Robert Redfords PBS "Mystery" adaptations of Tony Hillerman's Navajo police novels completely ruins the two main characters, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. Chee in the books was a regular guy who also happened to be deeply involved in his people's culture, to the point of learning to be a "singer" or healer. In the films he is already an expert on all things spiritual, the mystical Indian stereotype who has no real personality, no faults to speak of, no doubts about anything, no insecurities. In Hillerman's books, Joe Leaphorn was a "legendary detective" who was also a highly educated scholar, at least as if not much more knowledgeable about Navajo and Native American culture and religion than Chee. But though Leaphorn knew about it all, he didn't live it in the mystical sense, not being particularly religious himself. Leaphorn's god was logic and a belief that everything that happens, happens for a reason. In these crappy movies, poor Wes Studi's version of Leaphorn has been made into a man who knows virtually nothing about his own culture, doomed to be forever "educated" by the know it all mystic man Chee. This makes Chee ever superior, which is very ironic, because in the books, Chee always feels vastly inferior to Leaphorn because of his much greater police knowledge, education, and experience. And it was this part of the relationship that made their two characters so interesting when thrown together.Producer Robert Redford took two fairly complex characters (by paperback mystery novel standards) and mooshed 'em down into nothing but two more Indian stereotypes.Redford's first effort to adapt Hillerman (which his company now tries to pretend never existed) was Errol Morris's "The Dark Wind." While that flick was no masterpiece, it was head and feet above these slow, dumbed down TV movies.

Spoilers herein.There is indeed a ghostly presence in the American West. It is based on myth, which gives it power. It destroys without knowing; it depends on magic and belief. Its name is family Redford.Yes, good old Robert and now his son are the culprits here. They have a wistful, idealized vision of a noble people defiled. There ‘s the evil corporation, the environmental desecration (which the natives would never have done!) and the conflict between the white and red man's magic. All set in Hallmark hues spun with an unacknowledged Hollywood mainstream gloss.It says a lot that this passes for politically correct. Give it a few years before Native Americans realize that the artificial nobility bestowed by a well-meaning Hollywood (and we include the Sundancers in this) is just as offensive as the `mad injun' stuff that preceded it.I refer the reader to `Napolean Bonapart' or Bony as he is known in the detective fiction of Arthur Upfield. Bony is a halfbreed, part white (with an advanced university degree) and part aborigine, or `black.' Because he is half black, he has tracking and intuition `in his blood,` and a mystical connection with the land. These 29 novels - in which the mystical and logical compete and sometimes cooperate - were popular books just a couple decades ago. Read one to see how offensive it is and why they are so universally rejected today. Dramatic myth which spins stereotypes is just as offensive when those stereotypes are `positive,` and the intent honest even more so because it patronizes. Now read Bony again and see how closely the current writer Hillerman copies Upfield, in many details as well as the overall tone.Stay away from this, unless you just want to appreciate the very fine photography and editing Dad arranged for his boy. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I'm not a Native American so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the customs presented or on whether the actors "butchered" the language. As a non Native American, however, I can say the movie was very entertaining and educational. It presented a different perspective and gave me insights I never had.As for the previous reviewer's comments, I can understand why he might be upset. When Hollywood first started doing movies on African-American culture, they presented "facts" that I disagreed with. In the long run, however, things got a little better.Skinwalkers is a beginning.

I grew up on the Navajo Nation, and right away in the first 30 minutes I see that the movie was filmed over 200 miles away from the Navajo Nation where the story takes place.The movie has been filmed in the Phoenix area and the buildings that were shown were not anywhere near where they should have been.The first movie based on a Tony Hillerman movie had actually been filmed on the Navajo Nation. Too bad Redford decided to stray from the book.The casting is very dissapointing to see only people who succeed in butchering the beautiful language that we speak.The Navajo Police cars and uniforms are correct, but Joe Leaphorn is a Navajo character that does not know the lanuguage and customs. This is not correct... Leaphorn in all the Hillerman novels knows the customs and traditions.In the Dark Wind, Leaphorn was played by a Non-Indian who was able to speak Navajo. Lou Diamond PHillips did a much better job in attempting to speak Navajo. It appears that Adam Beach who butchered Navajo in Wind Talkers is doing a great job of butchering Navajo again here.it's now 44 minutes into the movie and i'm very dissapointed that i missed Malcom in the Middle.