The movie is a great turnaround from a murder investigation to a tale conspiracy at the corridors of power, laced with blackmail. A corruption that is but fathomable due to its high level of organization. It was not easy to break because it involved the a government agency. Those that were charged with the security of the land became the worst law breakers. They were involved in a series of gruesome murders of innocent citizens who were dutifully fighting for the ownership of their land. Their rights have been trampled upon due to discrimination against them.
At the reservation lived two ethnic tribes that were intimately connected to the history of the United States. They were the native Indians and the Sioux. The movie was actually shot to depict real events happening in the country in the 1970’s when there were a series of unsolved murders and the government repeatedly turned a blind eye to the high-level corruption and naked violence that pervaded the reservation area. As a result of the injustice meted on the people, a civil right movement emerged to champion the cause of the people. It was in form of a militia. As the violence continued, the militia was accused of involvement in the murders by the FBI.
In consequence, a duo of FBI agents were sent to the reservation to conduct an investigation to the murders. The prime suspect was the militia leader. Ray Levoi and Frank Cutt were sent to the reservation to investigate the murder. Ray was chosen because of his connection to the people. He was a Sioux. The FBI was of the opinion that sending one of the natives to the area could douse the tension. Unknown to Ray, he was just a pawn in a larger chess game of power play between the people and the government. He soon found out, however, but with dire consequences – his life was in danger.
Roy is an acutured Sioux himself. He is embarrased by the way of life of his people because he does not understand them. However, he was soon shown a lot of things by the people whom he had loathed all his life. His understanding of their way of life grew tremendously and he began to see things their way. He was reconciled with his people. Along the line, another plot was unfolding in the investigation. The murder investigation he was assigned to had turned out to be just a smokescreen of a larger game of deceit. The FBI is involved in shady deals to exploit uranium in the land on the reservation. His initial resistance to his assignment to the murder case is confirmed with his discovery of the real reason for the series of murders.
Fred Ward play the role of Jack Milton. Jack was secretly trying to persuade the Indi ans to sell their land to him. He was secretly prospecting for the radioactive element – Uranium. He believed that there were large deposits of the element on their land and he was ready to get hold of them. While Jack was still of the opinion that the Indians did not know his motive for his acquisition of the land, the Indians actually got wind of his secret plan to drill for Uranium on their land. Jack later got to know that his purported secret plan was actually in the open, that Levoi, and the other Indians knew about his plans. This led to his resolve to kill Levoi. The Indians came to his rescue and prevented Jack from executing his proposed plan of killing Levoi. Thus the real culprit was caught in the act.
References
- http://www.ahafilm.info/movies/moviereviews.phtml?fid=6693
