Skinwalkers

I'm a fan of Hillerman's mysteries, and had high hopes for Redford's film adaptations. I came away from Skinwalkers a bit disappointed. I should preface my comments by saying that I've read about two-thirds of the Navajo mysteries, and Skinwalkers is my least favorite, so in some sense my disappointment started with the choice of book to adapt. However, my main quibbles with the movie are independent of this issue.

The foremost problem is what I see as unfaithful characterizations of Leaphorn and Chee. In the books, Leaphorn's defining attribute is his preternatural intuition, which he backs up with methodical procedure--sort of an aging Navajo Adam Dalgleish. Chee's essence is that he's a good cop who has to overcome frequent waves of self-doubt. Both are men of few words, Leaphorn because his mind is always whirring, Chee because he's moody by nature. Perhaps most distinctly, the relationship between the two is extremely unequal: Chee is in awe of Leaphorn's reputation, and as such is perpetually worried about making a wrong move within Leaphorn's view. However, what the Skinwalker movie does is take a single dimension of the characters--the fact that Chee is an active participant in Navajo spirituality and Leaphorn is not--and make that their defining contrast. This distorts Leaphorn in particular almost beyond recognition: rather than the icy logician of the books, whose attitude toward Navajo spiritual tradition is at worst pragmatic, the movie renders him as sort of a reservation Dirty Harry (with a smaller gun), informed primarily by cynicism about human motives. Given this, there's nothing for Chee to be in awe of, and their collaboration is presented as an equal division of labor, with Chee providing the "Navajo insider" angle and Leaphorn the "hardheaded cop" grounding.

Beyond this, the plot of the movie diverged considerably from that of the book, for the worse in my opinion. Disparaging a movie for not being true to a book I didn't like all that much might sound like complaining about the small portions at a lousy restaurant, but the book did have some good moments, most of which got altered or left out. In particular, the book has an especially tense episode near the end when one of the principles is in grave danger, a scene that could have been adapted to great effect. Instead, the movie's denouement feels forced, as is not that exciting.

For fans of Hillerman's books, I strongly recommend seeing the film of The Dark Wind, which I think captures the feel of the books much better than does Skinwalkers. I have a harder time recommending The Dark Wind to those unfamiliar with the books, as it has a slow pace and will probably be hard to follow. I also liked the adapatation of Coyote Waits quite a bit, less than The Dark Wind, but much more than Skinwalkers.

My comments may be a little late to the party, but this was the first one I've seen adapting one of Tony Hillerman's Navajo mystery novels to the screen. After seeing the movie and reading some of the comments, it is evident there are too many reviewers getting caught up in the location and tribal origin of the actors chosen, thus, obscuring the fact that this is a decent, enjoyable, and satisfying movie. If it compels a few people who haven't had the opportunity to pick up any of Hillerman's work and start enjoying the unique mixture of Navajo Indian culture and old-fashioned who-dun-it, then it did its job.

Though I haven't read all of the series, including the book this movie was based upon, the movie was a respectable representation of a typical Hillerman novel. I think one reviewer was right on the nose when they mentioned that both Leaphorn's and Chee's character, the two principle individuals in a good number of the novel series, were not entirely faithful to the book. That may have been necessary because in the books, both of them don't say anymore than necessary and there are a lot of character thoughts expressed to the reader, something that can't be done as easily through a movie unless the director uses a voice-over approach to express the thoughts. It wouldn't have worked, so I'm glad it wasn't done. Still, as an avid reader, Joe was overly stoic and Chee had a little too much gee-whiz kind of look. Believe me, these are small quibbles for what is otherwise an admirable job to play these two decidedly different men.

What is over-emphasized is the repeated complaint of those who say the characters didn't look Navajo-like or that the locations didn't represent the Navajo nation in general. As far as them not looking Navajo enough, I'd be willing to bet most of them didn't get that while watching the movie, they probably learned that little tidbit of information through the movie sites with extensive biographical info on the actors. So, exactly how many people who watch the movie who aren't from the immediate area are going to give a cactus prick about the actors not matching the tribal features of most Navajos? Precisely zip. Were these people also ones to object to Graham Greene playing the part of a Sioux native American in Dances With Wolves, considering he is a Oneidan native from Canada??? I doubt it. I'll watch Graham Greene playing anything, whether the part calls for native North American or not. Busting the chops of those who put together this movie because the wrong ancestry of the actors who were put in just should nitpick more important things like bills from Congress. The location complaint is just as bogus, it may have been too flat but it doesn't detract from the essence of film.

It isn't a perfect film, but it was well worth the time spent and I'll be looking out for more of these adaptations. It is a tribute to Hillerman's work that his would be the first mystery series based on an American novel to be produced through Mystery, who has provided such a terrific portfolio of British based mysteries for a long time.

I just caught this on PBS for the first time and immediately noticed all the errors and shortcomings I had planned to document before seeing they had been mentioned by viewers already. Morris Bitsie in particular has commented accurately, as have all the people who vastly preferred the book(s).

It just begs the question to have the benefit of Tony Hillerman's own acknowledgement in the afterword that the process of making a movie is very different from that of writing a novel. But to see the movie set on the low desert instead of the high plateau of the Navajo nation is almost as sacrilegious as giving short shrift to the actual language, religion, and culture of the Dine themselves.

As a former student at Northern Arizona University with many friends on the nation, I was dismayed to see Hillerman's sensitive and intricate plot and characters chopped up, re-sorted, and spat out as yet another Hollywood style detective yarn. Only the mere fact that all the main characters were at least Native Americans saved it, though the usual all-Indians-look-alike-so-why-bother-to-get-real-Navajos aspect is so obvious as to be ludicrous.

Because I want to see better versions of Hillerman in the future, and I think Adam Beach has an appealing start toward a real Jim Chee, I rated this about four points too high at a 7 of 10. Next time I want to see real Navajos, however.

A long-time fan of the books, I watched the film a little on edge. Could they do justice to Hillerman's sensitivity for The People and not get bogged down in a dusty melodrama? My reaction when it was over was mixed. The characterizations were fine; I had already casted the role of Leaphorn to Wes Studi, so I had no complaints about the cast. Ultimately, it was the pacing that diminished the movie. There is a lot of ground to cover in this story, especially with the counterpoint of Emma's illness intruding throughout. It all unravels too quickly, and this robs the story of the deliberative drama Hillerman spins out so well. And speaking of ground to cover, where were the panoramas of the Southwest?

This movie gave a moving portrayal of Native Americans, between ones that wants to dismiss their past and assimilate with the outsider and their cultures, and ones that wants to hang on to their tradition. It shows how some are struggling with keeping their tradition in the modern world that is continuously moving forward, while others are torn between accepting the new and keeping with the old, or even ones who are completely disillusioned with their heritage to the point of violent counter-reactions. It all comes down to a complicated clash between various characters and how each one resolves the issue within itself.

This was a good mystery film too, revealing little by little as to the motive for the murders.

Chris Eyre did a good job in this film, having seen his other movie Smoke Signals, he gives a somber atmosphere to both of these films. Not invoking the usual depressing ambience usually portrayed on these kind of environment, but not over-glorifying any aspects either.

All in all, a worthy film to watch.