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Strong and Moving!

Great Film overall

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Released to HBO in 2007, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" is a historical Western based on several chapters of Dee Brown's book of the same name and details the last days of the Sioux Nation, culminating in the infamous massacre at Wounded Knee. Adam Beach plays Charles Eastman, a Dakota youth who is encouraged by his Christianized father to head east and become a doctor. During his stint as physician at Pine Ridge Reservation he meets and marries, Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin). Eastman teams-up with Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn) to legally help the Native Americans. This includes the Dawes Act, which would ensure that every Indian family would own 160 acres of land. Within this framework the story of Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg) is told, including his death. Wes Studi appears briefly as Wovoka, a Northern Paiute spiritual leader and creator of the Ghost Dance. His messianic movement inspired the Natives, promising an end of their suffering under white rule.Every movie based on history mixes fact with fiction as filmmakers try to overcome the challenge of morphing complex real-life events into palatable cinema. So let's get the falsities out of the way: Charles Eastman never lived in the Native village near the Battle of the Little Bighorn as young brave Ohiyesa; Sitting Bull surrendered at Ft. Buford, not Standing Rock; lastly, Charles Eastman was not Dawes' associate in developing the Dawes Act.With that out of the way, what I like about this movie is how balanced it is as it shows both sides of the story. Here the Indians aren't portrayed as super-virtuous with nigh-Messianic powers (except for Wovoka, which is understandable) nor are the whites frothing with evil to massacre the Natives. This balance is perfectly portrayed in the excellent parley sequence between Sitting Bull and Col. Nelson Miles (Shaun Johnston) where honest and intense positions are shared. For instance, Miles argues that North America was anything but a peaceful paradise before Europeans arrived and that the Lakota Sioux conquered other tribes to acquire "their" land in the Black Hills. The Europeans were simply a confederation of several white "tribes" from across the great sea and were merely doing the same thing that Sitting Bull's tribe did – acquiring land from conquered peoples.Speaking of Sitting Bull, he's one of the most interesting and enigmatic Native characters seen in cinema. And it's a noteworthy performance by Schellenberg.The Wovoka sequence is another highlight where Wovoka (Studi) brings his prophecy and message of the Ghost Dance to the Black Hills Natives. He articulates his message in a hypnotizing manner accompanied by the sign language of the plains Indians. The irony is that, while Wovoka's vision inspires the Lakota and it replaces their suffering with hope & happiness, it only ends in death.Two great sequences occur in the final act: The accurately-depicted haunting death of Sitting Bull, which took place on December 15, 1890, at Standing Rock Reservation; and the titular massacre at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine River Reservation two weeks later. Col. James Forsyth (Marty Antonini) says to Eastman, "We didn't fire first. I swear to Almighty God, we did not fire first," which is verified by history: Tensions mounted in the confrontation as Yellow Bird started to perform the Ghost Dance, informing the Sioux that their "ghost shirts" were bulletproof. Known troublemaker Black Coyote seemed to unintentionally trigger the massacre by refusing to give up his rifle; some say he was deaf and didn't comprehend the order. When two soldiers seized Black Coyote from behind, his rifle was discharged during the struggle. While this was happening, Yellow Bird threw dust in the air and several Lakota braves with concealed weapons threw aside their blankets and fired their rifles at the troops. The firing then became indiscriminate and the massacre entailed.While "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" is a television production, its quality is as good or better than many theatrical pictures. As my title blurb says, it's basically the sequel to 1991's "Son of the Morning Star": That movie ended with Custer's last stand whereas "Wounded Knee" begins with it. Furthermore, they're both televisions productions with the same grueling-realistic tone. Another good comparison is 1975's "I Will Fight No More Forever." It's also not far off in style and approach to movies like "Unforgiven" (1992), "Wyatt Earp" (1994) and "Open Range" (2003). If you're a fan of these types of Westerns be sure to check out "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." The film runs 133 minutes and was shot outside of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.GRADE: B+

The Wounded Knee Massacre (aka The Battle at Wounded Knee Creek) was the last major armed conflict of what Americans term the "Indian Wars" of the late nineteenth century. Movie opens with a recreation of soldiers taking pictures of "Big Foot in Death," one of the disturbing actual pictures in the book, taken on the Wounded Knee battlefield in 1890.When I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee over a decade ago, I would never have believed that White America would have the gall to turn it into a film – and if it was made into a movie, it would be diluted as a trail of tears… The latter has come to pass.Screenwriter Daniel Giat and director Yves Simoneau deliver a film as watery as any American beer. Though it is supposedly a tribute to the indomitable spirit of the Native Americans, it is yet another White-Perspective slur-fest that dishonors that wild race with every bigoted frame. How could any movie on Earth convey the inhuman horrors of Custer's men playing soccer with the heads of Native American children? The movie opens with General Custer's gruesome defeat at Little Big Horn in 1876 by combined Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Native Americans – but we don't see the heads that were just a part of the reason why the slaughter was inevitable and well-deserved. The movie ends with the grisly massacre of Lakota Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee in 1890. Almost as if the "Indians" got their just desserts for killing them nice soldier boys.I rest my case.(By the way, "Indians" is the White Eyes' name for the Native American races. The Native peoples refer to themselves either as Native Americans or their tribe name. When the Natives in this movie call themselves Indians so offhandedly, we realize the film-makers did all their research on Wikipedia.) It was not bad enough to kill off the Native Americans 150 years ago, now a movie is made about that inhuman era – not to honor the Natives, but to MAKE MONEY for HBO; to pretend a spirituality, tolerance and political correctness modern Americans have not the depth to comprehend.Before we continue, let us establish that Dee Brown's 1970 book is a disturbing, thought-provoking, well-researched masterpiece; a towering indictment of frontier America of the 1800s; a history lesson from the people who lived it, not the ones who re-wrote it. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a book that scarred the self-aggrandizing perspective of a nation; recounting Native Americans' extermination at the hands of the White Eyes and their broken promises, cowardly massacres and bloody betrayals; every single treaty between the two factions dishonored by the scoundrels who claimed birthright to a country that they knew was not theirs.Though this gutless filmic re-imagining of Brown's book tries hard to be compelling, it is merely a thin marketing gimmick for whatever Native American fever was doing the rounds in Hollywood at the time.The actors do what they can with the clichéd characters they're assigned: Aidan Quinn as the Good White Man, empowered to carve up land and herd the Native Americans out; the majestic Wes Studi, an old-school agitator; August Schellenberg perfectly cast as Sitting Bull, "the greatest living Indian"; Eric Schweig doing his Steven Segal impersonation; the magnificent Adam Beach (Flags of Our Fathers), one step closer to some kind of acting award; Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse (evocative name, no? – he played the young Smiles A Lot in Dances With Wolves) is Sitting Bull's son; and playing the president better than he ever could in real life, Fred Thompson as Ulysses S. Grant.At first, the White Eyes' grasping at real estate looks like provincialism and ignorance of different cultures ("I still believe that setting the Indians on the course to civilization best serves him") but the Illegal Aliens (i.e. American settlers) knew full well that they wanted the LAND under the PRETENSE of doing a good deed for the Natives – doublespeaking it as mendaciously as that Great World Terrorist of the 2000s, George W. Bush ("We're spreading democracy (so we're killing them for their energy resources)"). Of course, this proud, iron-skinned people, their faces etched like rocks of ages, knew better - and also knew inherent grand truths that their White Eyes scourges could never grasp: that the LAND belongs to no one, that we are all a PART OF the land. Unfortunately, there is something stronger than pride – genocide.Not all the stupidities in this movie are the film-makers' or the early settlers' fault, though. We easily criticize the film for all the Natives conveniently speaking English in current American vernacular and ooga-booga accent, which simply screams "Made For Television," but other silliness can be attributed to the Native Americans and their own bogus "spirituality": Wes Studi preaches that if they all do The Dance they will live forever.. uh, ooookay. And I know a modern Native friend who still fasts for a week and nails himself to a tree every Tree-Nailing Season and then swears he has "visions" – of COURSE you have visions! You're hallucinating from food deprivation and blood loss! Our only hope is that viewers of this vapid HBO movie will be encouraged to read Brown's book and perform true-hearted research into the buried heritage that the White Eyes are still working so hard to pretend to forget.

In its depiction of the Native American, Hollywood goes through cycles. This picture comes down in the middle. Neither the uncorrupted pseudo-flower children of "Little Big Man" or "Dances With Wolves" nor the murderous savages of a hundred earlier cowboy and Indian flicks, the Lakota-Sioux are shown here to be victims, to be sure, but in the past they have victimized others and they victimize each other at times as the movie unfolds.The White characters also are shown as very varied in character--some stern but fair, others frankly hostile, most well meaning if ultimately unhelpful. The U.S. Army when it appears is also painted in surprisingly positive colors, the soldiers and officers being courageous in battle, well-disciplined, often compassionate.The attempt to pack in some history lessons does lead to shallow characterizations and stilted wording here and there but the eve of battle parley between the army officer Nelson Miles and the Indian shaman Sitting Bull contains dialog as intense as the Melian Dialogues of Thuycidides, written 2500 years ago. The producers of this picture probably wished to capitalize on the popularity of the Dee Brown book by borrowing its title. There is only a slight connection between the two. That title was not original with Dee Brown, either. It is taken from a poem, written from Europe in the 1920's, about the resonance of American place names.

BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE is a somber retelling of the events leading up to the massacre at (what is now) the Wounded Knee Memorial. But this isn't a documentary. This is a made-for-TV fictional retelling, and it is the "made-for-TV" bit that makes this important American event lose some of its composure.The entire production flags because of the TV aspect, many of the film shots losing their impact either because of lack of attention to detail or funds (or probably both). Either way this could've been an extreme visual recollection for most viewers but instead it lacks the depth I would've liked to have seen.Regardless, there are some stellar appearances and acting within it. August Schellenberg as Sitting Bull undeniably has the most impact. Recent movie viewers will probably remember him from his portrayal as Powhatan in THE NEW WORLD. The contrast between the character in The New World and here in Wounded Knee shouldn't be lost, either. Without Powhatan and Pocahontas, the white settlers at Jamestown would've perished within the first few winters. And now, in Wounded Knee, it is the white man who destroys what is left of Native American life; a terribly stark (and bloody) reality.The other notables are Adam Beach (FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS) as Charles Eastman, and Aidan Quinn as Senator Henry Dawes. They spend a lot of time together on film and they played against/off each other exceptionally well. Charles being the "new wave" Indian who melds into the white man's way of life until exposed to reservation life at Pine Ridge. Henry Dawes seeing himself as "The Great White Savior Of The Indians" by passing legislation that loops a few nooses around the necks of the Plains Indians' way of life without even realizing it.But other actors have little to offer. Anna Paquin (X-MEN) as Charles' white love interest (and eventual wife) is seen too infrequently so the relationship between the two has little impact. She does a good job of acting but the script stymied any possibility of real success. From here the acting dips into the drab and boring. I have to give mention to Senator Fred Thompson (currently a Republican runner for the U.S. Presidency) who plays President Ulysses S. Grant. We see maybe four frames of film with him in it and then he's gone. This surprised me greatly since it was Grant's administration that doomed Native Americans by rounding them up and placing them on reservations.Despite my misgivings about the script, cinematography and acting, this is a vital story that needs to be told, and it isn't something that is normally taught in grade school or higher. Europeans (us) conquered this land and its people, and pushed them into holding pens where they, to this day, await justice for our multiple treaty violations and massacres of their men, women and children (I will say that the scenes depicting large-caliber rifle bullets ripping through young kids was filmed well and was equally hard to watch).So the story gives this film a higher rating than anything within it, which is unfortunate, as this terrible moment in American history needs to be remembered just as much as Germany needs to remember its holocaust.