INCIDENT AT OGLALA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Michael Apted gives us a powerful
documentary about the 1975 shoot-out at the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation. This is far more powerful than its cliche-
ridden companion film THUNDERHEART. Rating: low +2 [-4 to
+4].
In April of 1992 I reviewed THUNDERHEART, one of a pair of films made by British filmmaker Michael Apted about the Lakota Indians of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. I was and remain fairly negative on THUNDERHEART because, as I said in my review, the story-telling was not very good. I see the story as being extremely cliche-ridden and weak. I did--and still do--think Apted's implication that Indian magic really works weakened rather than strengthened the film. (This was not intended as and anti-Indian sentiment, as I feel the same way about any magic in a non- fantasy film. As a strict empiricist, I just do not believe in the supernatural, religious or otherwise.) At the time I expressed my belief that THUNDERHEART was the wrong film for the right movement and I expressed my hopes that INCIDENT AT OGLALA would be better. It is.
In spite of Apted having more experience with fiction films, his fiction films are often melodramatic. His more political films seem to give loaded arguments, making the villains dehumanized nasties. His INCIDENT AT OGLALA is a solid piece of political argument that cuts right to the bone. It has its "good guys" and "bad guys" also, but they are condemned by their own words and by the testimony of people actually involved in the incidents. It is the authenticity of the documentary style rather than the whim of a fiction scriptwriter in complete control that makes INCIDENT AT OGLALA so much better than THUNDERHEART.
The fundamental conflict documented in INCIDENT AT OGLALA is the conflict between the traditionalist Indians and those more for assimilation into the dominant society. In 1975 the two groups were so much in conflict that the Pine Ridge Reservation became a literal battlefield with both sides killing each other in a reign of terror that claimed over sixty victims, mostly traditionalists. The FBI aligned itself with the assimilationist Indians. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents were killed in the violence. INCIDENT AT OGLALA is the story of that shoot-out, what led up to it, and the aftermath. One man, Leonard Peltier, went to prison and is serving two consecutive life sentences. The film gives apparently strong evidence that Peltier was railroaded. Major witnesses are discredited. Evidence used in the trial is apparently shown to have been falsified. In general, the argument is very forceful.
INCIDENT AT OGLALA is a powerful piece of documentary filmmaking, far better than Apted's companion film. The evidence shown here seems more than ample to justify a re-trial, so much so that it undermines somewhat Apted's argument. It is hard to believe the entire judicial system up to the Supreme Court is so corrupt that this weight of evidence would be insufficient to justify a re-trial. Like JFK, while it is not totally convincing, it certainly raises questions that should be answered. I give it a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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