TV Reviews : ‘Tecumseh’ Falls Short of Potential

“The destiny of the United States is to expand,” says William Henry Harrison in Sunday’s TNT movie “Tecumseh: The Last Warrior.” And expand the United States did, with deadly consequences for the native inhabitants who stood in its way.

Set in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the film is a portrait of a remarkable Shawnee leader who, in a last, heroic, doomed resistance effort, spent years traveling throughout the East and Midwest uniting tribes against white encroachment, personified by the politically ambitious Harrison, who would become President.

Tecumseh’s story is a tragedy of epic proportion, but the film never meets that potential, despite a mythic hero born under a shooting star, panoramic nature shots and elaborate battle scenes.

In the title role, Jesse Borrego seems sullen, not charismatic, conveying Tecumseh’s determination but not the intellectual stature and articulate passion that swayed entire tribes.

A numbing emotional remove is fed by dialogue too often declared, not spoken. Gratuitously extended, graphic scenes of clubbings, shootings, hatchetings and scalpings don’t win empathy.

It would take an exceptional effort to keep history’s dark shadow from hanging over the film like a pall. Here, the inevitable betrayals and defeats that destroyed and scattered Native Americans and bastardized their culture underscore the hopelessness of Tecumseh’s endeavor, not the heroics.

* “Tecumseh: The Last Warrior” airs at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday on TNT cable.