Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Actor(s):
Aidan Quinn, Adam Beach, August Schellenberg, Anna Paquin
Label: Hbo Home Video
Publisher(s):
Hbo Home Video
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
Binding: DVD
Brand: Bury
MPN: HBOD94221D
Format(s): AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $15.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Editorial Reviews
Description
Inspired by Dee Brown's acclaimed bestseller, the HBO Films event begins powerfully with the Sioux triumph over General Custer at Little Big Horn. The action centers on the struggles of three characters: Charles Eastman (Adam Beach, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS), a young, Dartmouth-educated Sioux doctor; Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg, THE NEW WORLD), the proud Lakota chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, dignity and sacred land; and Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn, EMPIRE FALLS), one of the men responsible for the government policy on Indian affairs. While Eastman and schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND), work to improve life for the Sioux on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Grant for kinder Indian treatment. Epic in scope, BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE is a new Western classic called "...insightful...deeply affecting...visually striking" by The Washington Post.
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Featurette
Interviews
Photo gallery
Production Notes
Amazon.com
With an acceptable balance of strengths and weaknesses, HBO's revisionist rendition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee can be recommended as a very basic (if slightly inaccurate) history lesson for younger viewers. It doesn't flinch from the harsh realities that were so passionately chronicled in author Dee Alexander Brown's enduring 1970 classic of Native American history, nor does it soften the brutality of violence between the U.S. federal forces and the doomed Native American tribes who fought to preserve their native territories, from the legendary battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 (depicted in the opening scenes) to the shameful slaughter of Sioux warriors at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890. Originally broadcast on May 27, 2007, and running slightly over two hours, this U.S./Canadian coproduction struggles to tell a story that would've been better served by a full-length miniseries (and will surely disappoint anyone familiar with Brown's important book), and the screenplay is so busy giving us a Cliff's Notes version of history that it lacks any particular focus or consistent point of view. Instead, we get a sobering, noble, and heartbreaking tale of territorial injustice, with forced parallels to the war in Iraq, full of admirable performances yet riddled with clichés and anachronistic details.
If you look closer, however, you'll find much to admire: Although his character was dubiously conceived to appeal to a contemporary white audience, Adam Beach (from Flags of Our Fathers) gives a fine performance as Charles Eastman, a Sioux doctor integrated into white society, who grows increasingly conflicted by the plight of his people. He's the tragic embodiment of the faulty ideals of Senator Dawes (Aidan Quinn), whose governmental effort to assimilate Native Americans leads to disastrous outbreaks of violence, depicted here with blunt-force realism. As Eastman's sympathetic and upright wife (a white schoolteacher with a strong sense of conscience), Anna Paquin makes the most of an underwritten role, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is an impressive showcase for outstanding native American actors like August Schellenberg (as Sitting Bull) and Gordon Tootoosis (as Red Cloud), who bring obvious authority and conviction to their roles. The film is most effective when addressing the inevitable failure of the white man's well-meaning but ultimately misguided policies toward Native Americans. To the extent that we still struggle with the historical legacy of those policies, this flawed but instructional rendition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee can be viewed as a compact precursor to deeper historical study. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
i wish it wasn't so
This movie is well made and extremely sad. I expected outright anti-white bias and distortion, but I think the truth itself is so bad that the movie makers probably realized there was no need. It is much more effective to portray Indians as real human beings with faults rather than as the perfect warriors, environmentalists, sages, etc. Recent movies have erred in this regard as well as showing whites as the perfect villains, haters, baby-killers, morons, etc rather than real human beings with faults. This movie got it right. I was shocked when the American commander sitting with Sitting Bull forcefully brought up Sioux atrocities against other Indians and Sitting Bull had no answer. Excellent movie.
The cast makes up for the storytelling
I admit to being a bit disappointed in the way the story is told but the cast is amazing and well worth watching. I also admit that I am a big fan of Adam Beach but all the actors are wonderful both native and non native.
The important issue is that the story is being told and maybe more people will begin to understand why the U.S. owes Native Americans much more than they have given up until now. Maybe our new president, after he tackles the world issues, will actually consider the plight of the Native American and the despicable conditions on some of the reservations. He is the only major politician to mention Native Americans in his speeches. I hope he remembers them now that he is in office.
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee
Adam Beach does and Oscar winning job in his role of Charles Eastman. The film is shown true to the historical facts and is told form the eyes of the Native Americans, no white wash here as the US government would have like it to have been. A MUST SEE movie for all Americans be they white, black , red or yellow!
Who is the enemy??
Looking at Bury my heart at Wounded knee just make us think that it is often impossible to define who is the enemy? General Custer did right in defending the americans farmers newly arrived in the west !! But the indians were defending ther own land (they were there for 10000 years!!!). For americans, iran is evil and for iranians USA is the great evil??? Who is right??? You can continue the list if you want. Good luck, it will take you 10000 pages of text in small caracter...
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
I loved it and it made me cry for it was a sad time for the Bigfoot Clan
and I being an Native American I am proud to be who I am
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