Lanning : )

Previously: I've been on Flixster for a good little while, so what with my age and all, I'm sometimes very unsure about whether I've commented on a particular movie. I just watched this one for probably at least the tenth time -- although my gut tells me it's more like twenty times -- and I just had to check Flixster to see if I'd actually ever said anything about it.

Amazing! I have never said a word about it. I'm sincerely surprised.

Even with a favorite movie, you probably understand well that it's sometimes hard to watch it TOO many times, right? I mean it is very interesting, even with some of my very favorite movies, that I'll sometimes start watching them and say to myself something along the lines of, "Ah, maybe not tonight."

With Thunderheart, it is never that way for me. I can watch it, and watch it, and then even put up with commercial interruptions, like tonight, to watch it again.

I'm not sure how well I can explain all the reasons why I love this movie, but you know me -- I'll give it a shot : )

Val Kilmer is superior as Doc Holliiday in Tombstone, I think some of you might agree. But the beauty of that work, for me, takes a second seat to his performance in this movie. There is something about his difficulty with delivering some of the lines here with conviction -- "I'm sorry I dragged your family into this," for instance -- that is never a problem he has with his world-weary Doc Holliday.

You are, I'm sure, very familiar with the hackneyed term "coming of age." Doc Holliday, thanks to Kilmer's performance, you know darn well came of age looong before the events chronicled in Tombstone. That performance of a man who has lived life to the fullest, seen it all, done it all, is perfection.

Ray Levoi, on the other hand, is coming of age right before your very eyes. I love the less polished performance here because it lends itself -- almost as if he intended it to be that way -- to the way he is discovering himself, who he is, how he should live, how he should act.

Okay, I was going to go into a whole list of reasons why I love this movie, but I'm sure very few people have even read this far.

Bottom line: This movie is so good that I'm adding it to my Top 100 list right now, and I'm going to be curious to see what movie I decide to drop from that list in order to make place for Thunderheart. If you've not watched this before, please give it a try. Me? I don't think I will ever get tired of watching it.