Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

"Ravenhawk" turns out to be far better than one might expect of a TV movie. Rachel McLish is wrongly convicted of killing her parents, to the benefit of a large toxic waste recycling plant. Twelve years later she escapes from confinement and unleashes revenge on the villains who set her up. This comes across like a female version of "Rolling Thunder", with McLish instead of William Devane dishing out the punishment. The desert locations are used to full advantage, and there is a nice assortment of stunts. If you would enjoy a buffed female heroine in place of the usual, usual, then seek this one out. I thoroughly enjoyed "Ravenhawk". - MERK

As the folks at "Fametracker.com" would put it, the tag-line to "Ravenhawk" should be:'Rachel MacLish has an ass! Would you like to see it???"There is always JUST ENOUGH good stuff in Albert Pyun movies to keep you watching, but the good stuff is always mixed in with a bunch of hokey, crappy, clichéd storytelling and camera work that make it hard to KEEP watching. So you can't just turn it off, because something good, or cool, or at least picturesque might come along, but you can't pay attention because you have to wade through endless stupid clichés to do it. Case in point: Rachel MacLish in "Ravenhawk". MacLish (the first Ms. Olympia) runs around in front of the camera in spectacularly "cut" condition, and she's not wearing a whole lot of clothing to hide her muscle definition. She's got killer cheekbones; huge, dark eyes; and hair to die for. So we are talking major eye candy here. However, we are NOT talking about dramatic range. As striking as MacLish is, she isn't an actress in any sense of the word. She has two expressions - furious intensity and angry confusion - and she alternates between them almost at random. Rachel, honey, you look fabulous and I love you, but you can't carry a feature movie, anymore than Cory Everson could.So Pyun's response to this problem is to exploit MacLish's body far more than even the biggest MacLish fan could ever want. There really is no need for this - MacLish (or her stunt double) can actually move fairly well, and she is reasonably convincing in the mid-shot action scenes. But every chance he gets, Pyun zooms the camera in for close-up shots of various parts of the lady's anatomy, held for many more seconds (and some times in slow motion zooms) than anyone but a bodybuilding fetishist would desire. It's actually pretty distracting and ludicrous after the fourth or fifth time. It's as if Pyun is simply admitting to the viewer, "OK, we really don't have a single bloody idea for something new, so here is a shot of Rachel's heaving, sweaty muscles to pass the time." Pyun also tries to justify the use of MacLish's exotic looks and stone-cut physique by mixing in plot elements involving tribal Indian traditions, shamanistic mysticism and and obsessed revenge against the men who killed her parents...but the results are ham-handed and cliché ridden.The 'bad guys' are so slimy and one-dimensional that no one could possibly swallow it. (One exception: poor William Atherton, who tries to salvage a modicum of dignity as the front-man for the bad-guys). The tribal folks are cardboard cutouts who suffer mutely and have the moral high ground because they are victims.One especially egregious example is the young man who plays the character of the reservation police guy. The actor playing the part is like Lorenzo Lamas without the sense of humor. Someone needed to sit down with him and talk to him about acting being more than projecting an attitude on camera, but it's obvious that no one did. Nothing personal against the young man, who is obviously some kind of clothes model in real life, and who was undoubtedly cast for his ability to wear slim cut jeans and to grow attractive beard stubble - he just sucks as an actor and needs acting lessons even more than MacLish. So in summary, "Ravenhawk" is typical Pyun - 2nd rate movie making based on third rate screen writing, with just enough flash here and there (including a good chase sequence among the mountain cliffs and some spectacular scenery) to keep the viewer from turning it off in irritation. I hope MacLish gets her agent to sign her up for some real acting lessons, and holds out for parts that show her as a woman and an actress, not just a Body.

i enjoyed this film it was a good (to me)film and i will be buying it for my video library. Rachel McLish was stunning as the heroine. The locations were great. John De Lancie ( Star Treks "Q") was execllent as one of the chief villains

Okay, I saw Rachel McLish was in this movie so I had to watch it. I had seen "Pumping Iron II: The Women" and "Aces: Iron Eagle III" on the same merits.First off, this is a "Die Hard" with a sex change and a different locale. Nothing more or less. The fact that they had to use the American Indians and their plight as a plot point is nothing short of reprehensible. This is basically a revenge melodrama against the toxin-dumping white men who have killed the family of a young girl who is arrested for their deaths. Years later she grows up to become McLish and exacts her revenge on the guilty members one by one.Poor McLish; she looks great posing and running, every muscle out proud on display. She looks ESPECIALLY great standing in front of a fire wearing nothing but a loincloth (sigghhhh....). But she is left with just a dull, bored expression most of the time and when she speaks, she sounds like her mind is on other things - Met-RX endorsements, perhaps?But then there's that business of the Indians. This is a serious problem and it's simply glossed over as the bad guys shoot at McLish as she clings precariously on the side of a mountain, escaping death many a time thanks to Indian luck and good muscle training.Two stars. Watching McLish is usually enough, but not with such a "Hawk"-ed up plot. Rachel, as much as it pains me to say this, maybe you should pick better projects. Maybe, say, as a villainess who beats the beans out of Jean-Claude Van Damme?Lord knows he could use the work, too.