Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Director:

Scott Hicks

Writers (WGA):

David Guterson (novel)
Ronald Bass (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 January 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

First loves last. Forever.

Plot:

A Japanese-American fisherman may have killed his neighbor Carl at sea. In the 1950's, race figures in the trial. So does reporter Ishmael.

Plot Keywords:

Fisherman | Japanese American | 1950s | Small Town | Trial

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Ethan Hawke	...	Ishmael Chambers
Youki Kudoh	...	Hatsue Miyamoto
Reeve Carney	...	Young Ishmael Chambers
Anne Suzuki	...	Young Hatsue Imada
Rick Yune	...	Kazuo Miyamoto
Max von Sydow	...	Nels Gudmundsson (as Max Von Sydow)
James Rebhorn	...	Alvin Hooks
James Cromwell	...	Judge Fielding
Richard Jenkins	...	Sheriff Art Moran
Arija Bareikis	...	Susan Marie Heine
Eric Thal	...	Carl Heine Jr.
Celia Weston	...	Etta Heine
Daniel von Bargen	...	Carl Heine Sr. (as Daniel Von Bargen)
Akira Takayama	...	Hisao Imada
Ako	...	Fujiko Imada

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, sensuality and brief strong language.

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Finland:S | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Australia:M | Iceland:12 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Denmark:11 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 (936516) | Norway:11 | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Cathlamet, Washington, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Many of the extras in the scene where the Japanese are sent to internment camps were Japanese-Americans who had actually been sent to the camps in the 1940s.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Ismael looks over the yearbook from his high school, Mossyrock High located in Mossyrock, Washington. The actual town of Mossyrock is in Lewis County, miles away from the ocean and Puget Sound, where the fictional San Pedro County supposedly is located.

Quotes:

Young Hatsue Imada: Don't be sorry. I'm not.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Spotlight on Location: Snow Falling on Cedars (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Moon over Burma

Almost perfect

Adapting this novel with its tricky, time-shifting narrative was always going to be a big task, but Scott Hicks' sumptuous and elegant film very nearly pulls it off. Hicks and co-writer Ron Bass move quickly into the courtroom and wisely use the trial to drive the plot, telling the backstory - the real story in this case - through a finely-woven complex of flashbacks. The difficulty is that this story is a rich, long and emotional tale which requires a fair degree of exposition for it to be satisfying. The screenplay is superbly economical in this regard, but there is no escaping the fact that the only way to cover so much ground in a film of tolerable length is to fly over it at 30,000 feet. The necessarily distant treatment this requires occasionally dilutes the emotional force which would have come from a more thorough and leisurely telling. Hicks strives valiantly to compensate with a powerfully emotive score - this works, but it doesn't always hit the mark. Rather than engendering emotion, James Newton Howard's musical is often so insistently overpowering that it locks the audience out. On occasions I felt strangely alienated by a wall of sound when I knew I should have been in tears. But that's a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent production. Overall, this is an intelligent and considered adaptation - probably the best that could be made from a novel which would have been incredibly difficult to bring to the screen. It's solidly acted, immaculately lit, and offers some of the most achingly beautiful imagery to illuminate the screen in years (the opening shots are magnificent). Most rewarding of all is the fact that Scott Hicks takes some real stylistic risks with this film. They don't always pay off, but when they do it's magical.