The Sunchaser
Encyclopedia
Sunchaser is a 1996
film directed by Michael Cimino
and starring Woody Harrelson
, Jon Seda
and Anne Bancroft
. This is director Cimino's last feature-length film.
During a medical visit, the patient discovers that he has only a month to live and decides to escape. He kidnaps Dr. Reynolds and forces him to drive to Arizona
to visit a mountain lake sacred to the Navajo people
. The trip forces both to confront their sense-of-self and life choices.
, fellow collaborator and friend of Cimino, believes the director “snapped” sometime during the making of The Sunchaser. “Michael is the sort of person that if you take away his money he short-circuits,” Rourke says. “He is a man of honor.” Rourke did not say how or why Cimino “snapped.”
Joe D’Augustine, the film's editor, recalls his first meeting with Cimino: “It was kind of eerie, freaky. I was led into this dark editing room with black velvet curtains and there was this guy hunched over. They bring me into, like, his chamber, as if he was the Pope. Everyone was speaking in hushed tones. He had something covering his face, a handkerchief. He kept his face covered. And nobody was allowed to take his picture [...] Welcome to Ciminoville.”
for the Palme D'Or
.
of Variety
was somewhat disappointed by the film, saying, "Michael Cimino's return to filmmaking after a six-year layoff, is a conceptually bold tale marked, in its execution, both by visceral intensity and dramatic sloppiness." Jo-Ann Pittman wrote in Film Directors that Sunchaser was "a predictable and often laughable script. Not good considering it is a drama. The characters are stereotypical and the story again lacks direction. It attempts to handle too many stories at one time. The New Age
mystical healing waters are cliche as is the kidnapper/victim story." Leonard Maltin
gave the film one and a half stars: "Misbegotten mess tries to touch all trendy bases, scrambling American Indian mysticism, "New Age" theories and buddy-movie clichés into the format of a road movie."
Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times
gave Sunchaser one of its few positive notices. While noting the predictabilty of the script, Thomas added, "Yet all that's so familiar in Charles
Leavitt's script has been given a fresh, brisk spin by the sheer audacity and force of Cimino's style and by an incisive, wide-ranging performance by Harrelson..."
1996 in film
Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
film directed by Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. He is best known for writing and directing Academy Award-winning The Deer Hunter and the infamous Heaven's Gate. His films are characterized by their striking visual style and controversial subject...
and starring Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
, Jon Seda
Jon Seda
Jonathan Seda is an American actor, possibly best known for his role as Detective Paul Falsone on NBC's: Homicide: Life on the Street....
and Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
. This is director Cimino's last feature-length film.
Plot summary
"Blue" Monroe (played by Seda) is a 16-year-old juvenile offender (convicted of murdering an abusive stepfather) who is dying of abdominal cancer. Dr. Michael Reynolds (played by Harrelson) is Blue's rich, self-absorbed oncologist.During a medical visit, the patient discovers that he has only a month to live and decides to escape. He kidnaps Dr. Reynolds and forces him to drive to Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
to visit a mountain lake sacred to the Navajo people
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
. The trip forces both to confront their sense-of-self and life choices.
Cast
- Woody HarrelsonWoody HarrelsonWoodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
- Dr. Michael Reynolds - Jon SedaJon SedaJonathan Seda is an American actor, possibly best known for his role as Detective Paul Falsone on NBC's: Homicide: Life on the Street....
- Brandon 'Blue' Monroe - Anne BancroftAnne BancroftAnne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
- Dr. Renata Baumbauer - Alexandra TydingsAlexandra TydingsAlexandra Tydings Luzzatto is an American actress, best known for her role as the Greek goddess Aphrodite on the popular TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and on its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess.-Early life:She first began her career at the age of 11 at the Royal Ballet's production of...
- Victoria Reynolds - Matt MulhernMatt MulhernMatt Mulhern is an American actor who has starred in such films as One Crazy Summer and Biloxi Blues, and such television series such as Major Dad, JAG, and Rescue Me....
- Dr. Chip Byrnes - Talisa SotoTalisa Soto-Early life:Born Miriam Soto in Brooklyn, New York, Soto is the youngest of four children born to an Italian mother and a Canadian father of Puerto Rican descent. Her parents later relocated to Northampton, Massachusetts where Soto and her siblings were raised and educated.-Modeling:At the age of...
- Navajo Woman - Richard Bauer - Dr. Bradford
- Victor AaronVictor AaronVictor Aaron was a Native American actor of the Yaqui tribe. He was the original voice of John Redcorn on King of the Hill, which was taken over by Jonathan Joss in the show's second season following Aaron's death. He died in a road accident in 1996...
- Webster Skyhorse - Lawrence PressmanLawrence PressmanDavid M. Pressman, Senior is an American actor, probably best known for roles on Doogie Howser, M.D., Ladies Man, a recurring role on Profiler, the titular character on Mulligan's Stew and as a fictional scientist in the 1971 film The Hellstrom Chronicle.His first role was on the soap opera The...
- Agent in Charge Collier - Michael O'NeillMichael O'Neill (actor)Michael O'Neill is an American actor.With a career stretching through three decades, he usually portrays senior law enforcement or military officers. He is perhaps best known for his role as Special Agent Ron Butterfield, the head of President Josiah Bartlet's Secret Service detail, on The West Wing...
- Agent Moreland - Harry Carey Jr. - Cashier
- Carmen Dell'OreficeCarmen Dell'OreficeCarmen Dell’Orefice is an American model and actress, born in New York, NY. She is known within the fashion industry for being the world's oldest working model as of the Spring/Summer 2012 season. She covered Vogue at the mere age of 15, and has been modelling ever since.-Early life:Carmen’s...
- Arabella - Brooke AshleyBrooke AshleyBrooke Ashley is the stage name of a pornographic film actress.Ashley left the industry after finding out on March 29, 1998 that she was HIV positive...
- Calantha Reynolds - Andrea RothAndrea RothAndrea Roth is a Canadian actress. She is perhaps best known for her role on the FX television series Rescue Me , as Janet Gavin, the wife of main character Tommy Gavin.-Biography:...
- Head Nurse - Bob Minor - Deputy Lynch
Production
Mickey RourkeMickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....
, fellow collaborator and friend of Cimino, believes the director “snapped” sometime during the making of The Sunchaser. “Michael is the sort of person that if you take away his money he short-circuits,” Rourke says. “He is a man of honor.” Rourke did not say how or why Cimino “snapped.”
Joe D’Augustine, the film's editor, recalls his first meeting with Cimino: “It was kind of eerie, freaky. I was led into this dark editing room with black velvet curtains and there was this guy hunched over. They bring me into, like, his chamber, as if he was the Pope. Everyone was speaking in hushed tones. He had something covering his face, a handkerchief. He kept his face covered. And nobody was allowed to take his picture [...] Welcome to Ciminoville.”
Release
A theatrical release was intended but the film fared poorly enough with test audiences to go straight to video. The film was entered into competition at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival1996 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Francis Ford Coppola *Nathalie Baye *Greta Scacchi, actrice *Michael Ballhaus *Henry Chapier *Atom Egoyan *Eiko Ishioka *Krzysztof Piesiewicz *Antonio Tabucchi...
for the Palme D'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
.
Critical reception
The film received largely negative reviews. Todd McCarthyTodd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy is an American film critic. He wrote for Variety for 31 years as its chief film critic before being fired in 2010. He is currently a critic for The Hollywood Reporter....
of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
was somewhat disappointed by the film, saying, "Michael Cimino's return to filmmaking after a six-year layoff, is a conceptually bold tale marked, in its execution, both by visceral intensity and dramatic sloppiness." Jo-Ann Pittman wrote in Film Directors that Sunchaser was "a predictable and often laughable script. Not good considering it is a drama. The characters are stereotypical and the story again lacks direction. It attempts to handle too many stories at one time. The New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
mystical healing waters are cliche as is the kidnapper/victim story." Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
gave the film one and a half stars: "Misbegotten mess tries to touch all trendy bases, scrambling American Indian mysticism, "New Age" theories and buddy-movie clichés into the format of a road movie."
Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
gave Sunchaser one of its few positive notices. While noting the predictabilty of the script, Thomas added, "Yet all that's so familiar in Charles
Leavitt's script has been given a fresh, brisk spin by the sheer audacity and force of Cimino's style and by an incisive, wide-ranging performance by Harrelson..."
Further reading
- Camy, Gerard. "Sunchaser." Jeune cinéma n238 Summer (1996)
- Troubiana, Serge. "Loin d'Hollywood." Cahiers du cinéma n503 Jun (1996) [on The Sunchaser]
- Saada, Nicolas and Serge Troubiana. "Entretien avec Michael Cimino." Cahiers du cinéma n503 Jun (1996)
- Cieutat, Michel. "Sunchaser." Positif n425/426 Jul/Aug (1996)
- Ciment, Michel and Laurent Vachaud. "Un film optimiste et plein d'espoir." Positif n425/426 Jul/Aug (1996) [on The Sunchaser]
- Feeney, F.X. "Between Heaven and Hell." People 46.20 (1996) [Interview]
- Kemp, Philip. "The Sunchaser." Sight & Sound 7 Jan (1997)