Thunderheart

Largely forgotten, the 1992 thriller set on a South Dakota Native American reservation casts Val Kilmer as FBI Agent Ray Levoi assigned to the case for his Sioux lineage which works as PR move for the FBI (even if he doesn't appear Native American and has spent most of his life shunning that heritage). Kilmer, who had some Native American ancestry on his father's side, delivers a strong performance of a man struggling to find truth where the only ones talking to him are almost certainly lying.

Arriving in North Dakota, Ray is paired up with the grizzled veteran Cooch (Sam Shepard) who is eager to close the case which the FBI sees as a byproduct of a civil war on the reservation between modern Native Americans and the more radical Aboriginal Rights Movement which promotes returning to the very traditions the United States Government has attempted to beat out of the native population.

Inspired by events that were occurring on reservations at the time, including dubious tactics by the FBI on Native American land, the film showcases life on the reservation and the distrust of the locals to the Federal Government. Despite his orders to solve the case quickly, Ray notices some troubling behavior and incongruities with the story promoted by Cooch and the unofficial militia who, from what Ray and the audience see play out on-screen, seem far more violent than ARM.

Along with offering a mystery to be solved, and uncovering some ugly truths Ray is determined to pull into the light, the film also offers a spiritual journey for Ray to reconnect with a heritage he turned his back on years earlier after befriending a not-so-radical schoolteacher (Sheila Tousey), a contentious member of the tribal police (Graham Greene) and an elder medicine man (Ted Thin Elk) of the tribe who seems to see more into Ray than he's comfortable with.

Thunderheart is a solid film where the story may not be quite as good as its filmmaking but is still worth a look. The film did moderately well with critics and at the box office, earning praise for capturing the look and feel of the time and setting (something that came out of director Michael Apted's previous documentary about the FBI's battle with ARM) but isn't one of the first Val Kilmer films most remember. The new 4K also includes a digital copy of the film.

• Title: Thunderheart
• IMDb: link