Crazy Horse

'Crazy Horse' is a well acted, beautifully shot film that should have gone to big screen.

While this movie may deviate from the finest research points of one author, Sandoz, it plays well, overall, to the spirit of Native American experience, as well as to the nature of Crazy Horse. Keep in mind it is not listed as a docudrama. I grew up all my life on the Rez, my family is Native American and our minds and hearts were moved by this film. Although we are Nez Perce, all tribes unite in their admiration of Crazy Horse and the ability he had to be 'invisible' in the face of an army when necessary. So, when I use the euphemism "the devil's in the details" my message is "don't let the devil distract you from something great by tying you up with trivia." It is great to see a movie that is true to form in showing the nature of war. I grew up believing Indians were bad. My twin sisters came home crying one day from first grade because one of their friends told them that they were Indians. To my sisters, that meant they had to ride horses to white peoples' houses and scalp them. That's what they had learned from TV shows. Our mother had some reassuring to do and 'Coyote' tales to tell, like how humans came to be - http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore59.html

If you love Westerns, history, and have a heart for all peoples, you will love this film!

I watched this movie when it came out and have seen it a few more times since. Been trying to find an affordable dvd copy for my movie library for years. This movie has always been one of my favorite movies depicting the life of the Native American people lead.

This movie was one of my favorite ones.. where i lived the movie store had it to rent so every week i would rent it for like 3 months.. and i tried to find it to buy.. no where but .. i love native American movies..they are....so wonderful. to watch... I like it when they are more true.... and you know the history about it.. but my children loved to watch it as much as i did.. so i do give it a ten.. and no less thank you ..If you like native movies you should also see dream keeper..

and edge of America.. that is also a good one.. my children watch dream keeper also.. to listen about stories of the past..

This made-for-TV film about Crazy Horse has good acting and beautiful visual images. However, key details have been left out of the story in its hurry to wrap up a very complex issue and time in history. (For more detail, I'd highly suggest you read "Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas" by Mari Sandoz). Additionally, though the story fortunately does stay focused on Crazy Horse and his people, the script makes only a half-hearted attempt to tell the tale with a native american voice. For example, very little of the music sounds native American. However, this movie does probably set the record for Most Horses Knocked Over, and If there isn't an Academy Award for that, well gosh darnit there should be!

Though entertaining and well acted, the script doesn't follow Sandoz's biography. Sandoz who traveled more than any other researcher in Ogalala country compiled much of her biography from descendants and other community members who carry stories of Crazy Horse. According to Sandoz The Strange Crazy Horse a political critic - opposing three primary features of Ogalala society: 1) the idea of paying for brides with horses (dowry); 2) the idea that community acknowledgment and recognition are synonymous with an individuals' spiritual or metaphysical (for lack of better words) standing 3) the idea that there are a fixed number of formal ways in which to seek knowledge and understanding. Crazy Horse according to Sandoz felt that the influx of Horses had corrupted Oglala society somewhat and made it more (in contemporary terms) - wealth bound and greed ridden. He also she suggests felt that there were in some respects formalized aspects of the society that were too rigid and so conflicted with (in contemporary terms) basic human rights. Sandoz's Crazy Horse in essence supported Oglala culture and society strongly only as a reformer he, by example suggested several small adjustments to the culture so as to make it better.

Rather than being unique in this I imagine, he showed up at a time when the West was interested in Native people much like they are interested in Middle Eastern peoples today. War seems to create a sensationalist fascination with the other and so some attention was given his life in the popular media. Many of the biographies seem to contain details that conflict strongly with Sandoz, but no other researcher seems to have spent the same amount of time both in archives and in the communities. She has a pointed, detailed yet equivocal touch and so I trust her account better than any I have seen. This book (as is common) puts the film to shame.