Note: Links to several more reviews below.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no. “Setting the Indian on the course to civilization best ensures his survival,” says President Ulysses S. Grant (Fred Thompson!), expositorily, on HBO on Sunday night. Gag. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” is going to be an allegory for Iraq! This project was doomed to overreach and to sermonize. To begin with, it’s about American Indians, who ever since Sacheen Littlefeather declined Marlon Brando’s Oscar in 1973 have scared the chutzpah out of Hollywood, forcing the showoffs who invented westerns into defensive crouches and sorry offerings that look more like cut-and-paste Sunday school atonement projects than filmmaking. Second, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” is a television movie. The red carpet premiere and credible stars (Aidan Quinn, Anna Paquin) that HBO supplied can’t conceal that this is a movie of the week — a form as eternal, indigenous and sacrosanct as the Black Hills of South Dakota. Simple-minded, blocky, smug, uplifting, always in a major key. Easy to sing along with. From the opening scenes, for example, all television watchers will know that Grant is bad — with reservations on his mind — because he wields a brandy snifter in daylight and smokes a cigar, just as they will know that Aidan Quinn is good because he’s, well, Aidan Quinn, with that broad face and those Santa eyes. And anyway, he expositorily tells us that he cares about American Indians and even sympathizes, somewhat, with the Sioux insurgency at Little Bighorn — or is that their “resistance”? Their “war”?" Get the Story:
There’s an Allegory in Those Hills (The New York Times 5/25)
pwnyt More Reviews:
'Bury My Heart': HBO Digs Into a Sad, Shameful Tale (The Washington Post 5/25)
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Reservations About 'Wounded Knee' (Newsweek 5/25)
Heartbreaking: HBO's 'Wounded Knee' (The Chicago Tribune 5/25)
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A powerful epic of a shameful era (The Daily Globe and Mail 5/25)
HBO's 'Wounded Knee' can't summon power of original book (Inside Bay Area 5/25)
'Bury' focuses on Indian experience (The Chicago Sun-Times 5/25)
"Wounded Knee" strikes a new chord (The Denver Post 5/25)
Television: HBO's take on 'Wounded Knee' is too little, too late (The Salt Lake Tribune 5/25)
HBO's history lesson on Sioux tragedy is tasteful but plain (The Boston Globe 5/25)
SO SIOUX ME (The New York Post 5/25)
Buried in History (The New York Sun 5/25)
HBO's 'Bury My Heart' exhumes a painful history (USA Today 5/25)
Boiling down massive 'Wounded Knee' to two hours doesn't dilute its impact (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 5/25) Relevant Links:
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, HBO - http://www.hbo.com/films/burymyheart
Adam Beach, official message board - http://www.adam-beach.com/beach_talk Related Stories:
Variety: 'Wounded Knee' a limply told story (5/24)
Review: 'Wounded Knee' a bold historic drama (5/22)
Cindy Adams: Beach proud of heritage, success (5/21)
Adam Beach gives 'stirring performance' on HBO (5/15)
Adam Beach has three year Law & Order contract (5/10)
HBO movie adds mixed-race character to cast (5/9)
Column: Adam Beach committed to his people (4/2)
Adam Beach has 'special' role in Law and Order (02/20)
Time: Adam Beach on Native roles in Hollywood (2/5)
Variety: Adam Beach to join Law & Order cast (1/26)
Memories of Ira Hayes fade among Gila River (10/27)
Review: Flags with Adam Beach one of best movies (10/20)
Adam Beach wins 'Rising Star' award for 'Flags' role (10/17)
Adam Beach praised for portrayal of Ira Hayes (10/10)
Adam Beach plays Ira Hayes in 'Flags of Our Fathers' (10/6)
HBO casts for 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' (09/12)
Native Threads clothing expands to Canada (02/28)
Movie Review: Adam Beach in 'Now and Forever' (08/19)
