Skinwalkers | |
---|---|
Written by | James Redford |
Directed by | Chris Eyre |
Starring | Adam Beach Wes Studi Michael Greyeyes Alex Rice Misty Upham |
Music by | BC Smith |
Country of origin | United States |
Original languages | English Navajo |
Production | |
Producer | Craig McNeil |
Cinematography | Roy H. Wagner |
Editor | Cindy Mollo |
Running time | 100 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | PBS |
Release | November 24, 2002 |
Skinwalkers is a 2002 mystery television film based on the novel of the same name by Tony Hillerman, one of his series of mysteries set against contemporary Navajo life in the Southwest. It features an all-Native cast, with Adam Beach and Wes Studi playing officers Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. [1] It was produced as part of the PBS Mystery! series, filmed on the Navajo reservation and directed by Chris Eyre.
The film was the highest rated program of 2002 on PBS. It is the first of three television films based on the same series of books, the other two being adaptations of A Thief of Time and Coyote Waits . It was repackaged in 2016 with the two following films as Skinwalkers: The Navajo Mysteries on Netflix. [2]
Joe Leaphorn (Wes Studi), a seasoned cop accustomed to the city ways of Phoenix, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, has returned to the Navajo reservation. His wife Emma (Sheila Tousey) is recovering from cancer and feels rejuvenated by the landscape and people of her homeland. Leaphorn is less sure about their return. Well schooled in urban policing, he is soon confronted with a particular Navajo case: a mysterious killer who has a special antipathy for medicine men. Leaphorn works with a partner Jim Chee (Adam Beach), an FBI Academy grad who is also training to be a traditional Navajo healer.
Roman George's body is found miles from his abandoned truck and surrounded by ancient symbols etched in blood. A local archeologist holds the key to the symbols he left behind, so Chee and Leaphorn pay him a visit at a nearby Anasazi ruins. There, these partners find further clues indicating that the murderer may be a "skinwalker," a Navajo witch with the power to shape shift, or change from human to animal, move with lightning speed, and to kill with curses. Fearing that his mentor, Wilson Sam (Saginaw Grant), will be next, Chee convinces the medicine man to hide in a nearby motel.
As Chee juggles the day-to-day police work on the reservation, Leaphorn tracks down clues to the identity of the evasive criminal. More ancient symbols are found at an abandoned paint factory, where a local gang has been congregating. What do the signs mean? Who is sending these messages in blood? Could the murders be linked to the old Dinetah Paints scandal and lead poisoning in the region? Chee does not have much time to mull these questions over, before finding himself in the killer's crosshairs. [3]
Executive producer was Robert Redford with his son James adapting the screenplay from Tony Hillerman's novel of the same name. [4] It was directed by Chris Eyre and filmed at the Navajo Reservation. (Eyre also appears in the film as a Tribal Judge.) The film is a co-production involving Redford's Wildwood Enterprises, PBS, and the British television company Carlton Television. [5]
The film had a television rating of 4.2 on its November 24, 2002 premiere, [6] the highest rated show on PBS in 2002 with an audience of approximately 12 million viewers. [7]
Anthony Grove Hillerman was an American author of detective novels and nonfiction works, best known for his mystery novels featuring Navajo Nation Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Several of his works have been adapted for film and television.
Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is a fictional character created by the twentieth-century American mystery writer Tony Hillerman. He is one of the two officers of the Navajo Tribal Police who are featured in a number of Hillerman's novels. The other officer is Jim Chee.
Jim Chee is one of two Navajo Tribal Police detectives in a series of mystery novels by Tony Hillerman. Unlike his superior Joe Leaphorn, the "Legendary Lieutenant", Chee is a staunch believer in traditional Navajo culture; indeed, he is studying to be a traditional healer at the same time that he is a police officer.
The Navajo Nation Police is the law enforcement agency on the Navajo Nation in the Southwestern United States. It is under the Navajo Division of Public Safety. It is headed by a Chief of Police, six Police Captains and eight Police Lieutenants. It includes: Internal Affairs, Patrol, K-9 Unit, Police diving, Tactical Operations Team, Traffic Unit, Fiscal management, Recruitment, and Training Divisions. The Navajo Nation Police are responsible for seven districts: Chinle, Crownpoint, Dilkon, Kayenta, Shiprock, Tuba City, and Window Rock. There are also several substations in each district ranging from one-man substations or up to five officers each. Currently, there are 210 sworn police officers, 28 criminal investigators, and 279 civilians acting as support staff for the department. There are approximately 1.9 police officers per 1,000 people and one officer is responsible for patrolling 70 square miles (180 km2) of reservation land. The Navajo Nation Police are funded by federal contracts and grants and general Navajo Nation funds. This police department is one of only two large Native American police Departments with more than 100 sworn officers in the United States.
Chris Eyre, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, is an American film director and producer who as of 2012 is chairman of the film department at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Dance Hall Of The Dead is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the second in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1973. It features police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. It is set primarily in Ramah Reservation and the Zuni village in New Mexico, both in the American Southwest.
Talking God is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the ninth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, published in 1989.
Skinwalkers is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the seventh in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, published in 1986. The film version, Skinwalkers, was adapted for television for the PBS Mystery! series in 2002.
People of Darkness is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the fourth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1980. It is the first novel in the series to feature Officer Jim Chee. The AMC television series Dark Winds adapted the novel in its second season.
The Dark Wind is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the fifth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, published in 1982. It is the second of the novels to feature Officer Jim Chee.
A Thief of Time is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the eighth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1988. It was adapted for television as part of the PBS Mystery! series in 2004.
Coyote Waits is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the tenth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1990.
The First Eagle is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the thirteenth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1998.
Hunting Badger is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the fourteenth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1999.
The Wailing Wind is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the fifteenth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 2002. It is a New York Times best-seller.
The Sinister Pig is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the sixteenth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 2003. It was a New York Times best-seller.
Skeleton Man is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the seventeenth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 2004. It was a New York Times best-seller
The Shape Shifter is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the eighteenth in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 2006. It was a New York Times best-seller and the last Chee/Leaphorn novel by Hillerman published before Hillerman's death on October 26, 2008.
The Dark Wind is a 1991 American mystery drama film based on The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman, one of a series of mysteries set against contemporary Navajo life in the Southwest. It stars Lou Diamond Phillips as Jim Chee and Fred Ward as Joe Leaphorn.
Dark Winds is an American psychological thriller television series created by Graham Roland. Based on the Leaphorn & Chee novel series by Tony Hillerman, it stars Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon as the aforementioned two characters, leading a mostly Native American cast. Executive producers include Roland, McClarnon, George R. R. Martin and Robert Redford.