i be rarely if ever disappoint by any movie hbo make and but i be disappoint enough with waste two hour on this one that i felt compel to say something . anyone look for a move account of a profoundly tragic and shameful event in american history ought to keep look . don not get me start . ok and fine . if i come into this film with no understanding of how the u government screw the sioux out of their land ( and this be the case ) and i still have no idea how and when and where and or why this happen . which land . why be it so precious to them . why do the u want it . what be the specific of the homestead program we try to impose . why do not the sioux just take the money . the movie just throw you into the middle of their numerous town hall session and expect you to know what go on . the movie do nothing to capture the stark beauty of that land and the spirituality of the culture and do not go far enough back to show you what they be miss and what they be try to regain . it would have be nice to see a real buffalo hunt to recognize what a pathetic sham the reservation buffalo hunt simulator be . the sioux be just show to be a bunch of stubborn and troublesome and raggedy refugee and so the sympathy just isn not there . how do adam beach keep get work . i realize there probably a scarcity of native american actor out there and but this guy the center of your story and he get the emotional range of a light switch . he be awful in windtalker and he awful here . you can really sense how lost he be play off anna paquin and aidan quinn . what the heck be with those little photo montage transition thingies . the movie be slow enough without the director throw those picture in there to help bring it to a screeching halt multiple time . it a if he be just try to give a shout out to the makeup people and cast agent represent ooooh and look how we make this guy look like that guy . yay for u . if anything and it just help embalm his story even more by tie it to the past with semi relevant old tintypes instead of make it live and breathe . whatever else he be go for and i miss it . finally and we come to the climax ( . ) of the piece and the massacre itself and which be only recount in a flashback and with no build up and no clear nut and bolt demonstration of the hate whitey all night rave party throw by the feed up sioux and and no clear motivation supply by the men who send in the soldier . i would have to watch it again and but they do not even say how many people on both side buy the farm and and it be an extremely bloody affair . if they be try to present the whole story through the eye of the doctor and i would have understand a back hand recounting since he wasn not at the creek and but the movie switch narrative multiple time and so the directing and editing and even storytelling decision do not build any tension at all . you could have have a native american version of do the right thing here and you blow it . one minute and everyone huddle in blanket complain about crummy treaty and and the next bam . dead and frozen sioux . what happen at wounded knee be the crown nightmare in a catalog of infamy do to our native american brother . i want to be angry after watch this and maybe even choke up a bit . no dice . perhaps the most affecting moment in the movie be a closing title say the sioux have never to this date take a dime for the black hill and imply that theyre still doin the ghost dance and wait for whitey to destroy himself ( would not be long ) so they can just move back in . when a closing title be the most compelling thing in your film and youre in trouble .