The Dark Wind

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Joseph S @RT19736223 6d I was driven to watch this movie (which I've heard has a bad reputation) because I've run out of of seasons of the Dark Winds series, AND had already watched the three Leaphorn/Chee stories made into movies for the PBS Mystery! series. I'd also started reading Hillerman's original novels, one of which was "The Dark Wind". The fact that I had first read the story helped my enjoyment of this film a lot. The movie was so true to the original novel that I think that viewers unfamiliar with the people (and the land) of the Southwest might feel rather lost. But Lou Diamond Phillips inhabited the character of Jim Chee quite admirably. The film substitutes Joe Leaphorn as his boss (not so in the novel) but that's okay. Bottom line: if you are enjoying the Dark Winds series, you may enjoy this film while you wait for the next season to be released, but do yourself a favor and read Tony Hillerman's novel first. See more Madam D @Madam1948 Feb 27 This is not an action thriller, but more of a pure mystery. Hillerman's novels are wonderful, teaching so much about indigenous people. See more don s @RT97868663 06/20/2018 I enjoy the novels by Tony Hillerman so I assumed this would be a no-brainer. While the story has depth and is intelligently written, the pacing is too slow and the acting is surprisingly below average - probably based on the awkward dialogue. This is pretty awful; don't take it as representative of these wonderful Native American characters. See more 11/16/2017 How could Errol Morris, the great director of The Thin Blue Line and Gates of Heaven, turn out this incompetent piece of crap featuring a boom mic, who appears more times than our lead character and delivers a considerably better performance? The answer is unknown, but it is likely that Morris didn't even direct the film and some idiot at a TV station did. See more 07/16/2013 Well now. I came to this film knowing nothing about its media profile, but having read the Tony Hillerman novel of the same name. There is so much bad to say about this pathetic adaptation, that let me first say that I give the production team all credit for actually going to the Navajo and Hopi countries to make the film; for actually using some Navajo and Hopi actors and actresses. HOWEVER, having gone to all the trouble, I would think that they would have made sure that they KEPT THE BOOM MIC OUT OF THE FRAME IN THE CLIMACTIC SCENE OF THE MOVIE!!!! HOLY HELL, PEOPLE!! Who made this trash, ED WOOD?! If you didn't have the budget for the torrential gully-buster that the denouement requires, why not make one of the other equally clever novels, but one less demanding of special effects? Why change the dead pilot's more easily hood-winkable sister into his presumably knowledgeable cohort of a wife? Why cast Buford Pusser (now there was a man) as a glaringly Texan Hopi?! There's a reason no one has reviewed this turkey before, and it's because no one saw it. It was buried, I imagine, just like Johnson's body would have been, if the torrential runoff from the mesa had actually been there to wash him away at the end of the film. I can only guess what Tony Hillemrman thought when...if he saw it. He probably felt as if he'd been poisoned with corpse powder. If I had been him, I'd have had an Enemy Way sung over it's rotting cels. No points, and apologies to the Navajo and Hopi for the missed opportunity. Actually, I didn't mind LDP as Chee, but think he was so amateurishly directed he couldn't possibly have succeeded in this dog. See more 05/22/2013 This is a good movie, sure it's imperfect, but it's authentic and beautiful at the same time. See more Read all reviews

The Dark Wind

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