Why Bury My Heart won

Hollywood Loves Indians.  They Really, Really, Really Love IndiansI know this to be true, because they proved it by bestowing the OUTSTANDING MADE FOR TELEVISION MOVIE honors to HBO’s adaptation of Dee Brown’s book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It has everything Hollywood relishes. White guilt and brown people as victims. Even a victim who overcomes by joining the heroes in their quest to help his fellow victims—what could be better!

So what if HBO tinkered with the facts a bit ... mmmm ... a lot, like taking the life the Santee activist Charles Eastman and planting him at battles he never fought in, situations he was never involved in, and assuming that’s it’s boffo because, well, it “served a higher purpose.”

And what is that, pray tell? Oh, let’s see; how about feeding the entertainment beast’s insatiable hunger to prove just how progressive, impressive, provocative and evocative they are. Nothing quite as satisfying than a couple of hours of the pillaging powerful, preferably in government and the military (Wait! Do I whiff a present-day metaphor?) to warm the heart of those on George Soros’s speed dial.Comment:  Carole argues that HBO made Bury My Heart so liberals could feel good about seeing the US government as the "pillaging powerful." Maybe, but as a card-carrying liberal, I didn't feel good about the movie's portrayal.

Perhaps the superficial motive was to please liberals--especially those who haven't read Dee Brown's book and don't know their Native history. But I'd say the deeper motive was to please the conservatives who support our government's imperialist policies. Bury My Heart gave these people succor by justifying the US onslaught against Indians.

As I wrote in my review:Bury My Heart takes a clear case of wrongdoing and muddles it. In this version of history, there are no good or bad guys. Flawed Americans, flawed Indians ... they're all the same.That's basically the same position we've taken in Iraq. Sure, we've killed tens of thousands of civilians and destroyed the country's infrastructure. But we're fighting "evildoers" who supposedly want to kill tens of thousands of our civilians and destroy our country's infrastructure. In short, their evil justifies our evil--just as in Bury My Heart.

So the movie has something for everyone: a sinful US government for liberals and sinful Indians for conservatives. No wonder it won the Emmy for best picture.