The Indian Runner (1991)

Cop or veteran, guilt will not run away
It is a marvelous film for many reasons and it has many meaningful interpretations. The first we can think of is of course the effect of the Vietnam War on a normal man. It made him someone whose desire to kill, whose need to kill could never be controlled and dominated. Nothing could keep him within the limits of normalcy, that is to say a violence that is purely symbolical or superficial. His desire was not to punch a few noses and be done with it, but it was to kill, and I repeat that was a need for him to be satisfied in order to survive. The second line is that of the two brothers. One chose to be a cop and he killed legally. That's not in anyway easy, but at least you can come to terms with it: you saved your life from someone who wanted to kill you, and that was legal. You can wonder why he shot to kill, right in the heart, but he was entirely justified to shoot, so why not to kill? The other chose to go to Vietnam and there he killed but it was never to really save his life, never really justified because it was not self defense on his own turf but aggression in a foreign country, and the killing was not exactly shooting at combatants, but more often at women and children. This seems to prove that the desire to kill is in any man, good or bad, and that the only choice you have is to do it legally and morally or not. Vietnam produced twisted, distorted and completely warped personalities for whom killing had become a need, just like alcohol or smoking for others. This leads to a confrontation between the two brothers and the dilemma for the cop who has to arrest or shoot his own brother. He chose differently. The third line is metaphorical. The guilt the cop had built in himself after killing the young chap who was running away and then started to shoot at him can only come out, be retrieved and rehabilitated if in a way or another the need to kill is projected into someone else and that someone else is forced to go away. The guilt has to be entrusted to some Indian runner who will take it away as if it were a message he has to go dump in the ocean or the infinite. But this meaning is metaphorically symbolical of us all. We all have to get rid of this death instinct, and here comes the ending of the film. It is a dream society will let us go without making us pay for that death instinct. And the price is called guilt because we have to repress it and then it will go on lurking in our minds forever. There is no Indian runner for our death instinct, just a repressed guilt that may come out one day, but when and how no one knows.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

sad story/great acting
Everyone in this film from Charles bronson to Dennis Hopper turned in a stellar performance . Be prepared for a very dark story however.Viggo Mortensen and David Morse play brothers who took different paths in life and we watch as one is unable to save the other from himself & his demons.Viet Nam is an integral part of Mortensen's disintegration and it ain't pretty.It is very moving however.David Morse, a fine actor, has never been better.There is a full frontal nude shot of Viggo but there's nothing sexy about it.Sean Penn has given us a film that's a lot like him.Intense,deep,brilliant and unsettling.Perhaps it's "a message".

The train wreck you can't look away from
This fine movie probably didn't get as much attention as it merited because of its bleakness and because it represented Penn's earliest work as a director. It is much like watching the proverbial train wreck: devastating but irresistible. However, it is worth enduring the pain for at least one viewing, which will leave a lasting impression. It can be a bit slow in places but is well-written, superbly acted, and beautifully photographed.

Mortensen is absolutely wonderful, both repulsive and heart-breaking as the hopelessly destructive younger of two brothers who have gone separate ways after growing up on a family farm in Wisconsin. After the farm fails and must be sold, the older brother, well-played in an understated performance by David Morse, goes into law enforcement, marries a woman he adores, and forges a contented family life with her and their baby son. When the younger brother comes back into their midst, fresh from the military and a stint in prison resulting from explosions of his inexplicably violent temperament, the older brother has to determine at what point he stops trying to save his angry sibling from himself. The entire cast is fine - a young Patricia Arquette as Mortensen's love is deeply touching. Charles Bronson and Sandy Dennis appear briefly as the brothers' parents. While the film's story centers on the struggle between the two brothers, the mysterious inexorability of character is its underlying theme. The narrative and character development stand on their own, however, to suggest the deeper theme. A sad but memorable film, and kudos to Penn and his cast for making this film - it was obviously a labor of love.