"Wounded Knee" Review - Written by Mathius Mack Gertz

Wounded Knee
USA, 2008, 85min., color
Genre: Documentary
Director/Producer: Stanley Nelson
Screenwriter: Marcia Smith
Executive Producer: Sharon Grimberg, Mark Samuels
Coproducer: Julianna Brannum
Cinematographers: Stephen McCarthy, Michael Chin, Allen Moore
Editors: Aljernon Tunsil, Lillian Benson, Lawrence Lerew
Sound: James LeBrecht

Compiling an astonishing amount of archival film footage and firsthand accounts from participants, Stanley Nelson creates an immersive, comprehensive account of the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973 and its fascinating complexity. The Sioux sought redress for old grievances and broken treaties but also demanded the ouster of Pine Ridge tribal President Dick Wilson, who governed through corruption, intimidation and cronyism as he pursued deeply divisive policies of assimilation with the money and support of the US Federal government.

While this recounting and updating of the history of the occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota is compelling and very well constructed, it left me wanting by the end. The film opens the door on the forced assimilation of thousands of Native American kids into boarding schools and the relocation of thousands of families into inner cites coast to coast by the US federal government. It touches on the psychological results of these activities on Native Americans; on their lack of self esteem and feelings of self hatred and alienation. Finally we are told that the Wounded Knee occupation helped to spawn a resurgence in native pride and culture that continues to this day. How?

Unlike the film Meeting David Wilson (2008) which deals with African American alienation and dramatically reveals a solution and resolution, Wounded Knee doesn’t pull the trigger bring us up to date. I wanted to hear from young Native Americans how they felt about Wounded Knee, about America and about their place in the United States of the Twenty First century. How the civil rights situation of life on the Reservations has changed, how gaming and the money it has brought to Native American groups has changed the self-perception of its people and of the status of Native American culture in the face of runaway capitalism, advertising and dehumanization.

Perhaps I ask too much and this is more research for another documentary. If so, then Wounded Knee was not a sufficient updating for me. I guess if you know nothing about the incident it is a very well constructed history lesson with some historical perspective. But it lacked the emotional firepower and story arch that a theatrical documentary needs; settling instead to be a simple television event or classroom multi-media addition to a lesson plan. Three stars.