Search - Thunderheart on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Questionable for Children, Profanity Movie Release: 1992 DVD Release: 09/29/1998 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 59 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 12 Genres: Mystery, Psychological Drama, Detective Film

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

Val Kilmer - Ray Levoi
Graham Greene - Walter Crow Horse
Sam Shepard - Frank Coutelle
Sheila Tousey - Maggie Eagle Bear
Fred Ward - Jack Milton
John Trudell - Jimmy Looks Twice
Chief Ted Thin Elk - Grandpa Sam Reaches
Fred Dalton Thompson - William Dawes

Michael Apted's under-appreciated Thunderheart comes to DVD with a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. English and French soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital Surround. Subtitles are accessible in both of those languages. Supplemental materials are limited to a theatrical trailer. While the extras leave something to be desired, the sound and picture quality are solid enough that this Columbia/TriStar disc should not disappoint those looking for something outside of the Hollywood mainstream. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide