Chris Hicks, of the "Deseret News", said screenwriter Fusco and director Apted created a "rich backdrop, with fascinating character development and a serious focus on the spirituality of Indian beliefs." He commented that "there's a lot more going on in "Thunderheart" that makes it well worth the trip—not the least of which is the performance of co-star Graham Greene, fresh from his Oscar-nominated "Dances With Wolves" triumph, wonderful as a wise-cracking American Indian cop." In a mixed review, "Variety" believed the film found "a lively platform for its essential view that the old ways were far wiser and better." However, they noted that actor Kilmer "holds the screen strongly in an intense young Turk role, but when script calls for him to transform into a mythical Indian savior, he doesn't quite fill the moccasins." Roger Ebert in the "Chicago Sun-Times" offered a positive review recalling how he thought "what's most absorbing about "Thunderheart" is its sense of place and time. Apted makes documentaries as well as fiction films, and in such features as "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Gorillas in the Mist" and such documentaries as "35 Up" he pays great attention to the people themselves - not just what they do, and how that pushes things along."