tedg
Spoilers herein.There is indeed a ghostly presence in the American West. It is based on myth, which gives it power. It destroys without knowing; it depends on magic and belief. Its name is family Redford.Yes, good old Robert and now his son are the culprits here. They have a wistful, idealized vision of a noble people defiled. There s the evil corporation, the environmental desecration (which the natives would never have done!) and the conflict between the white and red man's magic. All set in Hallmark hues spun with an unacknowledged Hollywood mainstream gloss.It says a lot that this passes for politically correct. Give it a few years before Native Americans realize that the artificial nobility bestowed by a well-meaning Hollywood (and we include the Sundancers in this) is just as offensive as the `mad injun' stuff that preceded it.I refer the reader to `Napolean Bonapart' or Bony as he is known in the detective fiction of Arthur Upfield. Bony is a halfbreed, part white (with an advanced university degree) and part aborigine, or `black.' Because he is half black, he has tracking and intuition `in his blood,` and a mystical connection with the land. These 29 novels - in which the mystical and logical compete and sometimes cooperate - were popular books just a couple decades ago. Read one to see how offensive it is and why they are so universally rejected today. Dramatic myth which spins stereotypes is just as offensive when those stereotypes are `positive,` and the intent honest even more so because it patronizes. Now read Bony again and see how closely the current writer Hillerman copies Upfield, in many details as well as the overall tone.Stay away from this, unless you just want to appreciate the very fine photography and editing Dad arranged for his boy. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
PUNISHER_
I just saw this movie, and I would like to say that this was a great mystery. The setting is in a Navajo county, Adam Beach plays a cop and a medicine man that makes sure things in town are going the way they are supposed to, and Wes Studi plays a good detective. When a murder of a medicine man takes place, Beach and Studi join together to solve the crime. The movie is great because it shows you how the Native American life is. The roles that Beach and Studi play, are roles of heros that would do anything in order to set things right. I cannot wait to see Coyote Waits. This movie was very good and I would highly recommend people that like mystery films, to see this movie.
Chuck
....to, maybe, a series of adaptations of Hillerman's books? PBS, Robert Redford, Tony Hillerman and company has done a decent job here. I would have thought that, given the material, they could have given us at least two full hours (maybe three?) to flesh out the story a little but, hey, I'm not complaining here. The casting was superb. I was thrilled to see Sheila Tousey as Emma Leaphorn. Tousey, who played Maggie Eagle Bear in 1992's "Thunderheart," is probably one of the least appreciated actors working today. Wes Studi plays Joe Leaphorn a little close to the chest, but the casting of him playing opposite Adam Beach was brilliant. Alex Rice is the perfect Janet Pete. I would think, also, that this quintessentially American series would be something that PBS would be able to sell back to the Brits. Let's all deluge our local PBS stations with demands for more ...perhaps with a pledge to show we're serious?
tazcat39
Having read several of Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries, I was excited to learn that one would be the first American series of PBS' Mystery.Wes Studi portrayed the "uptight" Leaphorn very well. I first saw him as the scoundrel Magua in Last of the Mohicans, a part well suited to him. Adam Beach was also great as the more sensitive and perhaps a little naive Jim Chee. Although I guessed who the villain was in this story, it was close to the end when Leaphorn and Chee also discovered the truth.I grew up seeing Native Americans or Indians always the enemy. It is good to see a story of Indians and their cultural ways in an everyday setting.
AD
