Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Woody Harrelson | ... | Dr. Michael Reynolds | |
Jon Seda | ... | Brandon 'Blue' Monroe | |
Anne Bancroft | ... | Dr. Renata Baumbauer | |
Alexandra Tydings | ... | Victoria Reynolds | |
Matt Mulhern | ... | Dr. Chip Byrnes | |
Talisa Soto | ... | Navajo Woman | |
![]() |
Richard Bauer | ... | Dr. Bradford |
![]() |
Victor Aaron | ... | Webster Skyhorse |
Lawrence Pressman | ... | Agent in Charge Collier | |
Michael O'Neill | ... | Agent Moreland | |
Harry Carey Jr. | ... | Cashier | |
Carmen Dell'Orefice | ... | Arabella | |
![]() |
Brooke Ashley | ... | Calantha Reynolds |
Andrea Roth | ... | Head Nurse | |
Bob Minor | ... | Deputy Lynch |
Michael Reynolds is a rich oncologist who has a one hundred seventy-five thousand dollar sports car, a multi-million dollar house, and a new boost in his career. Brandon "Blue" Monroe is a dying patient who kidnaps Reynolds. They are going to a legendary Navajo healing place while a manhunt closes in. Soon the men get closer in understanding, and to the place that may save them both. Written by Robert Krzanowski <stonedpsycho@hotmail.com>
Michael Cimino's final film "The Sunchaser" bombed but I suppose after "Heaven's Gate" Cimino was lucky to get any kind of gig. Consequently, the film virtually disappeared without trace and is, of course, now ripe for rediscovery. It's no masterpiece, (unlike "Heaven's Gate" which I firmly believe is a masterpiece), but it's no turkey either and is sufficiently 'strange' to be of more than passing interest.
It's a kind of road movie/buddy movie in which a 16 year old prisoner, (26 year old Jon Seda, excellent), who happens to be dying of cancer, escapes taking his doctor, (a miscast Woody Harrelson), hostage. It veers wildly between black comedy and some high flautin' philosophizing, bypassing the conventions of the thriller on the way. It's an ambitious picture that makes you wonder what audience Cimino had in mind, (did we really need the dotty Anne Bancroft episode), and you could say it's certainly the work of a maverick director, being closer in tone to the American films of the seventies than what was being turned out in the nineties and for all its faults you can tell it's the work of a major filmmaker, one whose real potential was never fully realized. Seek this one out.