I actually liked this movie quite a lot, even if the top 20 people or so people on my list didn't so much. Although I did feel queasy about the whole "mostly white guy who's more Indian than the actual Indians" vibe.

An enjoyable thriller that manages to deal with questions of identity and self-discovery along the way.

It just keeps getting sillier and sillier and sillier and sillier

#, hype

Heap too much pop Injun mysticism and too little political analysis. Kilmer and Apted are both professionals, and I like watching them work, but this film would have been much better if a real native American (the superb Graham Greene himself, for example) had been the star and if the film had been directed and/or co-written by somebody like John Sayles or Ken Loach--somebody with the political savvy necessary to do justice to the the American Indian movement.

One of my favorite films of the 90's and I am not even really sure why.

An interesting film based on a true story, something that doesn't surprise me in the least. And that's what brings the film down as well. While it is certainly about an honorable subject, it's unsurprising in the way it plays out. It includes some beautiful scenery of the Dakotas and the reservation, but the obvious grinding of the story along takes attention away from the beauty of the Sioux nation that Apted is trying to highlight.

Val Kilmer is an FBI guy getting in touch with his Native roots while investigating a murder on a reservation. Forgettable stuff.

Sensitive subject matter makes this film worth the watch despite being technically substandard. Michael Apted is not a shallow director, so it's not the film's fault should one come away empty-handed.

i know it's kind of cliche, but i was hanging on every word of dialog, and i loved every minute of this movie. it keeps you in the shadows while keeping you busy with crime/mystery awesomeness, and all the while giving you enough little bits of the story to keep you enthralled and excited.

Thunderheart is fairly derivative, and technically hit-or-miss (play the 'look for the camera in reflections' as a drinking game). But for a Hollywood film it talks about a very sensitive subject, and it does have moments that work, so that makes it worth a viewing.

Gaab