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Visitors Review

glentom1 2012-05-25 14:41:37

Uneven, incomplete, and boring depiction of the story

Very slow moving movie, which detracted greatly from the story itshould have been telling. If you haven't read the book, or knew nothingof the history of this story, you would be completely lost.The cast was great, and the acting was good. It is not the actors faultthat the direction and editing was terrible. I had high hopes that thestory telling would be straight forward, of a relativelywell-documented event, based on the well known book.The title is misleading; it is not Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, it isa small excerpt combined with some other story I was not familiar with.The ending of the movie is really mangled, combining color with blackand white for dramatic effect, but it just doesn't work, especiallywhen it never even shows the event depicted in the title.Watch it for good acting, good music, great camera work, but don'texpect to be educated, or entertained. The atrocities committed uponthis Indian nation deserves a better rendition and remembrance, thanpresented here.

2012-05-25 04:29:18

Misses the Mark-Not For This White Person, Either!

Wounded Knee evokes a great deal of emotion for me, and it was with reluctance that I finally sat down to watch this film. Knowing the details of the massacre, and how women, children and old people were chased down and murdered, was something I wasn't sure I could watch - even in a movie. Another reviewer here on Amazon gave this a very thorough review, and he noted that while it was fairly accurate historically, it was not completely so. I won't steal his words for this review. After following the steady downward spiral of the Sioux people into nearly complete destruction over a period of 14 years, the end was, well . . . given cursory attention, a gloss over, Hollywood-ized. According to Black Elk (read Black Elk Speaks for a firsthand account), those "wagon guns" went on firing for a long, long time. The scenery was well chosen, the sets fairly realistic, and of course, the Native Americans who reenacted their own history were terrific. What should have been the climax of this endeavor, the Wounded Knee Massacre, was handled pathetically. Such a tragic end to a beautiful way of life deserved far more and better attention than it received. It was the sheer brutality of the soldiers as they shot women and infants at point blank range, their insulting demeanor towards a desperate people, their desire for revenge for Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn, the overwhelming evil that was unleashed that day, that is left out. For that alone, this film falls very, very short of the mark in explaining the grief and mourning, and anger, a people still feel for their lost past. And, as a final insult, if you read the notes at the end of the film, you will see that Congressional Medals of Honor were bestowed upon these "heroes" for their part in this, to use Black Elk's own word, butchery. Dee Brown's classic book upon which this movie is based is far more detailed. As in most cases, the book is better than the movie. If I could change my rating to no star, I would.

2012-05-20 12:57:39

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

This review is from: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (DVD) I loved it and it made me cry for it was a sad time for the Bigfoot Clanand I being an Native American I am proud to be who I am

2012-05-19 19:59:58

i enjoy every Indian movie

Because there is a shortage of these films.People are missing the point of this movie which was the ability to adapt like Charles Eastman. The wild indian man running around the great plains, with no law, was over, and Charles dad knew it. It was a great film, but also showed the cruelty of the blue coats.Its always better to get something than nothing for your land. And who says you have to stay on a reservation????? With some money you can go to any part of the USA!!!With no money-- destitution.

2012-05-17 20:52:15

Wounded Knee

My husband is part Cherokee & part Blackfoot, but most caucasion. However he is proud of his heritage and enjoys watching movies like Trail of Tears and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. However I think anyone would enjoy watching either of these two movies.R.K.W.

fwomp 2012-05-17 13:57:07

The Story Speaks Louder Than This Film

BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE is a somber retelling of the eventsleading up to the massacre at (what is now) the Wounded Knee Memorial.But this isn't a documentary. This is a made-for-TV fictionalretelling, and it is the "made-for-TV" bit that makes this importantAmerican event lose some of its composure.The entire production flags because of the TV aspect, many of the filmshots losing their impact either because of lack of attention to detailor funds (or probably both). Either way this could've been an extremevisual recollection for most viewers but instead it lacks the depth Iwould've liked to have seen.Regardless, there are some stellar appearances and acting within it.August Schellenberg as Sitting Bull undeniably has the most impact.Recent movie viewers will probably remember him from his portrayal asPowhatan in THE NEW WORLD. The contrast between the character in TheNew World and here in Wounded Knee shouldn't be lost, either. WithoutPowhatan and Pocahontas, the white settlers at Jamestown would'veperished within the first few winters. And now, in Wounded Knee, it isthe white man who destroys what is left of Native American life; aterribly stark (and bloody) reality.The other notables are Adam Beach (FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS) as CharlesEastman, and Aidan Quinn as Senator Henry Dawes. They spend a lot oftime together on film and they played against/off each otherexceptionally well. Charles being the "new wave" Indian who melds intothe white man's way of life until exposed to reservation life at PineRidge. Henry Dawes seeing himself as "The Great White Savior Of TheIndians" by passing legislation that loops a few nooses around thenecks of the Plains Indians' way of life without even realizing it.But other actors have little to offer. Anna Paquin (X-MEN) as Charles'white love interest (and eventual wife) is seen too infrequently so therelationship between the two has little impact. She does a good job ofacting but the script stymied any possibility of real success. Fromhere the acting dips into the drab and boring. I have to give mentionto Senator Fred Thompson (currently a Republican runner for the U.S.Presidency) who plays President Ulysses S. Grant. We see maybe fourframes of film with him in it and then he's gone. This surprised megreatly since it was Grant's administration that doomed NativeAmericans by rounding them up and placing them on reservations.Despite my misgivings about the script, cinematography and acting, thisis a vital story that needs to be told, and it isn't something that isnormally taught in grade school or higher. Europeans (us) conqueredthis land and its people, and pushed them into holding pens where they,to this day, await justice for our multiple treaty violations andmassacres of their men, women and children (I will say that the scenesdepicting large-caliber rifle bullets ripping through young kids wasfilmed well and was equally hard to watch).So the story gives this film a higher rating than anything within it,which is unfortunate, as this terrible moment in American history needsto be remembered just as much as Germany needs to remember itsholocaust.

httpmom 2012-05-08 04:46:10

An HBO flop

Everything and everyone involved in this production was presented insuch a way as to be a cliché, an unfortunate stereotype of the realevents and people this show was based upon. It's really sad because Iwould have expected so much more from HBO. In past programs they havedone such an excellent job of portraying an era, Rome being one veryeffective example. And it even more of a shame because the book thismaterial is based upon was so thoroughly unique. I read "Bury My HeartAt Wounded Knee" the summer of the year it was published. I was asenior in high school on my way to college and I was really taken abackby it's powerful and intense telling of those years in Americanhistory.The book left such an impression on me. I felt so angry and mistrustfultoward the traditional telling of history, or our "not" telling ofhistory that I spend a great deal of time talking with my relatives andgrandparents about their recall of native people they had known andworked with. My paternal grandparents were from Topeka Kansas and my uncle hadworked for a number of years at the Bureau Of Land Management, whichhad reservations as one of it's concern. My uncle eventually told methe reason he left, was he just couldn't deal with the wretchedness ofthe whole affair. He said the health of the Indians was appalling andthat the money they were supposed to be getting never got to whom itshould. It finally depressed him so much he transferred to another areaof government. I always remembered my grandfather, who was not awealthy man, donated much money to what he used to call "The IndianMissions". They were always sending him Christian paraphernalia asthank yous, which he kept in special alcoves and shelves in hisbedroom. To my child's mind they were magnificently beautiful... mostof them were plastic and many lit up in the dark. I used to sleep inthat room when we visited in the summers. He always had a special placein his heart for the mission people, and since he was a really kind andgenerous man, I realized they must be too. In those days Indians werestill outsiders and while my own family may have thought otherwise,many of the people who lived in that part of the country regardedanyone who was not white as sub-human. I never got to ask mygrandparents about the Indians because they were dead by the time Iread this book and got curious. Anyway, that is all a tangent story. The fact remains that thisproduction falls way short of the base material and is an HBO flop asfar as I'm concerned. Maybe they should have made it a full fledgedmini series and explored the richness of the characters further,particularly the Ghost Dancer, because it's a gripping story well worthbig attention.

Dennis Schwartz 2012-05-07 16:22:34

A finely photographed made for television feature movie.

2012-05-05 17:59:43

BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE DVD

I read the book a long time ago and I read it again so I bought the movie and it's very good.The acting is great and story line is similiar to the book. I recommend this movie to everyone interested in how the west was really won.

2012-05-05 01:19:20

Inaccurate

This review is from: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (DVD) Bury My Heart....is a decent film. I always welcome any film that, respectfully and honestly, tries to deal with native american subject matters.However; this film was simply too riddled with historical inaccuracies to be what it should have been.The first problem arises in that Dee Brown's book in itself romantizises the massacre at wounded knee. To base a film on a book that is already flawed, from a native point of view, is tatamount to building a house on quicksand.Ok let's look at the character of Ohiysa, or Dr. Charles Eastman, portrayed by Adam Beach.Ohiyesa was Whappeton-Sisseton DAKOTA....in the film he is portrayed as LAKOTA. To most people that won't matter much, but for both the Lakota and Dakota people it does.He sometimes speaks in Lakota....which, as a Dakota, he most certainly would not have. True, both dialects are mutually understandable and are of siouan origin, but Ohiyesa would certainly have spoken his Whappeton Dakota dialect....not the Oglalla Lakota dialect.Then he is placed in the wrong place and time. Ohiyesa was nowhere near the greasy grass (little big-horn) when the lakota camp was attacked by Reno and his men. In fact, he was a state away up in North Dakota or further over in Minnesota....not in Montana where the battle took place.Neither was he ever close to the wounded knee massacre. He WAS the agency physician at Pine Ridge, Oglalla Lakota Reservation, but not at the time of the battle at wounded knee.Chief Tatanka Iyotake...Sitting Bull. August Schellenberg did a good job with the script he was given. What bothers me however, is that in almost all native type movies the actors are forced to speak in a very awckward manner which comes across as phoney and contrieved. As though natives would have spoken that way in their own language.Anyhow. Tatanka Iyotake comes across as somewhat of a jerk and I feel that the way he was pertrayed took much away from the real Sitting Bull...not that I knew the man of course. However; Sitting Bull was a wicasa wakan...a holy man amongst his Hunkpapa people and I doubt he would have conducted himself as arrogantly and foolishly as he was made to look in this film. Also, he never came to Pine Ridge...much less did he surrender there. He surrendered at Ft. Robinson Nebraska.....the same place where Tashunke Witko...Chief Crazy Horse surrendered and where he was murdered by the U.S. Govt. They did get it right that Sitting Bull was murdered on his Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.Again, these inaccuracies may not seem like a big deal to most, but I doubt ANY american would take kindly to a foreigen nation making a film about, say Pearl Harbor, but confuse names, events and places of major american figures along the way. Imagine, a foreigen produced film about Pearl Harbor, with Gen. Mc Arthur invading China instead of Japan, and Pearl Harbor being set on the coast of Maine. Wouldn't go over well would it? Now imagine how the decendants of the native side of wounded knee feel when the story of their ancestors is constantly told in a haphazzard manner.Point made.There are a few other things wrong with this film. In the last frames of the film Chief Makhpia Luta...Red Cloud, is shown riding on a wagon, as Ohiyesa and his wife bare witness to the aftermath of the massacre. Red Cloud was not at wounded knee. He was at Pine Ridge at the time yes, but he did not visit the killing field because he was afraid that more violence would errupt. Beyond that, he had gone blind and was in frail health at the time of the massacre....he couldn't have gone even if he had wanted to.All in all the acting was anywhere from great to ok, but given the lame script and dialogue there was not much any of the actors could have done. The cinematography was very good, as were the costumes....at least here they paid attention to detail in ditinguishing the Arikira from the Crow and the Crow from the Lakota...as each tribe had it's own very distinctive dress and appearance forms.One last note on Dr. Eastman. In the film he is shown as being desolate toward the end and out of work when he, in fact, went on to publish many books and was, even in his day, recognized as a writer and orator of great renown.From my perspective it is hard to get around the inaccuracies and the torrid dialogue, but given the scarsity of cerdible native themed films...still and ever, I take it for what it is and give it 3 stars.

2012-05-03 15:47:25

An arrow launched bravely, but falls short

An arrow launched bravely, but falls shortI read Dee Brown's classic story about the brutal, tragic history of White-Indian relations back in the early 1970s when I was in high school. Ranging as it does over 400 years of American history, from Columbus to the early 20th century, the book seemed impervious to adaptation to television. But HBO has done a creditable job of bringing a slice of Brown's blood-soaked tale to the small screen. To do so, HBO had to cut away much of Brown's wide-ranging narrative, and might have cut even more to keep from confusing the audience with too many characters. HBO spliced onto the story the tale of Charles Eastman, a Dartmouth-trained doctor who grew up as a Sioux. Eastman's story functions as a splint that holds together the disparate shards of Indian history that culminate at Wounded Knee. It also serves as a bridge between the worlds of Washington DC, where decisions about Indian affairs were made, and the distant battlefields and reservations where those decisions were implemented."Bury My Heart" focuses mostly on the stories of chiefs Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, who lead some of the last bands of Indian holdouts against assimilation into white society. The film depicts Sioux life as harsh, yet happy and robust. Tepees sprout in harmony along rivers and streams. Children play happily, hunters bring home the abundant game and families sit cozily around campfires. But all goes awry when whites encroach on Indian lands, and especially when gold is discovered in the Black Hills, sacred to the Sioux. Suddenly, the iron-clad treaties that whites had negotiated with the Sioux are treated as fungible, and deal after deal is shoved down the throats of these bands whose firepower is vastly outbalanced by white guns and rapaciousness. The final "battle" -- if gunning down hundreds of unarmed and sick Indian men, women and children can be ennobled by that word -- occurs with horrifying finality at Wounded Knee Creek.The film is strongest where it shows important events that rarely make it into the history books. The "education" (really, indoctrination) of young Indians by white teachers, Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull's death (assassination is not a stretch), the Sioux emigration into Canada, and the final battle are well-depicted. The ongoing debates between government "progressives" (who wanted to save Indians from extermination by forced assimilation into white ways) and the militants (who wanted to kill them off outright) shows the lack of understanding and respect that hampered white's ability to deal with the Indians fairly. Where the film falls short is in depicting the emotions and subtleties of the interaction. There are no scenes showing gold-crazed whites pushing into Indian lands. Treaties with Indians are shown, accompanied by maps, but it's hard for the uneducated viewer to quite understand the issues. An interaction between Sitting Bull and Phil Sheridan gives the American general the opportunity to trash the Sioux version of its history, but gives next to no space to the Sioux view, suggesting that Sheridan was correct. Most importantly, the film skirts the issue of race. This was especially evident in the love story between Sioux Charles Eastman and his white wife-to-be, Elaine Goodale. Everyone seems thrilled that these two young people were getting together. But given the tenor of times, it's hard to believed that a red man marrying a white woman would have been acceptable to most people.Still, the film provides indelible images of the campaign of white atrocities and duplicities that drove the outgunned Indians from their lands. An Indian chief's frozen body is flipped on its back to facilitate a photographer; an endless series of tepees stretches along the Little Big Horn as the battle rages; Indians literally "touch pen" to the implements that signify their assent to a document; Hotchkiss guns hurl deadly shells at fleeing Indians; an old man drags young boy after he has been cut down.In spite of its many deficiencies, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" is worthy of watching -- especially for an amazing performance by part-Mohawk August Schellenberg, who gave his role of Sitting Bull the ferocity, gravitas and dignity that made him completely believable as the fearsome Sioux war chief.

2012-05-03 02:22:58

the last stand of true americans

if you follow the fall of the native americans by our goverment thru the years and this being the last stand you will find how unbelievable what native americans went thru.......very good movie

2012-05-01 13:06:00

Not Ken Burns, but entertaining

Maybe it was the hype of the Emmy's but I found this offering of the plight of the Sioux nation a bit of a let down. This is not to say that that this HBO production is poor, but personally I was expecting some 'bang for my buck', instead it was like getting beat up by a limp lettuce leaf!Maybe this is how history is, not romantic, but a series of misinformation, lies & tales of ordinary people doing ordinary things.P.S. if I was the Sioux nation I would've probably stayed in Canada & enjoyed the offerings of the extended ski season.

2012-05-01 08:27:07

wounded knee

This review is from: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (DVD) I love this movie and it opened my eyes the harsh treatment the indians received from our ancestors...

Lee Eisenberg 2012-04-25 17:43:17

Look, we need to own up to what we did to the Indians.

Does "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" go overboard on trying to humanizeits subjects (or making them palatable to a TV audience)? Whether ornot it does is beside the point. The point here is that we white peoplehave to own up to our genocide against the Indians and theft of theirland. Even if it takes a less-than-masterful movie like this one,something needs to remind us of that. The movie focuses specifically ona Sioux (Adam Beach) who takes the name Charles Eastman and studiesmedicine, but upon seeing what the white people's westward expansiondoes to his people tries to get Sen. Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn) tolisten.I recommend it just because it shows what happened to the Indians. Irepeat: we white people need to admit what we did and start atoning forit. Also starring J.K. Simmons, Wes Studi, August Schellenberg and AnnaPaquin.

2012-04-25 10:54:01

Complex and sad topic

The movie is far from being historical perfect, but it vividly displays the tragic story of the Native Americans living in the "Wild West", by the 1880s. For a better experience, as with most movies, read the book. This is a part of American history that we should never forget. Interestingly, the Canadian government is portrayed in positive light.

cj_zuko 2012-04-24 20:04:14

Awesome movie...

I have never read the entire book. But the movie, as far as I'mconcerned is outstanding. I actually thought it was going to be nothingbut gun touting action and a lot of fluff, but the movie does well inshowing the accuracies in most of the accounts that happened or wouldhave happened. The movie does a good job showing a more sympatheticside to some of the Americans who actually cared for the Indian's andtheir interests. But it was also true in showing the ignorance on bothsides and lack of understanding what truly needs to be done to attainpeace. Another good thing that I loved about this movie was that isshowed a more internal/personal conflict with the characters, somethingrarely see in Indian based movies or historically ones at that. Overallit is an awesome movie that I think, if shown in some of my historyclasses, would make that subject a lot more interesting. Anyone waitingto see the John Adams movie?

belva0308 2012-04-24 18:22:01

Excellent movie...not given enough credit.

The only reason I am giving this movie an "8" is because I can see whysome people might be confused. Othewise, I cannot understand so muchnegativity towards this movie.I will admit that I may have a slight advantage based on being raisedby a mother who knows her Indian history and in particular, her Lakotahistory. I have also been to the area around Pine Ridge several times,so envisioning it wasn't difficult.Without being able to do a 4 or 5 hour production, I think they did anoutstanding job of showing the plight of the Native people and theirstruggle to exist under unfair and harsh conditions. It was ratherplain to me and not colored over for the sake of the film. Showing thereality of Sitting Bull as a leader, as a man, as a captive waseloquent and very real to me.Aidan Quinn was excellent in portraying a Christian man who honestlyfelt he was doing the right thing, but operating without a fullunderstanding of what was being taken for the people he thought he washelping. Adam Beach did a great job of playing a young mandisillusioned by the world he was forced into and saddened by what washappening to his people.Some of the best moments of the film seemed simple outwardly, but werein fact so powerful that I cried. When Charles has his braids cutbefore going off to school, I felt so sad at that part of his culturebeing stripped from him. When the Indian men are lined up at Charles'swindow, asking for cod liver oil for the alcohol content, and whenSitting Bull arrives at the agency and is told that he no better thanany other man there, those are some powerful moments. In fact, therewere so many, I cannot count. Perhaps my favorite was the conversationbetween Gall and Sitting Bull in which Gall basically tells SittingBull that he has sold out and how much it has hurt him because of hisview of him as a man who would never give up.The only issues I could even mention about the movie is that at timesit was hard to know who was who. It took me until the second time ofwatching to realize who was Gall and who was American Horse.Watching all of the extras and commentary on this film gave me evenmore of an appreciation for what was attempting to be told in thisfilm.

2012-04-21 09:30:35

bury my heart at wounded knee

Bearing in mind the difficult task of covering such a detailed story as Dee Brown's wonderful book in a 2 hour movie, I think this is terrific experience. The story of what happened to the American Indian is horrific (to say the least) but similiar to the treatment of Aborginal peoples worldwide. My own countrys' treatment of our indigenous people (also,the original owners of the land)is similarly disgraceful! I defy anyone with half a heart not to shed a tear at seeing this movie or reading the book ( in my case, it was many tears). The acting is wonderful and, because of that, the treatment of these gentle original owners of the land is all the more tradgic. It is the old story of "man's inhumanty to man". This is a "must see" movie for anyone who cares about man being intune with the natural world and careing about the land and its resources, as the great and proud American Indian surely was. Also the scenery and photography are first class.Michael MossSydney, Australia

spoon_layha 2012-04-21 02:58:30

incomplete

alright i agree with u guys. this movie just took two parts of the bookand ignored the rest. but i was thrilled by Adam Beach's performance ofCharles Eastman. beach plays the role brilliantly. so criticize not theactors especially beach. he keeps getting these roles because he is agreat actor even better than that damned old Russell means who is knownfor his terrible acting in the so- called great movie Pocahontas.Schellenburg played Sitting Bull very well i thought. i do realize thatGeronimo should have been featured in the movie and also Chief Joesphshould have been told about in the story. This movie was great but whatit lacked was that it didn't tell the complete story