I have seen this film only once, on tape, and the ending therein found the child Frank brandishing his sixguns at his older brother at the county line? What struck me was the obvious fact that the only possible conclusion to this Cain/Abel story was Joe's killing of his own younger brother, the mirrored killing of another wastrel at the start of the tilm. Only this time it's Abel killing Cain. All the Casszvetes references aside, Sean Penn's film herein is one more argument in favor of an authentic filmmaker. There aren't many of these, in Hollywood or anywhere else. And, once more, it seems Viggo Mortensen has scored in his singular fashion. And David Morse holds his own as he does in the weirdly evocative "Green Mile" that somehow manages to deflate "black" heroes the while it is manifestly trying to celebrate them. But, then, the author of said, yawn, fable has NEVER established credits beyond weirdness, per se, including Jack Nicholson as the mad "writer."
On second viewing, I see that I cannot add another "star," but fact of the matter is that Sean Penn's work here is absolutely masterfu, the subtleties, the ironies, the absolutely bang-on details of observation and "truth." And Morse is as fine as Mortensen, whose "Franky" is scarier than today's Russian mafioso in "Eastern Promises," and he was sporting tattoos way back when. Also, methinks Charles Bronson finally invested a fully-fleshed role as the father of a pair of "all-American" boys. Penn doesn't give any answers to the sociocultural conundrum, but he sure as Hell has pictured it to an absolute "T." "The Indian Runner" should prove the authentic American film classic it is.
"heeeere's Johnny????"
On second viewing, I see that I cannot add another "star," but fact of the matter is that Sean Penn's work here is absolutely masterfu, the subtleties, the ironies, the absolutely bang-on details of observation and "truth." And Morse is as fine as Mortensen, whose "Franky" is scarier than today's Russian mafioso in "Eastern Promises," and he was sporting tattoos way back when. Also, methinks Charles Bronson finally invested a fully-fleshed role as the father of a pair of "all-American" boys. Penn doesn't give any answers to the sociocultural conundrum, but he sure as Hell has pictured it to an absolute "T." "The Indian Runner" should prove the authentic American film classic it is.
"heeeere's Johnny????"