Review of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007) by Robert S — 21 Jul 2007

Apparently the book is much better than the movie. I found the movie to be ploddingly slow and self-indulgent. I guess by the nature of the topic addressed in this film, "Bury My Heart" was doomed to overextend and moralize.

In addition it would seem the length and breath of the of the story proves to be just too ambitious for this film. Opening with the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 (General Custer and his troops were massacred); it ends with the slaughter of Amerindians at Wounded Knee 14+ years later.

An excellent cast is stymied by stereotypical characters with less substance than the black-and-white stills inserted between scenes. Even more disturbing is the manufacture out of whole cloth of the Eastman character in what can only be an attempt by the producers to make the story more palatable to white audiences.

"Bury my Heart" (apart from the beauty of its cinematography) is provincial and flat. Sadly, even the climactic bloodbath of the events at Wounded Knee proves unaffecting. Recreated by way of flashback, the massacre feels distant and does not evoke the horror this sad moment in American history should elicit.

Don't waste your time with one.