Sioux City – Amulett der Rache (1994)

Sioux City – Amulett der Rache: Directed by Lou Diamond Phillips. With Lou Diamond Phillips, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Melinda Dillon, Lise Cutter. A young Lakota Sioux, adopted by a wealthy Jewish couple in Beverly Hills, gets in touch with his cultural roots and solves a mystery in this thriller. Because of his upbringing, Jesse Rainfeather Goldman knows almost nothing of Native American traditions. He is doing his internship when he suddenly receives an amulet from the Lakota reservation in Sioux City. It is from his real mother. Jesse’s curiosity is piqued, and he immediately travels to his birthplace to learn why she sent it. Unfortunately, by the time he arrives, his mother’s body is discovered in the smoldering wreckage of her home. She was shot before she was burned. Jesse’s investigation into her death is not welcomed by the local captain of police and his assistant. He is almost beaten to death but is saved by his grandfather, a shaman, and a Lakota woman. The newly healed Jesse begins to explore his tribe’s customs. He then contacts his mother’s spirit and she leads him to the film’s conclusion.

“This is an interesting film for me in that I actually know someone like Lou Diamond Phillipsu0026#39;s character in Sioux City. Heu0026#39;s also an orphan Indian, in his case Chippewa, who was adopted and raised by Jewish parents. Unlike Louu0026#39;s character, he shows no promise of becoming a doctor. I do wonder sometimes though if this individualu0026#39;s substance abuse problems might be partially the result of an identity problem. If you saw him now at the age of 36 you would not mistake him for being Jewish.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLou Diamond Phillips faces an identity crisis in Sioux City. His mother Tantoo Cardinal gave him up for adoption at a young age to Mr.u0026amp;Mrs. Goldman of Beverly Hills. Heu0026#39;s grown up to be a young doctor interning at one of Los Angelesu0026#39;s hospitals. He gets a note from his birth mother with an amulet asking him to visit her on the reservation. When he goes there, he finds sheu0026#39;s dead, victim of a fire of suspicious origin.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn Lou Diamond Phillipsu0026#39;s multi-cultural background is part Cherokee Indian and heu0026#39;s certainly taken on Indian roles and done them quite well as he does in Sioux City. He directed this film and itu0026#39;s a good one that was obviously a labor of love for him. Sad in this day and age a film like Sioux City could not find an audience because itu0026#39;s a good story of a man both solving the riddle of his motheru0026#39;s death and the riddle of his own identity.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePhillips got good support from Salli Richardson as the trading post owner on the reservation, Ralph Waite, not as lovable Dad Walton, but a vicious and corrupt local sheriff and Apesanahkwat as Louu0026#39;s birth grandfather, a Lakota Medicine Man.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe cinematography at the Lakota Reservation was done with an obviously loving hand. Itu0026#39;s a good effort by Lou Diamond Phillips and his cast and itu0026#39;s sad more people didnu0026#39;t get to see this.”