thunderheart

Director: michael apted

Actor: val kilmer,sam shepard,graham greene,fred ward

Data Published: Fri Apr 03 1992

Genres: Crime,Mystery,Thriller

Key Words: murder investigation,buddy cop,modern western,fbi agent,native american

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105585/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderheart

Description: Thunderheart is a movie starring Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, and Graham Greene. A young mixed-blood FBI agent is assigned to work with a cynical veteran investigator on a murder on a poverty-stricken Sioux reservation.

Plot: FBI agent Ray Levoi is assigned to aid in the investigation of a political murder, that of tribal council member Leo Fast Elk (Allan R.J. Joseph), on a Native American reservation in South Dakota. Agent William Dawes, Ray's superior, has chosen him for the task due to his mixed Sioux heritage, which might assist in the inquiry as they interview local townspeople. Ray is partnered with agent Frank "Cooch" Coutelle, who has diligently worked on the probe looking to apprehend a prime suspect: Aboriginal Rights Movement radical Jimmy Looks Twice. While helping Cooch track down the suspect, Ray gradually becomes sensitized to Indian issues, partially from his attraction to Maggie Eagle Bear, a Native American political activist and schoolteacher.[3] Mocked and ridiculed by the locals (being called a "Washington Redskin"), including tribal police officer Walter Crow Horse, Ray finds that he has an unaccountable standing with some of the tribal elders such as Grandpa Sam Reaches. The natives recognize Ray as "Thunderheart", a Native American hero slain at the Wounded Knee Massacre in the past, and now reincarnated to deliver them from their current troubles.[3] Much to Cooch's anger, Ray comes to suspect there is a conspiracy and cover-up involving the small town. He and Crow Horse later discover that a local government-sponsored plan to strip mine uranium on the reservation is at the root of the killings. The mining is polluting the water supply and fueling a bloody conflict between the reservation's anti-government ruling council and the pro-government natives who, led by tribal council president Jack Milton, are not above using violence to further their aims. Milton does not own the land where the mining occurs, but gets kickbacks from the leases. Cooch is later revealed to be part of the scandal to silence the opposition and help broker the land deal. Soon after finding Maggie Eagle Bear and former convict Richard Yellow Hawk murdered, a showdown ensues between Cooch and pro-government collaborators against Ray, Crow Horse and the anti-government activists. Cooch becomes outnumbered by the armed resistance and is later investigated on charges of corruption.[3]