THE SUNCHASER

US. 1996, 122 minutes, Colour.
Woody Harrelson, Jon Seda, Anne Bancroft.
Directed by Michael Cimino.

The Sunchaser is one of the few films made by the ill-fated Michael Cimino. After beginning a successful career in the 70s with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, he won an Oscar for The Deerhunter. Soon after, he bankrupted United Artists with Heaven’s Gate. He made very few films afterwards including The Sicilian, The Desperate Hours and The Sunchaser.

The film deals with ancient Indian symbols and mythologies. Woody Harrelson portrays a wealthy doctor who comes across a patient from prison. The patient (Jon Seda) is terminally ill but takes the opportunity to abduct the doctor and head for the mountains to find the tribal elder whose book he read and who he hopes will give him some kind of possibility for healing.

The film becomes an abduction road movie, the doctor an unwilling participant who is terrified by his young abductor. After various difficulties and attempts to escape, the doctor is won over by the tenacity of the vision of the young man, getting medicine for him from the hospital, eluding pursuit and finally taking him into the mountains. On their way, they meet a New Age woman, played by Anne Bancroft, who challenges the doctor in his scepticism and his lack of openness to things more transcendent than his ordinary experience? Finally, they reach the mountains and the young man is able to see the elder and to find the lake where he may or may not find healing. The doctor, on the other hand, has his perspective opened beyond the limits of his work, his ambitiously affluent wife, and his sceptical routines.

The film was not widely released but is an interesting portrait of two men, their interaction as well as an openness to native American mythologies and their meanings.

1. The work of Michael Cimino? The impact of this film, for audiences, in his career? Its not being widely seen?

2. The Californian settings, the prison, the hospital, the streets? The film as a road movie, the Californian highways, the Arizona roads, the back roads? The open spaces, the mesas, the mountains and the streams? The contrast between the ancient Indian traditional lands and the modern city? The musical score?

3. The title, the story told by Blue? The quest for the wise man? The leading of the Sunchaser? The quest by Blue for the wise man? Paralleling the flashbacks and the story of Michael and the illness of his brother Jimmy and his request to terminate his life? Michael then in a similar quest as that of Blue?

4. The establishing of the situation: Blue, in jail, the cell, his age, his crimes, his illness, the chemotherapy? His being chained? Taken to the hospital? The introduction to Michael Reynolds, driving the car, wealthy, his work in the hospital, the diagnosis of the old man, the interruption with his wife on the phone, wanting to pay two million for the house, her pressure on him?

5. The meeting between Blue and Michael Reynolds, Michael and his being unwilling to go down, Chip and his comments, wanting the female doctor to take the difficult case? His meeting with Blue, the antagonism, the smoking? His starting again? The examination, the results of the scans, Blue having only two months to live, Blue hearing this? The discussion between Chip, Michael and the head doctor for putting Blue in an experimental situation? (And their later giving police the information that this was Michael’s idea?)

6. Going to the hospital, the police guard, the two cars, Blue and his attack on the policeman, abducting Michael? The driving, Michael and his resistance, the gun, his fear? His talking about his family, the audience having seen him and his wife with their child? The appointment for the dinner with his wife, the issue of the house?

7. On the road, the driving, Blue pushing the accelerator down? Getting petrol? Michael throwing his wallet away, his breaking his watch, the refusal to give his ring even with Blue firing the shots? The redoing of the car, Blue and his friend?

8. Going to the diner, the bikies, Blue putting Michael in danger from the rednecks, the fight? Blue and his taking the car, picking up Michael, the pursuit?

9. In the open land, Blue and his telling the story of the Sunchaser, their being on the edge of the mountains, their decision of what to do? Michael and his decision to help Blue, commenting on his needs to go to the doctor?

10. The hospital, Michael going in, taking the drugs? The police pursuit, the reports, the television, Michael’s wife and mother and daughter watching the television? The interrogations of the wife, her saying that her husband was mentally balanced?

11. Meeting Renata, in her van, her openness to myths, transcendence, Indian traditions? Her listening sympathetically to Blue? Her challenge to Michael to open his mind?

12. Finding the area where the wise man lived, Blue and the book? His getting weaker? Michael’s decision to take him to the mountain yet sceptical? Meeting the Navajo woman, her having television and knowing who they were, Michael and his naivete and ignorance? His pleading with the woman to take him to her father? His complete change of attitude?

13. Blue, the old man, the fulfilment of his quest, the vision, hope, going down the hill, into the lake? His death or not?

14. Michael, the helicopters in pursuit, his having to reassess his whole life, stances?

15. The film ending with Blue going into the lake – but giving Michael’s being reunited with his wife as a postscript during the final credits?

16. A film of the 90s, the move towards spirituality and transcendence, the role of traditional religion, the popularity of New Age practices?