The Dark Wind

Rating:
Summary: Hillerman¿s novel comes to life
Review: "Enemies unseen... Fears unspoken... ... A dark wind has entered his soul"

Jim Chee, local rookie cop is guarding a windmill that is periodically being put out of business when he hears a plane crash. This leads to many mysteries including a body with a message in its mouth. This takes place on the reservation so we have an overlap of authority in the search for clues, between the local authorities (Lou Diamond Phillips as Officer Jim Chee, Fred Ward as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn) and the Feds. There is also overlapping rights between the Hopi and the Navaho.

If you have read Tony Hillerman then you will recognize your old friends. It is also nice to see the area where the story takes place around the Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. Of course being a different media there is some consolidation of characters and allowance for acting stile over written character description. The movie is still fun to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Hillerman's novel comes to life
Review: "Enemies unseen... Fears unspoken...... A dark wind has entered his soul"
Jim Chee, local rookie cop is guarding a windmill that is periodically being put out of business when he hears a plane crash. This leads to many mysteries including a body with a message in its mouth. This takes place on the reservation so we have an overlap of authority in the search for clues, between the local authorities (Lou Diamond Phillips as Officer Jim Chee, Fred Ward as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn) and the Feds. There is also overlapping rights between the Hopi and the Navaho.
If you have read Tony Hillerman then you will recognize your old friends. It is also nice to see the area where the story takes place around the Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. Of course being a different media there is some consolidation of characters and allowance for acting stile over written character description. The movie is still fun to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Hillerman's novel comes to life
Review: "Enemies unseen... Fears unspoken...... A dark wind has entered his soul"
Jim Chee, local rookie cop is guarding a windmill that is periodically being put out of business when he hears a plane crash. This leads to many mysteries including a body with a message in its mouth. This takes place on the reservation so we have an overlap of authority in the search for clues, between the local authorities (Lou Diamond Phillips as Officer Jim Chee, Fred Ward as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn) and the Feds. There is also overlapping rights between the Hopi and the Navaho.
If you have read Tony Hillerman then you will recognize your old friends. It is also nice to see the area where the story takes place around the Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. Of course being a different media there is some consolidation of characters and allowance for acting stile over written character description. The movie is still fun to watch.

Rating:
Summary: A great mixture of intrigue, and comedy by Phillips.
Review: Dark Wind is an interesting tale of a young Navajo police officer wanting to become a healer. The story is full of intrigue and gives the watcher a small viewpoint of native culture blended with the present. Lou Diamond Phillips shows us a comedian side we rarely see, he is actually quite funny in places. Though it is not one of his best films, it is certainly worth watching. I liked it enough to purchase the video, and all of my family enjoy watching it. It's a great movie. I would recommend this to anyone who likes Lou Diamond Phillips, or movies pertaining to Native Americans.

Rating:
Summary: True Hillerman
Review: I'll never read another Tony Hillerman book now without picturing Lou Diamond Phillips as Jim Chee and Fred Ward as Joe Leaphorn. This movie would move slow to viewers not acquainted with Hillerman's work. But slow and methodical is exactly the way the tribal police approach crimes and solve problems in his books. This one remains faithful to the story, almost exactly following the book. If you aren't a Hillerman fan, you will be. After watching this movie, you'll be back to order the author's backlist of Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn mysteries!

Rating:
Summary: True Hillerman
Review: I'll never read another Tony Hillerman book now without picturing Lou Diamond Phillips as Jim Chee and Fred Ward as Joe Leaphorn. This movie would move slow to viewers not acquainted with Hillerman's work. But slow and methodical is exactly the way the tribal police approach crimes and solve problems in his books. This one remains faithful to the story, almost exactly following the book. If you aren't a Hillerman fan, you will be. After watching this movie, you'll be back to order the author's backlist of Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn mysteries!

Rating:
Summary: MUCH Better than PBS, and I love Mystery!
Review: If you love Hillerman's Chee-Leaphorn Dine' series, this is the one for you. Even tho I'm hearing, I like to turn on the closed captioning, esp when a language other than English is being spoken. And this version does it's best to put the Dine' words into English, unlike the PBS versions which say "Speaking Navajo." Ugh. Ok, Lou D.P. is Mex-American and Fred Ward (yep THAT Fred Ward from _Tremors_) is white, but so what. They're given a much better script that's true to the Chee and Leaphorn that Tony Hillerman wrote. In this one, Chee is doubtful who he is and where he belongs and Leaphorn is the steady one. PBS's had it reversed!?!

This one's the keeper. Don't even waste your time with the PBS versions. I suffered thru the first two and won't bother with any future ones. Which sux cause Wes Studi and Adam Beach are great actors. But you can't make the proverbial silk purse out of the proverbial sows ear.

Rating:
Summary: One of Tony Hillerman's best stories told well.
Review: It is rare that a movie stays close to the book it is based on, but The Dark Wind is one of the few exceptions. Despite a couple of changes that didn't affect the story line, this was exactly the same as the book.

Rating:
Summary: Great Story, Mediocre Acting, Poor Tech
Review: To begin with, this is not the PBS series. If you are familiar with Skinwalkers and Coyote Waits from PBS, this is far inferior. While the story is outstanding, the acting is wooden. Lou Diamond Phillips is a good actor, but he just can't pull off Jim Chee. Perhaps I would have had a different opinion if I hadn't seen Adam Beach's outstanding performance as Jim Chee first. I won't even get in to Fred Ward as Joe Leaphorn. Suffice it to say that Dark Wind is a Jim Chee novel, so there is little of Joe Leaphorn to be screwed up.

On the tech side, this is a really lousy DVD presentation. It is just a glorified VHS transfer. The sound is 2 channel, not 5.1. The presentation is full frame rather than widescreen, and there are plenty of funny intrusions from boom mikes and sun awnings.

Nevertheless, as cheap as this is going for, I am glad I bought it. The story is fantastic. Really good mystery. Only two complaints about the writing. First, there are several totally unnecessary uses of the F-word, as if they were just trying to get an R rating. I don't mind if profanity is necessary to the story, but even the actors sound like they don't think the word fits their lines. Second, do we really have to hear EVERYTHING that goes on in Chee's head? I mean really, the near constant voice overs get rather irritating.

If you want a really good adaptation of a Hillerman novel, try Skinwalkers or Coyote Waits. If you want a passable movie for a Saturday night, try this one.

Rating:
Summary: Great Story, Mediocre Acting, Poor Tech
Review: To begin with, this is not the PBS series. If you are familiar with Skinwalkers and Coyote Waits from PBS, this is far inferior. While the story is outstanding, the acting is wooden. Lou Diamond Phillips is a good actor, but he just can't pull off Jim Chee. Perhaps I would have had a different opinion if I hadn't seen Adam Beach's outstanding performance as Jim Chee first. I won't even get in to Fred Ward as Joe Leaphorn. Suffice it to say that Dark Wind is a Jim Chee novel, so there is little of Joe Leaphorn to be screwed up.

On the tech side, this is a really lousy DVD presentation. It is just a glorified VHS transfer. The sound is 2 channel, not 5.1. The presentation is full frame rather than widescreen, and there are plenty of funny intrusions from boom mikes and sun awnings.

Nevertheless, as cheap as this is going for, I am glad I bought it. The story is fantastic. Really good mystery. Only two complaints about the writing. First, there are several totally unnecessary uses of the F-word, as if they were just trying to get an R rating. I don't mind if profanity is necessary to the story, but even the actors sound like they don't think the word fits their lines. Second, do we really have to hear EVERYTHING that goes on in Chee's head? I mean really, the near constant voice overs get rather irritating.

If you want a really good adaptation of a Hillerman novel, try Skinwalkers or Coyote Waits. If you want a passable movie for a Saturday night, try this one.