It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Michael Cimino's "The Sunchaser", as was shown the other night on a cable station, looked faded. Working on a screen play by Charles Leavitt, Mr. Cimino doesn't add anything new to this genre.If you haven't seen the movie, please stop reading now.The choice of Woody Harrelson to play Dr. Michael Reynolds, seems to have been the wrong decision. Mr. Harrelson, a good actor, otherwise, appears out of his league and sometimes out of character. Dr. Reynolds is, at the beginning of the film, a man more interested in going to higher and better places, rather than treating some of the patients he's assigned to see. He has all the accoutrements that go with his position as a rising oncologist, including his brand new red Porsche, the status symbol of Angelinos.When he is made to go along with the sick prisoner Blue, he gets a taste of what the ghetto is like. He has no choice but to go along for a ride with this disturbed young man. Blue is a Navajo by birth, but he's been away from his roots in a while.Along the way to the Navajo sacred mountain, this odd couple experience quite a lot. Dr. Reynolds doesn't warm up to Blue at all. When a kind soul, Dr. Baumbauer, gives the pair a lift, Reynolds voices his prejudices loudly. After all, he's a man that has been trained professionally, therefore, he doesn't have time for these New Age charlatans who think the same way as Blue. The ending is predictable.Woody Harrelson is miscast in the movie. Jon Seda, as the fugitive Blue, gives an uneven performance. The only one that fares better is Anne Bancroft, in her small role of a wise doctor Reynolds and Blue meet on the road.Just out of curiosity, I watched the credits to see if the production company would have clarified that "No Porsche was damaged during the filming process".....

Brandon 'Blue' Monroe is only 16, but he is in a juvenile facility after being convicted of murder, and because of an incurable tumor, he has only a month or so to live. Figuring he has nothing to lose, he takes Dr. Michael Reynolds hostage and demands that Dr. Reynolds take him to a 'sacred mountain' in Arizona, where a medicine man he knew as a boy might be able to heal him.At first no one knows what has happened to Dr. Reynolds. Later, he is suspected of having helped Blue because he was the one who recommended that Blue be transported to another hospital for treatment, and it was while he was being moved that he escaped. Dr. Reynolds did not go voluntarily, but later hostage and kidnapper begin to form a bond, and to understand each other. For example, Dr. Reynolds believes only in Western medicine, while Blue, who is half Navajo, trusts the ways of the Native American. Renata, who picks them up in the desert, also tries to convince Dr. Reynolds that her people know about healing and that white people just push poison.The title of the movie refers to a healer with special powers. As we hear Blue tell the Sunchaser story, we see (in black and white) scenes of young Michael and his brother Jimmy, who died of cancer when he was young. Jimmy was on life support when he gave Michael a ring, and Michael will not give up the ring to Blue even when being threatened with death. Jon Seda gave a great performance. Blue was unflinching and tough but also tender and even spiritual. This was not exactly Woody Harrelson's best work, but he had his good moments, such as when he first met Blue, and when he told Blue about Jimmy. Harrelson got better in the movie's second half. Talisa Soto did a good job as the tough, independent granddaughter of a Navajo medicine man.There were some funny moments, such as when Dr. Reynolds tried to talk to Navajos he did not believe spoke English (but they did). A woman who might have been Dixie Carter is told at a gas station that she looks just like the woman on 'Designing Women', but she says she does not even watch television.I was hoping for better car chases, but there were some exciting scenes involving Blue and Dr. Reynolds driving too fast (Dr. Reynolds was behind the wheel, but Blue put his foot on the accelerator), whether they were being pursued or not. The Arizona scenery, meanwhile, was magnificent.In between the fast-paced scenes, there were deep discussions about spiritual and medical matters. This movie was no masterpiece, but it was often intelligent.POSSIBLE SPOILERS:I found the ending satisfying, though one might have hoped for a 'miracle cure'. To consider the ending to be happy, it is necessary to think on a spiritual level rather than hoping for life on this Earth to continue.Dr. Reynolds was so uptight that after getting tired and dirty climbing mountains and crossing streams, he was still wearing a tie and he hadn't even loosened it!

Dr Reynolds is an ambitious doctor who is assigned to a young Navaho patient who is doing a jail sentence for murder. During transport to a treatment center the prisoner, Blue, over powers the guard and forces Reynolds to drive him to the desert where he believes there is a magic lake that can cure him. During the long trip the two become friends and learn about each other.The first rule of a road movie is that the journey must always be matched by a simultaneous emotional or spiritual journey. Surely rules were made to be broken? Sadly this film doesn't break them but sticks to that principle. It is entertaining but it is very basic at it's core. Materialistic doctor is taught a lesson by Navaho criminal – that's it in a nutshell. The film goes to great lengths to put each character in their mould from the offset before taking them on a journey that is too much comedy action mixed with simple soul searching and mock spirituality.The last 10 minutes is exactly what you expect but is still a let down. Most of the film manages to be OK because it's still good – it's just unoriginal and quite samey. Harrelson is OK but really has his character spelt out for him by giving him history, materialism and a fancy car. Seda does well and did this before he got big in Homicide LOTS. Bancroft is wasted and the rest of the cast are incidental. I didn't find the two leads convincing together and things just clicked too easily at the end.Overall this does exactly what it says on the tin and no more – if you are desperate for a spiritual themed road movie then this'll do you. However if you want a really good film then this may not do it at all.

Only a long way can give the feeling to visit a new world. I think that the travel involve the soul to be different, at least you see different things. Micheal Cimino give us one way to look better into our souls, often too much worried about circumstantial things.