Plenty of films of this vintage suffer from boom mikes in frame and the top and dolly tracks visible at the bottom: this is an artifact born of failed productions. When the camera operator composed the shot, he had been told the film was being made for theatrical release, in a 1:1.85 ratio and so when the boom dipped down slightly, but not enough to make it into the "letterbox" they let it slide. Then, after the film failed on the festival circuit or preview process, etc and was dumped to video no one cared to correct the errors - they were all just trying to dump the project on the market as quickly as possible. Had the final "release print" been made, instead of a video transfer from the camera original (mivees and all) we would have been spared the spectacle of seeing mister boom mike. Most of these types of film were being dumped onto the video market before consumers cared to see letterboxed releases, so the transfer was made full frame.

Having read all of Tony Hillerman's work in the Leaphorn/Chee series, I felt the movie was pretty good. I understood the plot and felt it was quite faithful to the book. The acting by Lou Diamond Philips was very in character with Jim Chee. Gary Farmer and Fred Ward also turned in performances worthy of the characters they portrayed. Robert Redford executive produced this and was diligent in using American Indians as actors throughout the film. I enjoyed hearing the characters speaking Navajo. Three more of Tony Hillerman's works were further formated for PBS, again with Robert Redford's involvement. Chee and Leaphorn are cast with different actors, who are wonderful too, but I believe that Gary Farmer is in at least one of these other films.

Lou Diamond Phillips is the perfect "Jim Chee". I have read many of Tony Hillerman's novels and this was a great rendition. I saw this movie in college for an anthropology class. The best two classes of the semester!! (Thanks Dr. Neeley) The scenery was beautiful. The story line was exciting, true to the book. The only thing I would change would be the actor who plays Joe Leaphorn. Nothing against Fred Ward, he did a good job, but when you read book after book with the same characters you tend to visualize these people in your mind. And I have always envisioned James Olmos from Miami Vice as Leaphorn. I would love to see more of these novels made into movies.

I've seen this movie four times now, and I remain perplexed as to why it didn't (a) get theatrically released in the first place or (b) better received by IMDB voters.Well, I'm going to take some guesses, anyway. First off, Hillerman fans. I'm a big Tony Hillerman fan, and it's true, this movie is not completely true to the text of the book nor to the in-depth development of the characters of Chee and Leaphorn.Guess what? IT"S A MOVIE, NOT A BOOK. You can't get the complexity ofcharacters built up over a 20-book series into two hours. If you want the book, go read the book for heaven's sake.What Director Morris did was combine the essence of the Chee character -- the tension between the science and modernity of being an investigating lawenforcement in the late 20th century with the earnest desire in Chee to maintain the traditions of the Dinei -- with a Whodunit that worked well on film. (Mystery novel plots and movie mystery plots do not work on the same level, usually.)There's a nice quietness to the whole movie, and we're half in Chee's head much of the time. Morris uses the same kind of brilliant palette he used in 'Thin Blue Line' to such good effect, and essentially creates a hybrid film -- half noir, half western.So why did this movie get sat upon by the studio? My guess is they just couldn't figure out what to do with it. It's not loud, noisy, the explosions and gun battles are minimal, the character has no love interest, and even though the Navajo traditional religion is not as deeply portrayed here as it is in the Hillerman books (by a long shot) even that was probably just confusing to the Hollywood types. The director known for documentaries may be a hard sell as a fiction auteur to critics. The deliberate pacing may appear to be "slow" if you're comparing it to 'Lethal Weapon II'. Who knows?So, in conclusion:(1) I think Hillerman fans were disappointed it wasn't more slavishly faithful to the original text of the specific book.(2) Errol Morris acolytes probably didn't really understand the transition to fiction of his peculiar style.(3) The Usual Hollywood suspects just didn't get a film so quiet, visual, and without the usual formulaic plot elements.The movie's not perfect, mind you. I liked Lou Diamond Phillips' quite presence in the role, but there was a problem believing him as a Navajo (why not use a Native American actor?) Some of the dialogue is a little forced (although the same could be said about the Hillerman novels, too, at times). And Leaphorn's character is a bit thrown away (although, again, in the early Chee novels he plays almost no role at all, so why quibble on this point?)I'd REALLY like to see this uncut and on the big screen sometime with a nice color print. I bet it plays very well that way. The sound and sound editing in the movie are really excellent (on top of the cinematographic highlights noted elsewhere.)In any event, I think this is a good movie, and if taken just on face value, it's a better than average cop-whodunit flick.