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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

  • TV Movie
  • 2007
  • TV-14
  • 2h 13m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
8.2K
YOUR RATING
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)
DramaHistoryWestern

A historic chronicle based on the book by Dee Brown explains how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.A historic chronicle based on the book by Dee Brown explains how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.A historic chronicle based on the book by Dee Brown explains how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.

  • Director
    • Yves Simoneau
  • Writers
    • Daniel Giat
    • Dee Brown
  • Stars
    • Aidan Quinn
    • Adam Beach
    • August Schellenberg
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    8.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Yves Simoneau
    • Writers
      • Daniel Giat
      • Dee Brown
    • Stars
      • Aidan Quinn
      • Adam Beach
      • August Schellenberg
    • 52User reviews
    • 20Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 6 Primetime Emmys
      • 29 wins & 31 nominations total

    Photos65

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    Top Cast53

    Edit
    Aidan Quinn
    Aidan Quinn
    • Henry Dawes
    Adam Beach
    Adam Beach
    • Charles Eastman
    August Schellenberg
    August Schellenberg
    • Sitting Bull
    Anna Paquin
    Anna Paquin
    • Elaine Goodale
    Chevez Ezaneh
    Chevez Ezaneh
    • Ohiyesa…
    Duane Howard
    Duane Howard
    • Uncle
    Colm Feore
    Colm Feore
    • General Sherman
    Fred Thompson
    Fred Thompson
    • President Ulysses S. Grant
    Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse
    • One Bull
    • (as Nathan Chasing Horse)
    Wayne Charles Baker
    Wayne Charles Baker
    • Jacob
    Brian Stollery
    • Bishop Whipple
    Shaun Johnston
    Shaun Johnston
    • Col. Nelson Miles
    Gordon Tootoosis
    Gordon Tootoosis
    • Chief Red Cloud
    Billy Merasty
    Billy Merasty
    • Young Man Afraid
    Morris Birdyellowhead
    • American Horse
    Eddie Spears
    Eddie Spears
    • Chasing Crane
    Holly Bird
    • Scarlet Whirlwind
    Sean Wei Mah
    Sean Wei Mah
    • Bull Head
    • Director
      • Yves Simoneau
    • Writers
      • Daniel Giat
      • Dee Brown
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews52

    7.18.1K
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    Featured reviews

    6NerdBat

    Review

    I've studied the events that lead up to the Wounded knee massacre, and I have to say you have to give a hand to this film. They kept to the books for the most part, and 99% of the film is pretty much exactly what happened in real life. To understand that this happened in the year 1890 sure is disheartening, seeing as when you put it into a broad perspective, that wasn't that long ago. We all take for granted our core values and beliefs, and this film hits close to home. You feel empathy and heartbreak over what only one tribe of American Indians went through, you open your eyes to what happened to all of them as well.
    7fredit-43004

    A noble effort

    When Dee Brown's book was published, I had just graduated from high school and I prevailed upon my mother to allow me to order a copy as we had no convenient book store. I recall first reading the book and having no idea that Wounded Knee was an actual location, nor its significance. I can recall that my reaction in reading the book was as intense and emotional as I have ever had in reading any book, fiction or non-fiction. It took over 35 years for this film to be made. It is a noble effort, telling a story that unfortunately was invisible to me in the history lessons I'd had to that point in my life, and in the film representations of history. This film is certainly worth seeing, but it is not a substitute for Dee Brown's book.
    4glentom1

    Uneven, incomplete, and boring depiction of the story

    Very slow moving movie, which detracted greatly from the story it should have been telling. If you haven't read the book, or knew nothing of the history of this story, you would be completely lost.

    The cast was great, and the acting was good. It is not the actors fault that the direction and editing was terrible. I had high hopes that the story telling would be straight forward, of a relatively well-documented event, based on the well known book.

    The title is misleading; it is not Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, it is a small excerpt combined with some other story I was not familiar with. The ending of the movie is really mangled, combining color with black and white for dramatic effect, but it just doesn't work, especially when it never even shows the event depicted in the title.

    Watch it for good acting, good music, great camera work, but don't expect to be educated, or entertained. The atrocities committed upon this Indian nation deserves a better rendition and remembrance, than presented here.
    7lee_eisenberg

    Look, we need to own up to what we did to the Indians.

    Does "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" go overboard on trying to humanize its subjects (or making them palatable to a TV audience)? Whether or not it does is beside the point. The point here is that we white people have to own up to our genocide against the Indians and theft of their land. Even if it takes a less-than-masterful movie like this one, something needs to remind us of that. The movie focuses specifically on a Sioux (Adam Beach) who takes the name Charles Eastman and studies medicine, but upon seeing what the white people's westward expansion does to his people tries to get Sen. Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn) to listen.

    I recommend it just because it shows what happened to the Indians. I repeat: we white people need to admit what we did and start atoning for it. Also starring J.K. Simmons, Wes Studi, August Schellenberg and Anna Paquin.
    7janet712

    Congrats, HBO

    Having just spent the past 18 months studying Native American philosophy and having just returned from a week at Cherokee, learning the language and culture up close, I can say this film does help express the complex and heart-rending story of the relationship between the invaders and the conquered in our years 1870-1890.

    For those who have been critical of the film (on this site), I should note from a White Woman's point of view, this is about all that Whites can absorb of the "full" story and emotions as a first contact. Yes, more can be told and should be told. But it's a start.

    Perhaps this is the beginning of a revival of compassion and cross-cultural understanding.

    In 1775, Dragging Canoe, a Cherokee, said, "We are not yet conquered." It has taken 200 years. Let's hope he was right.

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    Related interests

    Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe, André Holland, Herman Caheej McGloun, Edson Jean, Alex R. Hibbert, and Tanisha Cidel in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
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    History
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    Western

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      August Schellenberg previously played Sitting Bull in both Witness to Yesterday (1973) and Crazy Horse (1996).
    • Goofs
      The newspaper story being viewed after the Custer battle (Virginia newspaper?) has a dateline of July 3, 1876. The first published account of the event was put out by the Bozeman newspaper (the Times?) on July 4, 1876. Late on July 4, (7:00 p.m.) the Helena newspaper produced a special, extra edition, and at this time, the AP correspondent relayed the material to Salt Lake City, where it was then distributed around the country. The "Virginia" newspaper of the July 3 date could not have contained the story. (Information from searches of archives on the Internet.)
    • Quotes

      Col. Nelson Miles: Sitting Bull requested this council. We await his words.

      Sitting Bull: Take your soldiers out of here. They scare the game away.

      Col. Nelson Miles: Very well, sir. Tell me, then: how far away should I take my men?

      Sitting Bull: You must take them out of our lands.

      Col. Nelson Miles: What precisely are your lands?

      Sitting Bull: These are the lands where my people lived before you whites first came.

      Col. Nelson Miles: I don't understand. We whites were not your first enemies. Why don't you demand back the land in Minnesota where the Chippewa and others forced you from years before?

      Sitting Bull: The Black Hills are a sacred land given to my people by Wakan Tanka.

      Col. Nelson Miles: How very convenient to cloak your claims in spiritualism. And what would you say to the Mormons and others who believe that their God has given to them Indian lands in the West?

      Sitting Bull: I would say they should listen to Wakan Tanka.

      Col. Nelson Miles: No matter what your legends say, you didn't sprout from the plains like the spring grasses. And you didn't coalesce out of the ether. You came out of the Minnesota woodlands armed to the teeth and set upon your fellow man. You massacred the Kiowa, the Omaha, the Ponca, the Oto and the Pawnee without mercy. And yet you claim the Black Hills as a private preserve bequeathed to you by the Great Spirit.

      Sitting Bull: And who gave us the guns and powder to kill our enemies? And who traded weapons to the Chippewa and others who drove us from our home?

      Col. Nelson Miles: Chief Sitting Bull, the proposition that you were a peaceable people before the appearance of the white man is the most fanciful legend of all. You were killing each other for hundreds of moons before the first white stepped foot on this continent. You conquered those tribes, lusting for their game and their lands, just as we have now conquered you for no less noble a cause.

      Sitting Bull: This is your story of my people!

      Col. Nelson Miles: This is the truth, not legend. Crazy Horse has surrendered... with his entire band. And by his surrender, he says to you and your people that you are defeated. And by ceding the Black Hills to us, so say Red Cloud and the other chiefs, who demand that you end this war and take your place on the reservation.

      Sitting Bull: Red Cloud is no longer a chief. He is a woman you have mounted and had your way with. Do not speak to me of Red Cloud!

      Col. Nelson Miles: I suppose *you* are the only chief then. Sitting Bull is king of all the Indians! Now, humility is one of the four virtues of the Sioux chief. Sitting Bull shows his true nature now.

      Sitting Bull: I have had my say with you.

      Col. Nelson Miles: And I have had my say with you.

      Sitting Bull: Then we will have a fight.

      Col. Nelson Miles: So be it.

    • Connections
      Featured in The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2007)
    • Soundtracks
      Hunting Song
      Written by Gabe Desrosiers

      Performed by Chevez Ezaneh

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 27, 2007 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • HBO (United States)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Untitled Wounded Knee Project
    • Filming locations
      • Calgary, Alberta, Canada
    • Production companies
      • HBO Films
      • Wolf Films
      • Traveler's Rest Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 13m(133 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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