So now I'm watching Thunderheart

[fishwax]

Another good movie.

Earlier I was discussing Powwwow Highway (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5093397), another movie about Native Americans that wasn't made by Native Americans. Thunderheart wasn't made by Native Americans either, but is important nonetheless, as it was the rare mainstream hollywood production which took tried to side with the native american ...



The filmmaker (Michael Apted) also made a documentary about the Leonard Peltier case, Incident at Oglala ...

[KitchenWitch]

1. I loved this film also!

:hi:

[fishwax]

2. it's a pretty amazing film

when i watch it these days, i wonder how it ever got made :)

[KitchenWitch]

3. Me too!

I love the scene when Val Kilmer's character talks about having had a vision and the other guy (forget his name) about has a fit about that.

[fishwax]

4. if you haven't seen incident at oglala, I highly recommend it

:hi:

the man who played Jimmy Looks Twice (John Trudell) was actually an important figure in the American Indian Movement, and he is in the documentary as well. His wife and children were killed in a "fire of suspcious origin" ... a fire which (if memory serves) corresponded with his testiomony in the Peltier case and which was never investigated. I'm sure the government wasn't involved in any way, ahspe, or form ...

[KitchenWitch]

5. I will check it out

Sounds very interesting.

One of my friends (before he died) was part of AIM in Minneapolis. He used to patrol the areas in the city to make sure the police were not harming the Indian people. I am not sure if you heard this story, but it was well publicized here that some cops transported two drunk Indians to detox in the trunk of their police cruiser. The city was sued and the victims prevailed. But that one case is only the tip of the iceberg as far as how the Minneapolis police treats Indian people.

[fishwax]

6. That sounds familiar ...

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing about that story. There were important Indian uprisings in MN in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Even though MN/WI(where I was born) are sort of "scandinavian" in the popular imagination, there were important conflicts with Native American tribes in those revions.

I'll have to look refresh my memory on the case you mentioned, but I nkow it does sound familiar. And if you ever do get the chance to see the "Incident" movie, I defy you to not be pissed off. It's a great movie (Robert Redford, incidentally, was one of the exec producers ...)

[fizzgig]

7. it is a good movie

but i take issue with the theme of the "special white man" that is found in so many mainstream movies about the indigenous people

have you seen 'smoke signals'?

it is an especially rad movie

[KitchenWitch]

9. I believe it was revealed that Val Kilmer's character

in the movie was actually half indigenous. So "special white person" is kind of a misnomer.

[Neoma]

8. I remember that.

Watched it a looong time ago.