Was Thunderheart a real person?
Was Thunderheart a real person?
The film is a loosely based fictional portrayal of events relating to the Wounded Knee incident in 1973, when followers of the American Indian Movement seized the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee in protest against federal government policy regarding Native Americans.
Who wrote Thunderheart?
John Fusco
Thunderheart/Screenplay
What is the movie Thunderheart about?
When a series of murders stuns a small Native American reservation, the FBI sends in agent Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer) to investigate. While Ray is relatively inexperienced, he is one quarter Sioux, and the FBI hopes that will make it easier for them to gather information from the locals. While the reservation police officer (Graham Greene) views the agent as an outsider, the tribal elder (Chief Ted Thin Elk) believes him to be the reincarnated spirit of Thunderheart, a Native American hero.
Thunderheart/Film synopsis
Does Netflix have Thunderheart?
Watch Thunderheart on Netflix Today!
Who was the Indian actor in the movie Thunderheart?
The film employed many Indian actors, some of whose screen roles mirror their real lives. The actor John Trudell, who played an Indian activist suspected of murder in the film inspired by the real-life events surrounding Leonard Peltier, is in fact an Indian activist, as well as a poet and singer.
Where did the story of Thunderheart come from?
However, as the opening statement of the movie says, the story was inspired by events that took place on several American Indian reservations in the 1970s, particularly the Wounded Knee incident at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973.
Who was the Lakota medicine man in Thunderheart?
Chief Ted Thin Elk, who played an honored Lakota medicine man, is a Lakota elder himself. Badlands National Park and Wounded Knee in South Dakota were also used as backdrop locations for the real-life incidents which took place during the 1970s.
Who was the director of the movie Thunderheart?
The movie was directed by Michael Apted and written by John Rusco, who base their story on actual events in the Dakota reservations in the early 1970s when a militant group named American Indian Movement defied the FBI.