Harry Dean Stanton stars as a man who first appears walking alone through the desert terrain of the southwest. After he's hospitalized for heat exhaustion, his brother (Dean Stockwell) is contacted to come and get him. At first, Stanton refuses to speak, and when he eventually does begin to open up, he seems to have memory loss. He's been missing for the past 4 years, and his young 8 year old son has been raised by Stockwell and his wife (Aurore Clement). Once Stanton seems to stabilize a bit, he and the boy go on a road trip to try and track down the boy's mother (Nastassja Kinski).
Harry Dean Stanton has always been one of my favorite character actors, and I was pleased to see him get a lead role for a change. He's terrific, and the only flaws I could maybe point out were the script's fault and not his. Kinski is very good as well. Like I said, the script has some issues for me, with the main character arc being a little hard to buy, and the two and a half hour running time could have been trimmed without loss of mood or substantial content. The cinematography by Robby Muller is fantastic, as is the score by Ry Cooder. I would still recommend this film, but I was a little disappointed considering it was one of the "1001 Movies to See Before You Die".
Harry Dean Stanton has always been one of my favorite character actors, and I was pleased to see him get a lead role for a change. He's terrific, and the only flaws I could maybe point out were the script's fault and not his. Kinski is very good as well. Like I said, the script has some issues for me, with the main character arc being a little hard to buy, and the two and a half hour running time could have been trimmed without loss of mood or substantial content. The cinematography by Robby Muller is fantastic, as is the score by Ry Cooder. I would still recommend this film, but I was a little disappointed considering it was one of the "1001 Movies to See Before You Die".