Themes: Discovering One's Heritage, Redemption, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Val Kilmer, Graham Greene, Sam Shepard, Sheila Tousey, John Trudell, Fred Ward, Chief Ted Thin Elk, Fred Dalton Thompson
Release Year: 1992
Country: US
Run Time: 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Actor Robert De Niro started a production company to make films just like this one: stories which were unpopular with the establishment and which are unlikely to make a big splash at the box-office. Even so, this is a first-class production, and the filmmakers were the first to receive permission to film on the Pine Ridge (Sioux) Reservation in South Dakota, likely due to director Michael Apted's having previously made an accurate and sensitive documentary about Indian political prisoner Leonard Peltier's case, Incident at Oglala. The film did exactly as well as expected at the box-office but has since assumed greater importance as one of the tiny number of "mainstream" movies which faithfully and respectfully illuminate Native American issues. In the story, loosely based on the earlier documentary, Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer) is an ambitious up-and-coming FBI agent in the 1970s with great career prospects. The one thing he will not tolerate is any reference to his half-Indian heritage. As far as he is concerned, his loyalties and culture identify him with the government and his white mother. He is extremely touchy about anything to do with his father, who was an alcoholic full-blooded Sioux. However, the FBI wants to take advantage of his half-Indian blood to mend fences in a politically sensitive murder investigation, and it sends him exactly where he doesn't want to go. Further, he is widely advertised as being Indian, though he knows virtually nothing about his heritage and has renounced it to the best of his ability. Once on the reservation, he becomes deeply involved in a truly messy state of affairs and is drawn into situations where he is forced to confront his background, native spirituality, and the duplicity of the government and its allies within the tribe. Despite his consistent prickliness about his heritage, his heart is in the right place, and the reservation's sheriff (Graham Greene) and a wise spiritual elder (Chief Ted Thin Elk) patiently lead their unwilling FBI pupil on a soul-wrenching wild goose chase which paradoxically takes him straight to the heart of the matter. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Review
Val Kilmer delivers some of his subtlest work as an FBI agent who must overcome his self-loathing to solve a murder. Kilmer is the film's reluctant hero, Ray Levoi, whose one-quarter-Native American heritage makes him the prime candidate to investigate a homicide on a South Dakota reservation, a case extrapolated from the true story of activist Leonard Peltier, whom many believe was wrongfully jailed for the murders of two FBI agents in the 1970s. Most of Thunderheart plays like Raymond Chandler updated for the politically correct 1990s, long on topical, political mystery and short on romance. The actor does a good job of conveying Ray's deep-rooted denial: he's a prime representative of Reagan-era, button-down conservatism, and Kilmer and Apted loosen him up without resorting to obvious, pandering scenes of revelation. The movie has real tension but never presents Native Americans as a mysterious, enigmatic "other;" even when Apted calls attention to the squalid socio-economic conditions of the reservation, he never loses sight of the film's entertainment value. Apted released a companion documentary on the Peltier case, Incident at Oglala, that same year. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Dennis J. Banks - Himself; Robin Black Bird - Lakota Singer; Lewis C. Bradshaw - Ranger; Sarah Brave - Maisy Blue Legs; Duane Brewer - Ranger; Floyd Charging Crow - Lakota Singer; David Crosby - Bartender; Elroy Cross - Lakota Singer; Julius Drum - Richard Yellow Hawk; Terry Graber - Doctor; Candy Hamilton - School Teacher; Jerry Allan Hietala - Drunken Brawler; Allan R.J. Joseph - Leo Fast Elk; Tom M. LeBeau - Ray's Father; Rex Linn - FBI Agent; Jerome Mack - Maggie's Kid; Patrick Massett - Agent Mackey; Carlin Orville Morrison - Powwow Singer; Brian A. O'Meara - FBI Agent; George Patterson - Helicopter Pilot; Verland Theodore Phelps - Powwow Singer; Sylvan Pumpkin Seed - Hobart; Buddy Red Bow - Man at Powwow; Calvin Timothy Red Elk Sr. - Powwow Singer; Ernest Red Elk - Lakota Singer; Kenneth J. Richards - Lakota Singer; Robin J. Saderup - Helicopter Pilot; Bridgit P. Schock - Ray's Mother; Tim Owen Taggart - Powwow Singer; Melvin David Young Bear - Powwow Singer; Severt Young Bear, Sr. - Lakota Singer; Charles Davis - Lakota Singer; Lisa Clarkson; Sam Adams - Lakota Singer
Credit
Susan Lyall - Costume Designer, Michael Apted - Director, Ian Crafford - Editor, James Horner - Composer (Music Score), Dan Bishop - Production Designer, Roger Deakins - Cinematographer, Robert De Niro - Producer, John Fusco - Producer, Michael Nozik - Producer, Jane Rosenthal - Producer, Dianna Freas - Set Designer, Chris Newman - Sound/Sound Designer, Hugh A. O'Brien - Stunts, Jim Behnke - Unit Production Manager, John Fusco - Screenwriter
