The Missing (2003)

In 1885 New Mexico, a frontier medicine woman forms an uneasy alliance with her estranged father when her daughter is kidnapped by an Apache brujo.

Director:

Ron Howard

Writers:

Thomas Eidson (novel), Ken Kaufman (screenplay)

Stars:

Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood

2 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Samuel Jones
Cate Blanchett	...	Magdalena Gilkeson
Evan Rachel Wood	...	Lilly Gilkeson
Jenna Boyd	...	Dot Gilkeson
Aaron Eckhart	...	Brake Baldwin
Val Kilmer	...	Lt. Jim Ducharme
Sergio Calderón	...	Emiliano
Eric Schweig	...	Chidin
Steve Reevis	...	Two Stone
Jay Tavare	...	Kayitah
Simon Baker	...	Honesco
Ray McKinnon	...	Russell J. Wittick
Max Perlich	...	Isaac Edgerly
Ramon Frank	...	Grummond
Deryle J. Lujan	...	Naazhaao - Hunter

Storyline

In 19th-century New Mexico, a father (Tommy Lee Jones) comes back home, hoping to reconcile with his adult daughter Maggie (Cate Blanchett). Maggie's daughter is kidnapped, forcing father and estranged daughter to work together to get her back.

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Plot Keywords:

child gagged | revisionist western | new mexico territory | apache territory | sonora mexico | 

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Taglines:

How far would you go, how much would you sacrifice to get back what you have lost?

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Genres:

Adventure | Thriller | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tommy Lee Jones and Eric Schweig learned some Chiricahua Apache for this film. Their instructors were two of the last three remaining fluent speakers.

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Goofs

Jones and Dot were wearing hats before they were washed downstream during the flash flood. But when they were climbing out of the water onto dry land, they weren't wearing their hats. In the next scene when they were riding their horses they were wearing their hats again. There is no way they could have found their hats after the flash flood.

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Quotes

Chidin: [speaking Chiricahua] Take your bad luck to your grave.

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Alternate Versions

Although the film was shot in the Super 35 format for 2.39:1 and protected for 1.33:1, the VHS and the Full Screen DVD mostly Pans and Scans as if it were shot in Anamorphic Widescreen instead of properly framing it for Full Frame as most Super 35 films are. Only a few shots in this movie were reframed properly.

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Connections

Referenced in Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

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Soundtracks

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze
(uncredited)
Lyrics by George Leybourne
Music by Gaston Lyle

User Reviews

Yes, there was something MISSING

Ron Howard did not intend to make a straight up Western movie. That's the first problem here. Howard didn't want The Missing to be identified with a specific genre. This is part Western, part period drama, part mystical thriller, part action movie. Using several genres to make this unique could have worked, if Howard had combined them all in one. But the problem is that he seemed to keep changing his mind every 25 minutes of screentime. At first it's a period drama about a family, then it's a western, then it's an action movie, then it's a mystical thriller. There was no consistency with what the story was supposed to be. To add to this, The Missing was too long. I have no problem with long movies. I don't mind movies that are 3:30 hours long, if every scene feels like it belongs and is relevant. But here, there are several scenes that could have been cut. And going back to my complaint about there not being a specific genre, I think it could have worked if it was only a period drama/action/western. But when it got into the mystical Indian witchcraft, I checked out. We had more than an hour and a half building this up as a legitimate and realistic dramatic film taking place in the western time period, and all of a sudden, it's a fantasy movie. If it had been about mystical Indian witchcraft from the start, those scenes would not have been out of place. But to spring it on the audience the way it was done, it was totally out of place.

I feel a little weird making my complaints about The Missing, because I actually did enjoy watching it, for the most part. I thought it built an interesting story and I was satisfied with how it concluded. Tommy Lee Jones is at his best since Rules Of Engagement. Cate Blanchett was without a doubt at her best since Elizabeth. And the dialogue is fantastic, as is the Cinematography. James Horner surprise me with his score. It was different from what I'm used to him doing. I loved the story and thought it was entertaining to watch. So why doesn't The Missing work as well as it could have? Simply because Ron Howard had a very ambitious idea about how to make a Western movie different and unique, but didn't spend quite enough time developing it. If Howard had taken an extra 6 months of pre-production, I'm convinced this could have been the brilliant movie that Howard probably had a vision for.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Apache languages Spanish

Release Date:

26 November 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Last Ride

Filming Locations:

New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,833,633, 30 November 2003

Gross USA:

$27,011,180

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$38,364,277

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, Imagine Entertainment, Daniel Ostroff Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

137 min 154 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1