Jul 26, 2021
Shadow of the Hawk (1976)
"What's wrong?"
"Evil is around us. If we lose, I will die. Our people will die. Stay here; when I come back, we leave."
#Shadow of the hawk#1976#canadian cinema#George McCowan#Norman Thaddeus Vane#Peter Jensen#jan michael vincent#Marilyn Hassett#chief dan george#Pia Shandel#Marianne Jones#Jacques Hubert#Cindi Griffith#Anna Hagan#Murray Lowry#Lynette Cahill#Heavy TV movie vibes on this one. Intermittently this is kind of visually stunning with some big broad ideas in supernatural imagery#Which owe more to Japanese culture (in particular the films of Kaneto Shindo) than the native American tradition this is#Supposedly drawing from. But whilst there are these occasional spectacular images‚ there's also far too much#Well... Plodding. Most of this film consists of a journey from point A to B and the expected obstacles that are encountered along the way#As world's unlikeliest native American JMV accompanies his grandpa back to the reservation to face down an evil threat from the shadow#World. Exciting as this sounds‚ the fact is that there's a lot of slogging along; travelling here‚ travelling there‚ pausing to fight a#Bear. Yeah there's also a fight between JMV and a bear‚ and on that front I can honestly say: wonderful work‚ no notes from me#Every film should have a 70s pretty boy fight a bear. Where was I. Oh yeah‚ so‚ this is fun but a little drawn out and a little by the#Numbers for a lot of the middle section but there's enough fun stuff to be found here to make it worthwhile. And while JMV playing Native#Might be a regrettable bit of 70s bigotry‚ at least we have Chief Dan George to make up for him. Easily the best part of the film#Chief imbues his character (and the film) with a level of dignity and professionalism that I'm just not sure it deserved