indian mysticism. Saving graces include natural performances by Sam Shepard and Graham Greene, and Roger Deakins' beautiful cinematography, showing just why the South Dakota landscape is sacred to the native Sioux.

"Thunderheart" would not even be an average movie without Graham Greene's wonderful performance. As reservation sheriff, his character correctly interprets a brutal murder using both mysticism and logic. Val Kilmer eventually realizes that his fellow F.B.I. agent is leading him on a road to nowhere, and that Graham Greene is onto the truth behind the killing. At almost two hours, the film seems endless, and only Graham Greene's humorous observations, break the sometimes monotonous and sometimes confusing story. The totally acceptable acting, interesting music, and beautiful locations help. The conclusion actually saves the movie, because up to that point, the whole thing seemed to be losing momentum. - MERK