INDIAN RUNNER

US, 1991, 125 minutes, Colour.
David Morse, Vigo Mortensen, Valeria Golina, Patricia Arquette, Charles Bronson, Sandy Dennis, Dennis Hopper.
Directed by Sean Penn.

Indian Runner is based on Bruce Springsteen's song, Highway Patrolman (from his Nebraska album). It was written and directed by actor Sean Penn. It is a sombre piece, from the period of the late '60s, a brooding sense of the Nebraska landscapes and highways, the small-town life, depression, an atmosphere of search for the meaning of life.

The film is well acted by David Morse and Vigo Mortensen as two brothers, antagonistic. Valeria Golina is Morse's wife, Patricia Arquette Mortensen's girlfriend. There are cameo appearances by Sandy Dennis and Charles Bronson as the mother and father, Bronson particularly effective. Dennis Hopper (who had worked with Sean Penn in Colours) is Caesar the barman.

The film is ruminative, an art-house reflection on the meaning of American life a quarter of a century earlier. Sean Penn went on to write and direct The Crossing Guard as well as to win festival awards with his acting in such films as Dead Man Walking and Hurley burley.

1. The title of the film, its origin in Bruce Springsteen's song? The legend of the Indian runner, the deer hunting legend where, after running a deer to ground, the hunter should inhale its dying breath to acquire its strength?

2. The work of Sean Penn, writer and director, sensitivity to people and period?

3. Nebraska in the late '60s, in the Vietnam war period? The town, snowbound, the landscapes?

4. 1968 and US involvement in Vietnam, the key year? The veterans returning? Unsettled? The family in difficulties, society and attitudes, the law and outlaws? Responsibility?

5. The portrait of Joe, the policeman, the initial chase and the killing in self-defence, his remorse? The return from Vietnam of Frank? His home life, relationship with Maria? Frank's disappearances, finding him and Dorothy?

6. Joe and his father and mother, at home, discussions, the meal, the prospect of losing the farm, Joe's decisions about his way of life? His father's suicide and its impact?

7. Frank and the Vietnam experience, his bitterness, arriving home, relationship with Dorothy, the refusal to come to the funeral, in the motel, Joe persuading him to come home, the construction job, the promise to marry Dorothy, his continued angers, spitting at her? Going to the bar, the clashes with Caesar, the assault? Missing the birth of his child? The fight with Joe in the bar? The brutality of killing Caesar? Joe's pursuit of him - and his vanishing along the highway?

8. Joe as the upright man, trying to settle Frank, continually searching for him, the bar, asserting family values, pursuing him - and giving up?

9. The portrait of the women: Maria, her background, relationship with Joe, the policeman's wife, family? Dorothy by contrast, the girlfriend, taking up with Frank, being abused by him, pregnant, her labour?

10. The portrait of the mother and father, the background of the home, the farm? Their relationship? The father's suicide?

11. Dennis Hopper and his style as Caesar, in the bar, the clashes with Frank, his death? The blood?

12. The pursuit and Joe's vision of Frank as a little boy - the meaning of their relationship, his pursuit of Frank, the legend of the Indian runner?

13. A bleak and tangled world, hurt and pain, search for meaning?