"History is told by the winners, at least for the first several drafts. Eventually, as demonstrated here, it's possible for passions to cool down sufficiently so that even the winners can confront a shameful chapter in their history, in this case America's treatment of Indians in general and the Lakota Sioux in particular.
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," stunningly filmed and honestly told, is based on the 1971 book by Dee Alexander Brown, a nonfiction account of the final years of conflict between the U.S. and the American Indians it sought to displace by any means necessary.
The challenge for screenwriter Daniel Giat was to breathe life into Brown's thorough documentation. In this case, it meant weaving the most salient historic points into a compelling story about the lives of three men: well-intentioned Sen. Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn), proud and defiant Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg) and Charles Eastman (Adam Beach), a Sioux Indian raised and taught by white people who lives in a sort of no-man's land.
The film opens with the massacre of Gen. Custer at Little Big Horn, Mont., in 1876. Actually, the first scenes are just before the massacre, when Custer's men led an attack on the Sioux, killing men, women and children with little or no provocation. The ensuing massacre -- Custer's Last Stand -- also was the last stand of the Sioux, who were no match for the superior firepower of the U.S. Army. Unable to defend their land from encroaching settlers and government policy, they suffered indignity after indignity."
Get the Story:Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: Compelling story that unearths truth and bold historic drama (The Hollywood Reporter 5/22) Relevant Links:
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, HBO - http://www.hbo.com/films/burymyheart
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