The Last Of His Tribe

Stars: Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy, Runaway Train), Graham Greene (Dances With Wolves, Thunderheart) and Anne Archer (Narrow Margin, Patriot Games). Based on a true story, this HBO original movie offers good performances from Graham Greene as Ishi, the last survivor of the Yahi tribe, and Jon Voight as Dr. Alfred Kroeber, the anthropologist who takes Ishi under his wing in 1911 and tries to record his history for posterity. Although the story of Ishi is heavily romanticized, director Harry Hook (The Kitchen Toto, Lord of the Flies (1989)) never lets the proceedings descend into the utterly maudlin. Ishi's encounter with civilization is the source of much of the film's good-natured humor (fascinated by a window shade, Ishi pulls the cord, and asks Kroeber: "Where does it go?"). As he struggles to learn the white man's language, Ishi expresses serious reservations about some of the white man's customs (watching Kroeber's pathologist friend, Ishi learns what an autopsy is and becomes outraged at what he considers an act of desecration). Although the film trods along a predictable path, and even plays with melodrama at times, the dignity and quiet power of Voight's and Greene's nicely understated performances make The Last Of His Tribe a fine character study. Audience: Dances With Wolves fever has not completely abated yet, and Greene is currently enjoying a high-profile as the wisecracking reservation policeman in Thunderheart. Most will enjoy.