The Sunchaser
The Sunchaser
R | 27 September 1996 (USA)
The Sunchaser Trailers

A young half-Navajo convict dying of cancer forces a yuppie doctor to drive him to a magic healing lake.

Reviews
Micitype Pretty Good
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
marduk I read some of the other reviews and I guess this movie has an emotional element to it, but I'm not wired that way. The thing that ruined the movie for me was the logic. In it, the main characters make one illogical choice after enough. One must suspend logic and believe that these characters would actually make the choices that they made and that was the painful part for me that ruined it. That and the tiring tiring stereotypes portrayed about minorities, urban life, small desert towns, (non-)religious folk, etc., etc.In the end it's a 2-hour movie, and the conclusion is so predictable and disappointing as to serve no justification for having labored through its poor plot/writing. **
qljsystems The Sunchaser is a standard-fare movie with a plot that's set up to provide a predictable outcome. Woodie Harrelson plays an eminent surgeon who's responsible for the welfare of a terminally-ill half-Indian, half-homey-from-the-hood 16 year-old serving a custodial sentence for murder. The two principal characters couldn't be more diametrically opposed if they tried - they come from opposite sides of the social track. The only thing keeping the young man alive is the dream of a mythical Navajo holy mountain with a sacred healing lake, which sets in motion a sequence of events that leads to Harrelson's kidnap and flight across several states at gunpoint. Harrelson's surgeon is a pragmatist and natural-born scientific sceptic who doesn't share the youth's flights of fancy. There's sufficient tension between the two characters to maintain the plot's momentum. Harrelson plays the predictable sceptic who eventually capitulates after much soul-searching and bonding with the criminal-minded youth, and finally assists the young man to his destination. There are some touching moments and an indisputable magic in the final scene as the young man is escorted by an Indian holy-man to the lake. The movie finishes rather abruptly without filling in what happens to the youth after his submergence into the lake, and only giving us a glimpse of Harrelson in handcuffs being led by FBI agents to his wife and baby daughter as the credits roll. The throughline of the movie is simple: the journey the soul needs to make to embrace hope and faith. It's nothing special as far as movies in general go; however, it stands out as one of the best examples of a road-movie.
jenn Sunchaser may not have been the best "shot" film... meaning camera wise, but the general idea (plot) was one of the Best. People may say it's just another "road trip" movie, but you haven't seen a "road trip" movie with a plot like this, which by the way... is very Unique. Which in turn, makes for a GREAT movie. I loved this movie when I watched it. I love this movie Now, even after 7 years. I am sick and tired of the same movie over and over again, same movie... different name... BORING. Sunchaser is NOT the same as ANY movie I have ever seen, so if you like to watch DIFFERENT movies, check out Sunchaser, I am pretty sure you haven't seen anything like it, and now a days... that's the problem with movies. Right? Right. 100(*'s) for Sunchaser. Thank You to the director, producer, cast and crew. You guys did a wonderful job. Hopefully you'll consider maybe a "re-make" of the movie, but based in the 2000's (LoL) that would be SWEET :D Anyways, Thanks guys.
jotix100 Michael Cimino's "The Sunchaser", as was shown the other night on a cable station, looked faded. Working on a screen play by Charles Leavitt, Mr. Cimino doesn't add anything new to this genre.If you haven't seen the movie, please stop reading now.The choice of Woody Harrelson to play Dr. Michael Reynolds, seems to have been the wrong decision. Mr. Harrelson, a good actor, otherwise, appears out of his league and sometimes out of character. Dr. Reynolds is, at the beginning of the film, a man more interested in going to higher and better places, rather than treating some of the patients he's assigned to see. He has all the accoutrements that go with his position as a rising oncologist, including his brand new red Porsche, the status symbol of Angelinos.When he is made to go along with the sick prisoner Blue, he gets a taste of what the ghetto is like. He has no choice but to go along for a ride with this disturbed young man. Blue is a Navajo by birth, but he's been away from his roots in a while.Along the way to the Navajo sacred mountain, this odd couple experience quite a lot. Dr. Reynolds doesn't warm up to Blue at all. When a kind soul, Dr. Baumbauer, gives the pair a lift, Reynolds voices his prejudices loudly. After all, he's a man that has been trained professionally, therefore, he doesn't have time for these New Age charlatans who think the same way as Blue. The ending is predictable.Woody Harrelson is miscast in the movie. Jon Seda, as the fugitive Blue, gives an uneven performance. The only one that fares better is Anne Bancroft, in her small role of a wise doctor Reynolds and Blue meet on the road.Just out of curiosity, I watched the credits to see if the production company would have clarified that "No Porsche was damaged during the filming process".....