I thought this film to be good although it could have been better if the character played by Lou Diamond Phillips was more aggressive in his search for who killed his mother. Only in the end did he and the killer confront one another and even then others intervened. Justice was rightfully served when the white man who killed Lou Diamond's mother ended up getting shot himself! I just think it would have been more appropriate if Lou did it himself.
The hidden message that this film tried to portray, at least in my opinion, is that cover-ups to murdered Native people occur all the time! "Sioux City" is an example of how the corruption of white society leads people to think that it's "ok" to kill Indians when it's not. As is usually the case, city police forces like the one shown in the film did everything they could in attempting to cover up the murder of Dawn Rainfeather. Well, it's a good thing her son stepped in when he did otherwise there would have been no way of knowing who murdered Dawn. This was a movie but in the sad reality of things, cover-ups for murdered Native people happens all the time. The excuse that the police chief gave Lou when he killed her was that he didn't want him to know that the police chief was in fact his father. That was just a cover-up for the real reason why he murdered her: because she was just another Indian! :(
ANYWAYS... that's my scoop. Of course, as with any other realistic film dealing with American Indians, this one had a lot of mystery and suspense that came to a fitting climax when the truth came out in the end.
The hidden message that this film tried to portray, at least in my opinion, is that cover-ups to murdered Native people occur all the time! "Sioux City" is an example of how the corruption of white society leads people to think that it's "ok" to kill Indians when it's not. As is usually the case, city police forces like the one shown in the film did everything they could in attempting to cover up the murder of Dawn Rainfeather. Well, it's a good thing her son stepped in when he did otherwise there would have been no way of knowing who murdered Dawn. This was a movie but in the sad reality of things, cover-ups for murdered Native people happens all the time. The excuse that the police chief gave Lou when he killed her was that he didn't want him to know that the police chief was in fact his father. That was just a cover-up for the real reason why he murdered her: because she was just another Indian! :(
ANYWAYS... that's my scoop. Of course, as with any other realistic film dealing with American Indians, this one had a lot of mystery and suspense that came to a fitting climax when the truth came out in the end.