Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee 2007

     This film is based on a nonfiction book by Dee Brown and it’s a historic chronicle explaining how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.  The time setting is the 1880’s after the U.S. Army’s defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  The U.S. government continues to push Sioux Indians off their land.  Senator Henry Dawes introduced legislation to protect the rights of Native Americans.  Elaine Goodale is a school teacher in South Dakota.  She joined the Sioux natives and Western-educated Santee Daota tribe member Dr. Charles Eastman in working with this tribe. Lakota Chief Sitting Bull refuses give in to mounting government pressure.
     This film shows what happened to the Indians and how their land was stolen from them.  Charles Eastman studied medicine and returned to help the Indian people.  When he saw what the westward expansion was doing to his people, he tried to get Henry Dawes to listen to what he has to say.  Dawes was an attorney and politician, a Republican US Senator and US Representative from Massachusetts.  Shown in this film are two intense massacre scenes.  One at the Little Big Horn with the Indians killing killing people and the other at Wounded Knee with the white people killing Indians.  Women and children also die in the massacre and from epidemics due to diseases.  The school house environment for the Indian children is bleak and oppressive.  There are educational moments about this history.  There were peace treaties but they were largely broken and rewritten because of greed for railroad and mining territory by the white people.  Even Siting Bull became weary of the battles and casualties.  He turns in his rifle and moves to the reservation.  Charles Eastman was appalled by the poverty, lack of purpose, deadly fever epidemics and restlessness shown by the Indians and this finally lead to the incident at Wounded Knee.   3 1/2* (I liked this movie)
   
133 min, TV Drama directed by Yves Simoneau and written by Daniel Giat with Anna Paquin, Chavez Ezaneh, August Schellenberg, Duane Howard, Aidan Quinn, Colm Feore, Fred Dalton Thompson, Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, Wayne Charles Baker, Brian Stollery, Shaun Johnston, Gordon Tootoosis, Billy Merasty, Morris Birdyellowhead, Eddie Spears.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10 with 5,751 views, Rotten Tomatoes 78% audience with 3,813 scores, Common Sense Media Charles Cassady Jr. age 14+, 3* out of 5*, 3* positive, 3* role models, 3* violence, 3* language, 1* drinking, drugs & smoking, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 1511 ratings, Letterboxd 3.3* out of 5*. 

Special Note:  Filmed in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  This film was originally developed in 1995 as a two-part miniseries for ABC.  August Schellenberg previously played Sitting Bull in Witness to Yesterday 1973 and Crazy Horse 1996.  After an Oscar rejection speech by Sacheen Littlefeather, Marin Scorsese approached Marlon Brando about starring in this film.  They worked on a script for several months but the it wasn’t completed.  Several scenes were filmed at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald and the Alberta Legislature building in Edmonton, Alberta.  

Awards:  Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Cinematography, Single-Camera Picture Editing, Makeup for Miniseries, Sound Editing, Single Camera Sound Mixing.