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The Sunchaser (marketed simply as Sunchaser in promotional material) is a 1996 road film crime drama film directed by Michael Cimino, written by Charles Leavitt and starring Woody Harrelson and Jon Seda. It was director Cimino's last feature-length film.
The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 49th Cannes Film Festival.
Blue seeks to find Dibé Nitsaa (one of the six mountain lakes sacred to the Navajo people), said to heal the wounds of anyone who swims in its waters. Michael, however, bemoans his capture to Blue, seeking help to anyone who he comes across and complaining that he is missing out on a dinner engagement for promotion as head of the oncology department. The two men are instantly at odds with each other, separated by their education, class, race, and two very different world views. Michael believes that modern medicine has all the answers to whatever ails human beings, while Blue believes in Native American spirituality which honors the spirit world, sacred places, and herbal medicine.
En route to Arizona, Michael and Blue have a rough encounter with a Motorcycle club in a small town, and a chase pursues. Later, Michael is bitten by a rattlesnake but is quickly treated for it by Blue, without medical equipment. Back in Los Angeles, Victoria elicits a police manhunt, and the authorities then attempt to track the two men on their eastward journey. As Michael grows closer to his abductor, he comes to terms with a harbored childhood secret that had haunted him; he was forced to take the life of his older brother Jimmy, who was on his death bed and had asked a young Michael to Euthanasia.
As Blue's condition worsens, Michael resorts to illegal means to obtain the needed medicine by breaking into a hospital in Flagstaff. The next morning, the two enter the Navajo Nation, but spot a Police car parked ahead of them. To escape, Michael drives off the main road and blends in with a cattle herd, becoming unnoticed in the dust kickup.
Eluding the authorities and finally committed to helping Blue on his quest, Michael manages to whisk Blue up the mountain. Meanwhile, a police helicopter spots their car parked nearby. Reaching the top, Blue is reunited with Skyhorse, who directs him to the lake. Michael and Blue embrace, and the two part ways. As the helicopter spots Michael, Blue runs toward the lake, before mystically disappearing into its waters. Back in L.A., Michael, escorted by the police and wearing handcuffs, is reunited with his family.
Parts of the film were shot in Downtown Los Angeles, the Mojave Desert, Arizona, Zion National Park, Utah and Colorado. To give authenticity to the dialogue, Cimino had several Navajo advisors on set at all times, including actor Leon Skyhorse Thomas, who gave input on the scenes between Harrelson and Jon Seda.
Mickey Rourke, a collaborator and friend of Cimino's, believed the director "snapped" sometime during the making of The Sunchaser. "Michael is the sort of person that if you take away his money he short-circuits," Rourke said. "He is a man of honor."Garbarino, Steve (March 2002). "Michael Cimino's Final Cut". Vanity Fair (499): pp. 232-235+250-252. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
Filming was deliberately done with little publicity to avoid media scrutiny. "We feel we have a big surprise in our pocket," said Milchan. "Woody is a great actor and he and Michael really clicked."
Eventually, he began to like working with Cimino; "He was a genius. I wanted to be his friend," said D'Augustine. "We're sitting there watching the movie, looking for places to add sound effects. We get to the scene where the kid is on the phone, calling 911, shouting, 'There's a guy here with a gun.' I said, 'Do want to put in their side of the conversation?' Michael says, 'I don't know what they'd say,' and then he picks up the phone and dials 911. He says, 'There's a man here with a gun, a very large one,' and then he hands the phone to the sound guy so he can write down what they say."
Jack Nitzsche was originally slated to compose the music for the film, however, creative differences between him and Cimino led to Nitzsche's replacement by Maurice Jarre. Jarre was chosen on the basis of his scores for David Lean epics such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, which Cimino loved. He once said that his favorite part of making a film was watching the recording of the soundtrack over the film:
"Suddenly you see this music come on the screen and you think for the first time: I really made a movie. My God, it looks like a movie up there! And it's like, you feel like you're about 12, and it's the first time it occurs to you that you've done a movie ... It's sublime. Really sublime moment. The best moment in movies I think."
In the end credits, Cimino dedicates the film "To Hal", referencing fellow director Hal Ashby, who himself refused medical treatment for, and died of pancreatic cancer. Coincidentally, on his deathbed, Ashby had still believed he could pull through and pondered making a film with similar themes of The Sunchaser, dealing with how he had miraculously cheated death.
According to composer Maurice Jarre, the film was blocked from receiving the Special Jury Prize by Francis Ford Coppola, who was head of the jury that year:
"Everybody from the Cannes organization loved the film and they wanted to give it Le Prix du Jury, but Francis Ford Coppola disliked Cimino and so the prize was given to another film."
Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times gave The Sunchaser one of its few positive notices. While noting the predictability of the script, Thomas added, "Yet all that's so familiar in Charles Leavitt's script has been given a fresh, brisk spin by the sheer audacity and force of Cimino's style and by an incisive, wide-ranging performance by Harrelson..."Thomas, Kevin (October 25, 1996). "'Sunchaser' Leaves Beaten Path in Its Quest". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-05-14.
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, The Sunchaser has a "rotten" approval rating of 17% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10.
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