Graham Greene

    Graham Greene is a famous British author, who wrote such classics as The Ugly American. And though many of his novels were made into films, this article is not about that guy.  It is about the films of the Graham Greene who died recently at 73 and who made over 200 movie and TV appearances. Greene was a Canadian, a member of the Oneida tribe. He was the go-to guy when a casting director need an actor with his ability and ethnicity. 

    His most famous role, the one you might remember him from, is as Kicking Bird in Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves (1990). Costner wrote, directed and starred in a film he was avid to make. The doubters who wouldn’t help him financially had a large dish of humble pie when the film won Best Movie Oscar and grossed over 400 million dollars. As Union officer John Dunbar, Costner’s character is wounded and nearly dies. At his request he is transferred to the frontier, where he meets and is befriended by a tribe of Lakota Sioux. He and the medicine man, Kicking Bird (Greene) become quite close. Dunbar joins the tribe and marries one of the women. In much of the film the Lakota language is used with English subtitles. 

    Maverick (1994) is successfully transitioned from the hit TV series. Bret Maverick, Jr. is brought to film life by Mel Gibson, and he turns out to be a bigger con man then his infamous father. Jodie Foster is on hand as Annabelle, as good a scammer as the men. And not to be outdone by the white guys, Joseph (Graham Greene) shows that the Native Americans are also quite capable of a good hustle. All of them embark on various mildly nefarious schemes, many quite humourous. 

    Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995) is the third of the five Die Hard films and maybe the best since the first one. Bruce Willis is, of course, back on board as NYPD detective John McClane. The plot involves a series of bombs and bomb threats orchestrated by Simon (Jeremy Irons). McClane is assigned to stop him and is assisted by Detective Joe Lambert and other police officers. The wham-bang action ends with an improbable McClane shot at a helicopter containing the bad guys. 

    Wind River (2017) is a cracker jack crime drama about the murder of an Indian girl and her boyfriend in the frozen location of a Native American reservation and a drilling rig. Jeremy Renner stars as Wildlife Officer Cory Lambert, who discovers the frozen body of a Native American girl near the drilling outfit. FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) is dispatched to investigate. She is convinced it is a homicide but her superiors disagree and she’s on her own. She and Lambert continued to investigate with the help of the chief of the tribal police Ben Shoyo (Greene) and his officers. The discovery of the dead girl’s boyfriend’s mangled body intensifies the story. 

    Graham Greene has good, but minor parts in The Education of Little Tree (1997), The Green Mile (1999) and The Performance (2023). All of the films in this article are for grown-ups.