Cliched? Yes. Unwatchable? Definitely Not!
- Review By:
- PoseyDozer
- Date:
- February 18, 2009
- Movie:
- Thunderheart
- Director:
- Michael Apted
- Released:
- 1992
- Good Guy:
- Ray Levoi
- Played By:
- Val Kilmer
- Bad Guy:
- Frank Coutelle
- Played By:
- Sam Shepard
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Older teens
A cliched plot mars the otherwise compelling Thunderheart. A young FBI agent is assigned to assist in a murder investigation on a Sioux Indian reservation in the Badlands of South Dakota. Selected because of his Native American ancestry, the agent begins his tour of duty as a by-the-book FBI guy who has rejected his past. But the plight and the honesty of the Sioux people he is assigned to surveil win him over. Where reservation residents, including a savvy reservation cop, fail to uncover the nefarious machinations of corrupt law enforcement officers and politicians, the agent does. He ends up — say it with me now — defying the FBI and saving the day.
Don't let the plot put you off, though. You won't notice the well-worn story line until long after the credits have rolled. Helped by a strong supporting cast, Val Kilmer turns in a believable performance as Agent Ray LeVoi. Sam Shepard, as Ray's supervisor, Frank, and Fred Ward as reservation politico Jack Milton, suit their roles perfectly. Sheila Tousey (Maggie Eagle Bear) and Ted Thin Elk (Grandpa Sam Reaches) ably round out the cast as two native people who win Ray's loyalty, respect and affection.
Perhaps the best of them all, though, is the inimitable Graham Greene as Walter Crow Horse. He gives Ray the finger as he scoots by on his motor cycle early on in the film and manages subliminally to flip the bird in just about every other scene in which he appears. He injects a necessary element of wit and cynicism into an otherwise very serious film. It's he who saves the movie from wallowing in political correctness and puts a real, intelligent human face on the native people he represents.
