Adam Beach

In Hostiles (2017), Adam Beach plays Black Hawk, the son of Wes Studi's Yellow Hawk, and gets scarcely any room to become a person. Scott Cooper's western follows a soldier and a Cheyenne family, but gives the soldier most of the character development. We were frustrated by Black Hawk's thinly written part because the story depends on learning to recognise his family's humanity. Beach is capable of much more than this. His strongest work gives him grief and cultural conflict to play, rather than dignity alone.

Smoke Signals (1998), following the early film work of Dance Me Outside (1994), gave him a lead as Victor Joseph in a story of reservation life and family reconciliation. Hollywood then brought war films: John Woo's Windtalkers (2002) and Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers (2006). Beach learnt Navajo to play Private Ben Yahzee for Woo, a useful measure of how seriously he takes the particular person beneath the uniform. As Ira Hayes for Eastwood, his raw handling of grief and trauma is the clearest reason to seek him out.

His later career has mixed studio supporting roles in Cowboys & Aliens (2011) and Suicide Squad (2016) with Canadian television in Arctic Air (2012–14). That makes the quality of an individual film an unreliable guide to what it offers him. Hostiles has a remarkable performance from Rosamund Pike and an honestly grim atmosphere, yet Beach and Studi get far less developed characters. A serious subject does not excuse that imbalance.

Beach's Dalton belongs to the supporting cast of Swan Song (2021), a restrained science-fiction drama whose main achievement is Mahershala Ali's performance. We recommend it with a reservation about the central relationship, which needs more space, particularly for Naomie Harris. It is worth distinguishing a film we like from a film that tells us much about this particular actor. For a first encounter with Beach, choose Smoke Signals, then Flags of Our Fathers.