The Indian Runner

Sean Penn – 1991 – USA

The Indian Runner is a modest, character-driven drama deliberately crafted to hark back to the great 1970s mini-Renaissance in independent American film.  (It is specifically dedicated to Hal Ashby and John Cassavetes, who had both recently died at the time.)  Sadly, this strong film turned out to be merely a glimpse at a potential career that never happened.  Yes, Sean Penn has continued to direct, and his films are significantly better than most of those by actors who become directors, but in 24 years he hasn’t produced a body of work that gives him a recognizable identity as a filmmaker.  This is probably due to his abandonment of his originally announced plan to retire from acting entirely to focus on directing.  Though a period film presumably set in the early 70s, Penn admirably avoids nostalgia or excess in showing off authentic cars and wardrobe of the day.  His restrained yet poetic style makes the film look and feel as if it really could have been made in the 70s, much more so than other movies that strain to look older than they are.  Cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond, who shot several of Nicholas Roeg’s key 70s films, certainly deserves credit for this achievement too.  David Morse plays Joe, a young family man in a small Midwestern town who has made the routine compromises in order to secure a living; he’s a farmer at heart but has taken a job as a policeman.  His anti-social brother Frank (Viggo Mortensen) is returning home from Vietnam and immediately falls back into a life of petty crime.  The film is about Joe’s attempts to save ‘Prodigal Son’ Frank and bring him back into the family.  I won’t say how it turns out, but needless to say, the film bravely avoids Hollywood clichés that would turn most such stories into the heartwarming feel-good movie of the year.  The cast from top to bottom is remarkable; not only Morse, but Dennis Hopper, Patricia Arquette, Charles Bronson, Sandy Dennis, Valeria Golino, and even then-unknown Benicio del Toro in a small part.  But it’s really the intense Mortensen who steals the show in what should have been a star-making if not Oscar-winning performance.