Photo from Amazon.com
Spoilers
read this only if you want to know the story and or how much you'll see of Don in certain movies
|
Photo from Amazon.com |
Spoilersread this only if you want to know the story and or how much you'll see of Don in certain movies |
Don plays Charlie, a member of an Indian tribe that is trying to stop toxic waste from being dumped on their reservation. He's been kidnapped by the polluter's thugs because he has a very important computer disk containing all of the info about the toxic waste dumping and the thugs want it back, but of course the 3 Ninjas and Charlie's daughter rescue him. But Charlie and the tribe still have more work to do to stop the polluters and the Ninjas help them out every step of the way! The polluters then kidnap Charlie's daughter and hold her hostage in exchange for the computer disk, just before Charlie and other members of the tribe are going to testify before an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) public hearing in order to stop the dumping. If Charlie testifies and hands over the disk the thugs will kill Charlie's daughter. Just when you thought the polluters have gotten away with it, the Ninjas save the day at the last minute and rescue Charlie's daughter, allowing Charlie to hand over the computer disk to the EPA and save the reservation! There's a great powwow scene with lots of dancing, great costumes and lots of NA extras. Don also does some pretty good stunt driving through the desert in this one. Great for kids!
According to Ruth's scale, Don's part is a two (doesn't get much better). Stuart Proud Eagle Grant is also in this movie - if I understood correctly...
Don has a small role as one of the "bad guys." You can see him about 15 minutes before the end of the movie. He gets out of a white van at the warehouse, and also does some stunt driving. He has a black T-shirt on and his hair is pulled back in a ponytail
How the West was Won #The Enemy
Don plays Red Kettle, a chief of a tribe at war with the captured Indians who are the "good guys". The soldiers decides to trick Red Kettle, by using his superstitions. They say they are getting the kettle to boil - by getting one of the captured Indians to play crazy. Red Kettle is worried it could rub off on him. He also comes out a hero by stopping the attack on the heroes in one of the final scenes. Instead of killing each other, they honor each other. Completely confounds the lieutenant in charge of the soldiers!
This series was a great one. Lots of Indians, and they were allowed a little more complex "image" than what was usually the case. There were two young Indians they set up to play heroes, and the girls fell for them in droves. Ray Tracey played Teelo in the first series, and Duane Loken played Wolfpaw in #The Enemy - the same episode you'll see Don Shanks in. See some captures of Don.
It's a dark movie, and Don Shanks is only shown right in the beginning for about one minute, and you can't really see his face, and that's it for the whole movie. He's portrayed as an Indian in a buckskin outfit hunting a deer in the snowy woods. When the deer is on the ground and ready to die, Don holds up the deer's head and sucks its last breath out of it (insert sigh of disappointment here - Annie...).
There is another person they show dressed as an Indian who is really thin with white body paint running through a tunnel, but that is NOT Don Shanks. I believe it's played by Kenny Stabler, who has also appeared in a Grizzly Adams movie in the past.
Don has a small role as an American Indian fighter who fights Terence Knox (Jack DeForest) in a bar fight. The scene is about one-third of the way into the movie.
He plays a drug dealer's bodyguard/wiseguy who punches Kiefer Sutherland, and then he ends up getting shot by Sutherland. He has his hair back in a ponytail and is in a suit. It's not a long scene. It's where Kiefer and his friends go to a casino to talk to Mr. Vago, the drug lord.
He plays Bloodcoat, a Native American who has had his throat slashed by other Indians. This movie has John Denver and Chief Ted Thin Elk in it, and it's pretty good
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