:
Adam Beach,
Adam Beach,
Wes Studi,
more...
:
Chris Eyre,
Chris Eyre
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: PBS Home Video
: Cops
: 97 min.
: English
see additional details...
This title is currently out of print.
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Adapted from Tony Hillerman's best-selling novel by James Redford (stepson of Robert Redford), Skinwalkers was the vanguard of the proposed PBS anthology American Mystery. Returning to the Navajo reservation of his birth after many years, police detective Joe Leaphorn (Wes Studi) investigates a series of bizarre murders. Though Leaphorn has no doubt that the killer is a human being, his young FBI-trained partner, Jim Chee (Adam Beach), has an entirely different theory. A medicine man-in-training, Chee believes that the murders have been committed by a mystical figure called the Skinwalker, who according to Navajo legend is an amalgam of all murdered Native Americans. Symbolic clues left at the scene of each murder -- some written in paint, some in blood -- confirm Chee's conclusion that the shapeshifting Skinwalker is seeking revenge on the modern-day despoilers of the Navajo's sacred land. Skinwalkers was filmed on location in Utah and Arizona by Native American director Chris Eyre, of Smoke Signals fame. ~ All Movie Guide
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| "Mystery" finally comes home
by SRhodes
March 14, 2003 - 3:06 PM PST
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4 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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This originally appeared on TVBarn in November 2002 when Skinwalkers aired on Mystery on PBS.
Tony Hillerman's "Skinwalkers" is the first program in 22 years of "Mystery" to take place in United States. Edward Gorey's opening sequence gets some added flags and other red, white and blue elements, but the important thing is the film lives up to the high expectations for the series.
Hillerman wrote three mysteries featuring Joe Leaphorn, an older cop skeptical of traditional Navajo culture, and three featuring Jim Chee, a young officer who is also training to be traditional healer, before bringing them together in "Skinwalkers." There are major changes from the book. Some involve updating it. There were no cell phones or search engines when it was published in 1986. But many change the characters and plot. Still, the culture and the contrast between the two cops remain.
Hillerman says in an interview, "I was trying to impress on him [screenwriter Jamie Redford] that to make a movie out of a novel, you had to kind of kill the novel, so to speak, and take pieces out of it. It's such a different art form." There a section on the website which compares two sections of the novel to the screenplay. It doesn't say that the first scene compared opened the book, but is in the middle of the film (it would be best to read it after watching the film).
Hillerman had had experience with Hollywood before. In his memoir "Seldom Disappointed," he describes his frustration when he met with NBC in the 70s about a possible series based on Leaphorn. The many changes they wanted ranged from a more upbeat ending for the book the pilot would be based on to moving Leaphorn to the city because "a handful of city yuppies was worth more than half the elderly farmers in Iowa to the marketing people."
Robert Redford who later bought the rights to the series also was frustrated in his efforts to make films of the books for years (a film of "A Dark Wind" directed by Errol Morris with Lou Diamond Phillips as Chee and Fred Ward as Leaphorn was released in Europe in 1991, but went straight to video here). Though Redford was full of praise for PBS at their annual conference in San Francisco during the summer of 2002.
Chris Eyre who developed "Smoke Signals" at Sundance is the director. Adam Beach plays Chee was also in "Smoke Signals." Wes Studi plays Leaphorn. They give excellent performances and hopefully will be able to return to the roles in future films based on Hillerman's novels for "Mystery." (PBS has since ordered a second film) |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.50)
12 Votes
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