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David Morse, Viggo Mortensen, Benicio Del Toro

Sean Penn announced his retirement from acting, then wrote and directed this emotionally raw, somewhat sprawling film, suggested by Bruce Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman." David Morse is the tit...( read more  read more... )le character, an upstanding citizen and peace officer who tries to help his troubled--and troublesome--brother (Viggo Mortensen), recently returned from Vietnam. The brother and his girlfriend (Patricia Arquette) have bad news written all over them--but Morse does what he can to be protector, to no avail. Penn, whose model was John Cassavetes, favors long scenes that draw intense emotions from his cast, which includes Charles Bronson (in an unusually low-key role), Sandy Dennis, and Valeria Golino. But it's as depressing as Springsteen's song. --Marshall Fine

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79% liked it

4,726 ratings

R, 2 hrs. 6 min.

Directed by: Sean Penn

Release Date: June 1, 1991

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DVD Release Date: December 11, 2001

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Stats: 237 reviews

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David Morse as Joe Roberts Charles Bonson in 'The Indian Runner' Valeria Golino in 'The Indian Runner' Sean Penn's directorial debut Viggo Mortensen as Frank Roberts Sean Penn's directorial debut Dennis Hopper as bantender Caesar Viggo Mortensen and Dennis Hopper Viggo Mortensen as Frank Roberts on the set of 'The Indian Runner' (1991) 'The Indian Runner' (Sean Penn, 1991) The Indian Runner
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Flixster Reviews (237)

  • IfeellikeGregorSamsa
    January 18, 2008
    IfeellikeGregorSamsa
    There're not many films that actually moved me, leaving me feeling so strongly about character on screen as if I was looking into the mirror. In fact, there're a few. Sean Penn's brilliant debut, sadly forgotten "The Indian Runner" is one of them and even if he hasn't managed to ...( read more)even come close to this masterpiece in his later work, we should be grateful for this uncompromising journey into confused mind of an isolated human being.

    Its simple story - inspired by Bruce Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman" from his beautiful acoustic "Nebraska" - told with raw honesty and sheer compassion, follow lives of two brothers who presents two sides of a life. First one, Joe (Morse) is leading steady, responsible life, being married and a father, working as a sheriff when second, younger, Frank (Mortensen) is angry, bad-tempered and withdraw, recently sent back home from Vietnam. Upon their first meeting as they driving to see their parents, Frank decides not to see them and go on his own, turning his back on the family for the first time. Frank will turn his back many times and Joe's need to help his younger brother'll turn out to be idle, for, in the end, Frank will go for good...

    When their mother passess away and their father later commits suicide - probably out of despair over his loss and fear of living without his female companion - Joe persuade Frank to come back home. Frank agrees to do so but first sight of him in the old place is rather dramatic than happy one as he, drunk out of his mind, stands naked before the mirror with gun in his hand and says the line that will be crucial, emboding chaos within him: "Somebody was boring me. I think it was me." His anti-social behaviour - cold verbal and physical cruelty - first cause him to go to jail after he punches his girlfriend, then, after being released, to humiliate her, spitting with green peas over her face. He also along the way beats up badly a stranger at the bar. Joe does everything he can to help Frank to stand on his own feet - cuts him a break, get him a job, let him move with his girlfriend to their parents' house - but it's a mattter of time before Frank will snap and do something reckless which'll put everything he's build in vain. When his girlfriend is about to give birth to their first child, Frank flees to a bar to his only remaining way of getting relief: in bottle of whiskey.

    Frank seems to be young Rimbaud: vibrant, unpredictable, violent, scared and deeply sad - all at the same time - wanting only to get out of this whole - terrifying in its simplicity - system of "being this, doing that" that he actually desires but because of restlessness, not wanting to put himself in this position since escaping then will be much more problematic, he decides not to step into it at all. Feeling all that, it seems abstract to have a family, have a wife, have a job, keeping providing a necessary stability and when you can't seize it and someone ask you why and you can't find right words, it confuses you even more. Joe did everything he could but he didn't understand the state of Frank's mind since he asks: "Why you find it so hard?" on which Frank responds: "Why you find it so easy?!" It's not the lack of Joe's empathy but rather director's statement about our inability to look through the other human being, no matter how well we know him - which is often because we only think we know him well - just the way it is in life. For Joe the whole matter is obvious, there's nothing to be scared of, but for Frank it's a level of living that is beyond his understanding. Behind that, there're only a feelings of regret and shame.

    There're many beautiful moments here, one of the most moving I've ever seen. Mutli-character sequence with accompaniment of Jefferson Airplane's wonderful ballad "Comin' Back to Me" is experience you'll remember for the rest of your life. Climax conversation between the two in the bar is another moment of greatness, not easy to forget. 30 years-old Penn's directing is so confident as if he was on the other side of the camera for a least couple of decades and Viggo Mortensen gives a performance of his career.

    As Franz Kafka wrote: "Impatience may be the only sin we can commit", and for me, that would be a reason for Frank's escape. But was he bad? "No good"? Penn knows it's not for him to answer that, directly, not only because in life people never are simply good or bad, but because no one would want to be labeled, i.e. jugded in a single word, and so when we see Frank driving off for good, Penn cuts original line from Springsteen's song: "Frank just ain't no good" leaving only "Frank just...", and it's gracious.

    Cassavetes would be proud.
  • RashHunt
    March 16, 2006
    RashHunt
    Better editing and finer direction could have made this a classic. Good performances are, however, emphasized by Penn's unique film style.
  • cacutshaw
    January 17, 2008
    cacutshaw
    Great Penn movie with two amazing actors doing some of their best work... oh yeah, and one God (Bronson) taking a hiatus from ass kicking to give an amazing performance. It's awesome how Penn uses great actors the world has forgotten about (Bronson, Mickey Rourke and Michael O K...( read more)eefe in The Pledge, Morse at the time) and gets the performances of a lifetime out of them. A great story about 2 brothers with different mindsets and ideals. And Bronson is in it!
  • ileo
    November 6, 2007
    ileo
    A fantastic movie!
  • Soundsofmadness
    May 14, 2009
    Soundsofmadness
    No thanks - Not interested
  • jackory69
    May 1, 2009
    jackory69
    What a tedious movie this is. Borders on boring. I only watched it because I knew it was based on the Springsteen song "Highway Patrolman". Great song. You'd think it would translate well to film. Not in this case. Sean Penn can be forgiven, as this is his first attempt to write ...( read more)and direct. Nevertheless, IMO, he fails on both counts. The whole "indian runner" theme was under-developed. A couple of scenes were outright dumb. Acting was sub paar on behalf of practically everyone involved. The only thing "The Indian Runner" has going for it is the bare bones of a story, thanks to Bruce Springsteen. Maybe some day it will be developed in a more professional and entertaining manner.
  • Phonex
    March 20, 2009
    Phonex
    another great cast ( Viggo Mortensen, David Morse, Patricia Arquette, Valeria Golino, Charles Bronson, Dennis Hopper
    Benicio del Toro ) directed by S.P. It is based on Bruce Springsteen's song, "Highway Patrolman".
  • xxxcli213xxx
    December 13, 2008
    xxxcli213xxx
    ehh. . . . no thanks
  • ChrisChristoferson
    September 4, 2008
    ChrisChristoferson
    very good..the perfomances are great

    David Morse and Viggo Mortenseen are two brothers..one is alchoholic and the other one a cop..

    see this if you happen to catch it on screen
  • NoirChick
    August 22, 2008
    NoirChick
    Compelling directorial debut by Sean Penn. Bonus - Viggo goes full-frontal!!!!

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  • rockettojendell
    December 14, 2006
    rockettojendell
    An all-time favorite movie. I can never watch it too many times. Viggo Mortensen is brilliant, David Morse is excellent, and you fall in love with Patricia Arquette. Sad, real, and yet wonderful. It could have been anybody's life, and you are glad its not yours.
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The Indian Runner Trivia

  • Sean Penn directed this film, based on a Bruce Springsteen song.  Answer »
  • In what movie did Sean Penn direct Viggo Mortensen?  Answer »
  • "The Indian Runner", 1991 - David Morse, Viggo Mortensen, Valeria Golino, Patricia Arquette, Charles Bronson, Sandy Dennis, Dennis Hopper - was the first movie directed by:  Answer »
  • What film was Sean Penns debut a director?  Answer »
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