4/5 Dark Wind
  by M.Corrine P (Delaware)
This is a nice addition to my Native American movie collection. Interesting plot and produced well for the time.

4/5 Dark Wind CD
  by L. Hay (Goldendale, WA)
The movie is almost as good as the book. We love Tony Hillerman stories about the SW and this is a great one.

3/5 Good story--but I will always see Adam Beach as Jim Chee
  by R. Kyle (USA)
There are two versions of this film. This version, directed by Robert Redford and starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Jim Chee and the PBS version with Adam Beach as Chee and Wes Studi as Leaphorn. What the author, Tony Hillerman, said about the actors in the making of "Coyote Waits" (one of the other PBS specials) was that Wes Studi was the man he saw as Leaphorn and he was beginning to see Jimmy Chee as a good deal more handsome after Adam Beach played him.

Well, I'm only seeing Adam Beach as Chee now, myself. And Fred Ward may be a good actor elsewhere, but Wes Studi's face was what I saw when I read Hillerman's novels, too.

The story in short. Jim Chee (Phillips) is a newly assigned cop to this beat of the Navajo-Hopi rez. His lieutenant Leaphorn (Ward) sets him on staking out the windmills to see who's destroying them. In the process, he finds a murdered man and a bigger crime than the windmill massacres. A drug smuggler's plane crash lands near the spot and Chee finds a dead man inside. The Federal officers and Leaphorn think he's involved. With the help of a Hopi Deputy (Gary Farmer) he sets out to solve the crime and clear several people's good names.

In this particular installation of the Hillerman based films, witchcraft and superstition are strong. The traditions are fascinating and the plot is complex. I much prefer the PBS version of "Skinwalker" though, even with the lower budget, I think it's the better film.

Rebecca Kyle, August 2008

4/5 The Dark Wind
  by Deborah Sonneman (Las Vegas, NV USA)
The Dark Wind The dvd arrived in mint condition and was extremely enjoyable. I look forward to PBS producing more of Tony Hillerman's masterpieces.

4/5 DARK WIND
  by Linda Huntington (Northcenrtral Ohio, USA)
I watched this twice before really understanding it all and am I glad I did. I think Lou Diamond Phillips can really act and I thought his understanding and wisdom of Jim Chee's native American heritage and his more modern life as a peace officer was very well put together.I think he expressed it just as well. I felt this was worth watching and I will be viewing it again.