Film Review
Michael Cimino strikes out again
By Scott FoundasFilm Editor
The last 20
minutes or so of Michael Cimino's "Sunchaser" contain some passages of
great beauty, reminding you that this is indeed the director who fashioned
the masterful "The Deer Hunter" nearly 20 years ago, before his career took
one of the most notorious downward spirals in Hollywood history. So it comes as an
especially great disappointment that everything leading up to the climax of
Cimino's new film is as shoddy and clumsy (perhaps even inept) as it
comes.The shenanigans concern one
Dr. Michael Reynolds (Woody Harrelson), a workaholic about to be promoted
to director of oncology at the UCLA Medical center. Standing in his way,
however, is Blue (Jon Seda), a hardened teenage criminal and one of
Reynolds' terminal patients who takes the good doctor hostage during a
frenzied break from police custody. Blue needs Reynolds to help him find
the sacred Navajo mountain where he believes he can find a cure, and so
begins the clichd desert journey during which our protagonists will both
undergo allegedly profound periods of self-discovery and redemption.Even that would be fine if
Cimino's style wasn't so antagonistic, constantly jarring the viewer out of
the action with an endlessly moving camera that swings, jumps and tracks
circularly for no apparent reason. The editing is a mess as well, making it
impossible to follow Seda's climactic explanation of the film's title
amidst the hyper-stylized insert shots of Reynolds' childhood and deafening
musical compositions.That thunderous overscore
by the usually great Maurice Jarre actually deserves a lot of the blame for
the film's failure, as does Cimino for using it. It's the sort of blaring
cacophony of cymbals, brass and percussion that sounds like leftovers from
"The Longest Day" or one of the other World War II films for which Jarre
composed."Sunchaser" becomes a lot
more compelling once Blue and Reynolds finally reach Navajo ground. Here,
Cimino tones his "style" down a bit and we come to believe that this
expedition really has become as important for Reynolds as it is for
Blue--or more so. For that, Woody Harrelson deserves great acclaim, as he
is superb in his first truly adult performance. Even in the awkward first
acts, he shines clearly as a troubled man who mistakenly chooses to
sacrifice happiness in the pursuit of success. Seda is fine as well in his
first major role, and the two actors share a nice chemistry."Sunchaser" is a middling
film at best, redeemed enough by its finale to avoid complete awfulness,
but most of the fault for the obscuring of a basically interesting story
(by first-time screenwriter Charles Leavitt) lies with Cimino. What exactly
has happened to this arrogant but undeniably talented filmmaker is a
mystery, though he is lucky even to be working today given the disaster of
"Heaven's Gate." "Sunchaser" is a movie made by a man as uncertain as his
own characters, a man for whom it may represent either a mere marking time
or a death knell. C-"Sunchaser" is playing exclusively at AMC Century 14.