Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

While I've not seen the subsequent Redford produced adaptations of Hillerman's Skinwalkers, Coyote Waits (w/Adam Beach as Chee), or A Thief of Time (w/Gary Farmer returning to the Hillerverse as Captain Largo), I think any of those would have been a more universally digestible initial film. The Dark Wind is one of his most complex and perhaps a more seasoned dramatic director rather than a documentarian would have been a wiser choice. I really wished LDP, still enjoying young lion status from his roles in La Bamba and Young Guns, had optioned the rights to a couple more Hillerman stories. I truly enjoyed his subtle, soft spoken Jim Chee and his chemistry with the always excellent Gary Farmer's Dashee.

For using native actors, I give it a 10 of 10. The production values are rather poor, but then again, they used a lot of local people for grips, etc. Many shots with the sound boom in them.This film was never distributed, so the editing was never really finished. Those shots with the boom could have been optically cropped. The sound very often picks up too much..for instance late in the film, in Leaphorn's house, the ticking of a clock near the mic almost drowned out the conversation.Chee is supposed to be somewhat quiet, slow to move, but Phillips might have taken that a bit far.Overall, it's fairly faithful to the book.

Having read the book of the same title by Tony Hillerman, I believe the movie is one of the best in being as close to the book as possible. The story is great but film-making was terrible. There is at least one shot in the movie where the boom mike is clearly visible at the top of the screen. Also, the acting from most of the people wasn't that great. As far as Lou Diamond Phillips goes, I have seen him do much better than this film, and I think the best actor was Gary Farmer in the role of Cowboy Dashee. However, if you're a fan of the books, I recommend seeing this and I hope that the upcoming Hillerman stories on PBS are better than this one.

The Robert Redford films are always beautiful - spectacular displays. The "Meeting of the Spirits and the Real World" on the mountaintop, with thunder, lightning, bon fire with sparks flying, wind blowing, dancers' shadows, and chanting is almost worth the price of admission. I have read the book, and thought the casting was good, but the hairstyle of Jim Chee didn't match the character. I enjoyed the film, and urge others to see it, although many of the actors are not Native Americans which is a failing to many viewers.