Friday, April 29, 2022

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)

IMDb plot summary: A historic chronicle based on the book by Dee Brown explains how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.
Directed by Yves Simoneau. Starring Adam Beach, August Schellenberg, and Aidan Quinn.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is an HBO TV movie about the Wounded Knee massacre it follows several of the involved Native Americans as well as the government entities continually go back on their promises.  I'll be honest, this is the part of history that I know very little about. I have over the years picked up more information about all the horrible things that the United States did to those who lived here.  This movie , based on the book of the same name, did a great job of setting the scene and showing all the different moving parts that led to this horrible mass murder.  I definitely appreciated that most of the story was told from the Native perspective, rather than primarily centering the white people who were responsible for the atrocities. the film doesn't always nicely balanced the smaller personal stories with the bigger political ones. they just feel like they're part of different films, the romance and the personal advancement of the young Native boy sent to White schools , versus the constant negotiations of treaties. of course, they do connect , but they have very different emotional tones and I found difficult to switch between them.  Overall though, I would say that this is an extremely solid and well told adaptation of a story that is important to continue telling.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee > Gas, Food, Lodging
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee < Till Death
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee > Hereditary
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee < The Power of the Dog
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee > The Circus
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee > Moonwalker
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee > Everybody's Talking About Jamie
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee > Full Metal Jacket
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee < Dogma
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee > Up in the Air
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee < What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Final spot: #1120 out of 3556, or 69%.

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