A review of the DVD of Thunderheart, starring Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard & Graham Greene

I've been going back over the last two months and re-watching a lot of my favorite films on DVD, and then writing reviews of them. These are movies that touched my inner spirit in some way, causing me to think heavily about different topics or themes, or connecting emotionally with me, or keeping me riveted to my seat (or couch in this case), or just scaring the living daylights out of me or turning me on for that matter.

I love movies and books. Those are my weaknesses, especially at my present age. Show me a young, beautiful blonde and I'll look and smile, but that's about it. Offer me a million dollars, and I'll probably say thanks, but no thanks, unless the person is buying one of my stories or screenplays. But, offer me the opportunity to watch a good film that will have me reacting in one or more of the above ways, and I'll be jumping up and down with excitement like a kid on Christmas morning, anxious to put the DVD into the player and then to turn on the talking box. I still get that way with movies I've watched several times or more over the last two decades such as The Yakuza with Robert Mitchum, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Contact, The Last Samurai, Rudy, The Door in the Floor, Dances With Wolves, Ben Hur, The Lake House, The Matrix, Man On Fire with Denzel Washington, Hearts In Atlantis with Anthony Hopkins, and dozens of other wonderful films.

Such is the case with Thunderheart, starring a Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, and Graham Greene. This film was one of the first, if not the first, movies that Robert DeNiro's newly formed production company, Tribeca, financed by in the early nineties. I saw it at the theater in 1992 in what I generally call my "Dances With Wolves" days. That was a short period during which I sought out answers in the hope of understanding the meaning of my life and what my particular purpose was, if anything at all. Don't laugh, but I actually thought about taking a bus to the Dakotas to start a new life and maybe even help the Native Americans with their struggle for self-recognition and freedom from the white man. Of course, I quickly wised up and realized that it was me who needed the real work and after twenty years, I'm still going at it.

Thunderheart is the story of a young, hotshot FBI agent, Ray Lavoi (played by Kilmer in one of his best roles), who's sent from Washington, D.C. to South Dakota to help seasoned FBI agent, Frank Coutelle (played by Pulitzer Prize winner, Sam Shepard), bring down the ARM movement (Aboriginal Rights Movement) on the Sioux reservation and a killer to justice. They think the killer is Jimmy Looks Twice (played by John Trudell), who is an ex-Vietnam vet and prominent player in the ARM movement.

At first Lavoi is at odds with tribal police officer, Walter Crow Horse (played by the gifted actor, Graham Greene), who rides a motorcycle and makes fun of him and his lack of understanding about his own Native American heritage. Crow Horse believes a cover up is going on and that Lavoi has been sent to the reservation to help it along. In time, however, both men begin to view each other as equals in the real fight that's going on, involving payoffs, kickbacks. bribery, political injustice, intimidation, and murder. With the help of Grandpa Reaches, an Indian medicine man who has powerful visions, and Maggie Eagle Bear, an activist and school teacher, Lavoi begins to think that there might actually be a cover-up going on that includes both the FBI and the U.S. Government. It also doesn't help that as Lavoi gets more involved with the Indians on the reservation, they begin to see him as the reincarnation of the Indian warrior, Thunderheart, who was murdeded at Wounded Knee by American soldiers. At the end, Lavoi must choose sides that have him hanging on the edge of an abyss between the culture he has known since childhood and the one of his ancestors that is now calling him to battle for those who can't defend themselves.

Thunderheart is one of those little gems that sneaks past you when you aren't looking. In many ways this is a powerful look at the plight of the Native American Indians and what the U.S. Government has done to them over the last century, but it is also one man's spirtual journey to awakening and to learning about what things in life are truly important. Power isn't a piece of paper or a law. It's a thunderstorm and a flowing river. A man has to learn to listen to the wind and to the water in order to understand the deeper meaning of life. Such is the way of Thunderheart.

Unfornately, there are little in the way of extras on the DVD, but the movie is well worth the purchase price and gives you a lot of food for thought. Powerful stuff for the white man!