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.
Review of Thunderheart
