Customer Reviews

Skinwalkers [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Last night on PBS, Americans were able to view the first of the "American" mysteries in PBS's long-running Mystery series AND were finally treated to a Tony Hillerman novel done as a movie in accessible and successful form. [Dark Wind was made into a major motion picture and only released on video. Despite the miscastings, I think it is worth tracking down a copy.] Skinwalkers finds Lt. Joe Leaphorn, city indian and rationalist, working with Officer Jim Chee, traditionalist and wannabe medicine man, trying to solve a series of killings involving medicine men on the Navajo Reservation. The link between the murders appears to be an old paint factory and some decades old cases of lead poisoning. Joe's wife Emma's cancer has returned and Jim meets city indian public defender Janet Pete. As with any Hillerman story, the landscape is a major character and the human characters play out the inner and outer conflicts of what it means to be an indian. The casting is Native American where it should be [albeit not necessarily Navajo]. One of the more glaring errors involves Lt. Leaphorn's office wall map, which is missing in action from the movie. [My Mother called me right after the airing and that is the first thing that we mentioned to each other!] My big complaint concerns the setting. It appears the film was shot around Superior, Arizona, an area far to the south of the rez and the red rock country of the Colorado Plateau. For people who have not read any Hilllerman, this may not be a problem, but for people who have read the novels, this will probably be worse than any of the changes that were made to the story when it was converted into a screenplay. All in all, Skinwalkers kept the essence of the original novel and shows that you can successfully film a Tony Hilerman novel.

Except for the title, "Skinwalkers", starring Adam Beach and Wes Studi, bears little resemblance to the Tony Hillerman novel upon which it is supposedly based. The plot involves the murders of several Navajo medicine men (haatali), but beyond that never really deals with the issue of witches (the Skinwalkers of the title) or witchcraft that was so central to the book. In fact, it seems that the script writers hadn't even bothered to read Hillerman's novel but rather some Cliff Notes version that sketched out the plot that was then subsequently altered out of all recognition.

As in many film adaptations of novels, characters are conflated and story elements dropped. None of this would be a problem if the script and direction were up to par, which, unfortunately, they are not. The talents of Studi and Beach are wasted here. The directing is flat and by the numbers, a fault accentuated by the poor writing. Studi's character, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal (Nation) Police is particularly ill-served. The movie version of Leaphorn, unlike his literary namesake, is completely clueless about his own Navajo culture and may as well be an Iroquois dropped into the middle of the "Rez". Adam Beach's character Jim Chee comes off a bit better, if only because he's more true to his literary roots--a Navajo police officer studying to be a haatali.

On the plus side, the film does not shy away from some of the social problems that afflict many of those living on the reservation, particularly the terrible effects of alcholism, poverty, and, now, gang culture (this last did not factor in the book). The first two, especially, figure prominently in most of the Chee/Leaphorn volumes. Director Chris Eyre also handles the generational tension between Leaphorn and Chee in a fairly deft manner, leaving intact the counterintuitive viewpoints of the two men: Leaphorn the older, rationalist cop and Chee, the younger and more traditional officer.

"Skinwalkers", the second attempt to adapt one of Hillerman's books (the ill-fated "The Dark Wind" was the first), ultimately disapoints. Hillerman fans will have to wait awhile longer for a film (or, better yet, miniseries) that does justice to its source material.

1. OK, so it isn't the book. Not word for word, not even in many respects the plot--so what? The first movie from a Hillerman novel, The Dark Wind, was the book, all the different plot lines, and while the book was really good, it was way too convoluted for a movie. I certainly don't blame the producer for opting for a plot which a moviewatcher could follow.

2. Given that, they did a very good job of keeping the Navajo mysticism, yet making a movie one could follow without having to have read the book first. I heartily recommend this movie to anyone interested in a good mystery, Tony Hillerman's work, reservation life, or Navajo culture. It isn't completely any of the last three, but it is an introduction to all of them while it is completely a good mystery.

3. Jim Chee is one of my favorite characters in literature. Adam Beach is probably too good looking to fit my image of Chee, but for sure he captured the spirit of Chee from the novels. The character of Joe Leaphorn is largely different from the novels and I wish they hadn't made that departure. But that said, the movie Leaphorn is a solid detective and once I got used to the difference I got over it. Not the same as the novel, but see #1 above. Would you rather have no movie, or have one with some changes?

I choose to have the movie. I choose to get over being a purist. I've only seen two movies ever which seemed to be almost rigidly true to their novels, and both of those movies were falures. I enjoyed this movie, and there wasn't anything in it which conflicts with the themes and spirit of Hillerman's novels.

4. The women in the movie do not have the screen time the men do, but their parts are important to the script and very well played by the actresses. The movie does keep Leaphorn's tender devotion to his wife, which is really well done, and Chee's conflicting feelings and relationship with Janet Pete are both realistic and well played.

5. When I say I'll take the movie I'm not suggesting that it is some kind of consolation prize. It's a good movie in it's own right. I wasn't completely spellbound, so I only give it four stars, but I gave it four because it deserves them. If you want to sit there and compare it to the novel, give it penalty points for each variance, go ahead and be a disappointed purist. But if you like good, well acted, mystery movies, particularly ones with an introduction to another culture, you will be glad you chose this one.

More, Mr. Redford, give us more of these excellent adaptations of Tony Hillerman's absolutely excellent work and characters.

I watched this adaptation of Tony Hillerman's "Skinwalkers" on PBS and must admit that I went into it with high expectations. Being a long-time Hillerman fan I looked forward to seeing his characters, in one of his best novels, come to life. Unfortunately, what I saw on the screen bore only a passing resemblance to the novel. Now, I realize that this will brand me as a "purist", but I feel if one is going to "adapt" a novel one should stick fairly close to the original storyline, abridging where necessary, and not changing the entire tenor of the plot as has happened here. One good example of how this can be done is the film adaptation of "L.A. Confidential" that came out a few years ago. The central storyline remained intact and the characters remained essentially faithful to their literary counterparts. The latter film also points up the fact that viewers are quite capable of following a complicated plotline.

On its own merits, "Skinwalkers" is ok as a mystery. Even a flawed movie about the Dine' (Navajo) is better than none, and "Skinwalkers" does bring a rich Native American culture to greater public awareness. That being said, the film is ultimately disapointing on a number of levels, due mainly to changes in both plot and characterizations that were, IMHO, unneccesary. Leave out Joe Leaphorn's map? May as well have Hercule Poirot shave off his mustache.

This movie captures some of the Leaphorn and Chee feelings from Hillerman's excellent books, but the plot is not the one in the Skinwalkers book. The plot is not bad, it just doesn't happen to be the same. There are elements which are similar, such as the attack on Chee and the witchcraft element, but many other items in the movie have nothing to do with the book storyline. Elements from other Hillerman books have been added to this movie. For example, Emma has a recurrance of cancer in the movie, while in the book Leaphorn is concerned about Alzheimers. The juvenile delinquents in the movie are nothing from the book, the motive to the shooting at Chee is totally different, and the motive for the killings is totally diffent. it's not a bad plot, it's just a completely different story from the book by the same name.

Perhaps for me the most disappointing is it appears the movie was not made on the reservation, so location shots are wrong. There is some, but many other locations appear to be desert locations in Arizona which have very different vegetation and topography than the Shiprock - Farmington - Chinle - Window Rock area where this is supposed to be. One scene even had saguaro catus - impossible! I'll have to watch it a few more times to really place the movie locations.

The acting is good, but I thought they gave Leaphorn a different personality from the book. Adam Beach is good, as is Janet Peete. I am not disappointed I bought the video, but it was not all of what I was hoping for.

I saw this on PBS and wouldn't buy the DVD.
If I wans't such a fan of Tony Hillerman's series, I might have tolerated this better. I don't mind so much that the story line of the movie had very little in common with the book, I was mostly disappointed in not recognizing the main characters. They seem to have very little in common with the characters crafted by Mr. Hillerman, although the Jim Chee is much much closer than Joe Leaphorn. One example of this re-invention of Leaphorn is the case of the missing map. Leaphorn, in this movie, is brand new to the reservation, so the map that is in the books, with all it's rich history of information, and a focus for Leaphorn's concentration, can't exist in the movie. I liked the actors they chose to portray Chee and Leaphorn, but they weren't the characters I have come to know in the books.

If you have never read Hillerman's books, you may like the movie. I will probably watch the next incarnation on PBS - but I'm not expecting much.

I love Tony Hillerman's style and characters. I also love Robert Redford as a director. So I was totally at loss when I watched this movie,which possibly had 3 things that had been in the book. The actors were good and I think I would have liked some honesty from Hillerman and Redford acknowledging that the movie and book had little in common, but the characters. However, live and learn - watching the movie again, (not as a Hillerman book) -I have to admit it wasn't to bad - except for the teenage gang and the hand in the soup

Fans of Tony Hillerman all know about his exceptional research, which make his Southwestern mysteries a pleasure to read. Since these films have been geared for the PBS audience (many of whom have never read Hillerman before) the tone is changed, and somewhat simplified. This is in addition to the necessary editing that happens whenever a book is adapted into a film. If you've read several of the mysteries featuring Jim Chee and Lt. Leaphorn, expect to be a little disappointed. There just is not time to do their characters (let alone Emma and Janet Pete) justice.

Movies featuring Native Americans are few and far between - like "Smoke Signals" (also starring Adam Beach), "Windtalkers" (funny how many years it took to make a movie about the Windtalkers in WWII, and even then much of it centers on Nicholas Cage's character, instead of Adam Beach) "Pow Wow Highway", even "Dances with Wolves". It's somewhat of a coup that PBS and Robert Redford have developed this picture, with plans for more.

While this is not the classic that "Smoke Signals" was, it does capture the slower pace of the Navajo Nation. Unlike episodes of "The X-Files", "Roswell," and "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Native rituals and medicine men are presented as part of a living spirituality, one that exists in everyday life on the reservation. No one shows up to give Wil Wheaton or David Duchovny a vision quest, and (thankfully) there are no aliens.

If you want to see dramatic films about American Indians, you're in a lot of trouble. I'm obviously not talking about the old black and white western movies where a bunch of Indians sweep down on a log fort manned by soldiers, or launch an assault on a wagon train in order to scalp a bunch of settlers. I'm not talking about movies where one or two scenes with Indians fits into the larger picture. I'm not even talking about documentaries about Indians. What I'm talking about are fictional films centering solely on Indian characters, films with a mostly Indian cast, and films made by Indians. This is where Chris Eyre comes in. The director of the powerful "Skins" turns in another bravura effort with "Skinwalkers," an adaptation of a Tony Hillerman novel of the same name. While I haven't read the book and thus cannot comment on whether Eyre's movie is faithful to the printed page, I can say the movie is a phenomenally entertaining murder mystery story. In fact, Eyre made the film for PBS's "Mystery" program. According to an extra on the DVD, Robert Redford helped finance the film and served as a sort of hands off executive producer.

There's a big problem on the Navajo reservation. Someone, or something, killed one of the more prominent shamans out on a road in the middle of nowhere. Investigating the crime are two cops, Joe Leaphorn (Wes Studi) and Jim Chee (Adam Beach). The two men couldn't be more different in style and substance. Leaphorn lived off the reservation for years, working as a cop in the big city until his wife Emma (Sheila Tousey) insisted they return to the reservation. His years away have instilled in the man a deep-seated ignorance of Indian life and a suspicion for anything that he cannot prove with solid evidence. Chee, on the other hand, is not only an up and coming cop on the tribal police force with an eye on moving into the top job, he's also studying to become a shaman. It is Chee who indicates that the cryptic evidence left at the crime scene hints at an ancient evil called a skinwalker, or a demonic force (for lack of a better term) that assumes the shape of others to carry out nefarious deeds. Leaphorn scoffs at such nonsense, preferring instead to focus the investigation on tracking down potential human enemies of the murder victim.

The mystery behind the killing assumes even greater dimensions when Chee and several other shamans become targets. Someone goes to the extreme step of blasting Chee's house with a shotgun in an effort to kill the cop. The investigation of the crime widens as Leaphorn and Chee learn that an environmental disaster some years ago might shed some light on events unfolding now. A subplot involving the return of Emma Leaphorn's illness, as well as one about a budding relationship between Chee and prosecutor Janet Pete (Alex Rice) move to center stage from time to time. Too, the smart as a whip physician at the tribal hospital, Doctor Stone (Michael Greyeyes) eventually plays a prominent role in the proceedings. I could give you more by stringing these disparate threads together, but I don't want to ruin the film for you. "Skinwalkers" is an incredible murder mystery film that fully engages the viewer from the opening scene and never lets up. There are so many potential suspects in the story that I almost thought I was watching an Italian giallo without the black gloves and gore.

I saw the film as an effort to show how two competing cultures can compliment one another during a crisis. Chee is obviously the Indian with the knowledge and background necessary to handle the spiritual side of the case. Leaphorn's hardheaded realism and his ability to look at things in a purely analytical sense help clear hurdles as well. Eyre, at least in the two films of his I have seen, seems to be a guy who refuses to place political correctness at the center of his work. He did refer to a few festering points of contention with whites in "Skins," but these issues never consumed a film he made to showcase people on reservations as human beings with both good and bad personality traits. He does the same thing in "Skinwalkers," preferring to focus on making an entertaining whodunit without harping on controversial issues. On the other hand, Eyre does take a jab at Studi's character when we see him sitting in his house on the reservation looking up information about skinwalkers on the Internet instead of walking outside to tap the vast knowledge of his people, but by the end of the film Leaphorn learns that the people here know helpful things that could assist him. By the way, I take issue with people who criticize this film by pointing out that the actors butchered the Navajo language, the setting was all wrong for the reservation, and other nitpicky points. C'mon people! It's a movie! The next time I see a film about World War II, easily identifiable Germans who speak the language fluently better play all of the German roles. Sheesh.

Eyre's picture is a massively entertaining film that will delight fans of the mystery genre. A comprehensive making of featurette included as an extra runs through all the paces. Oddly enough, we learn that James Redford, Bobby's son, wrote the screenplay. An obvious case of nepotism to be sure. You would think they tried to get Tony Hillerman to write the adaptation (unless the author passed away or something). I would definitely watch "Skinwalkers" again, and probably will if I get the chance. I can't wait to check out "Smoke Signals" in the next few days. I want to see if Chris Eyre can go three for three.

This movie barely has any parts that are similar to the actual Tony Hillerman Skinwalkers novel! Some important characters are taken out of the book, while new characters were also added! The Murderer isn't even the right murderer! Leaphorn's personality is all wrong and Chee gets to angry! This is only a good movie if you ignore all the differences between it and the book. If you haven't read the book, it will be a good movie. But, the book is much better!!!!