A brief description of the movie from the website http://www.imdb.com
is: "In 19th-century New Mexico, a
father (Tommy Lee Jones) comes back home, hoping to
reconcile with his adult daughter Maggie (Cate Blanchett).
Maggie's daughter is kidnapped, forcing father and
estranged daughter to work together to get her back."
The Missing is an action-filled, suspense, thriller, western. Somewhat
similar to the classic The Searchers, The Missing
adds a considerable amount of Hollywood mysticism.
Tommy Lee Jones plays Samuel Jones (Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan).
The meaning of Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan provides a bit of
comic relief later in the film. Jones' character has been
living with the Apache for the last 20 years. Not long after
Jones tries to reconcile with his daughter, Pesh-Chidin,
(played by Eric Schweig, also in Skins) kidnaps Blanchette's daughter.
Pesh-Chidin is a psychopathic killer with mystical
powers. He and his band of renegades have just "broke-out"
of their reservation. They are kidnapping white girls in
order to sell them to into slavery in Mexico.
As a considerable part of the movie involves Pesh-Chidin,
his band of renegades, and a couple of Apaches who come to
Jones' aid, there are quite a few American Indian actors
in the movie. Steve Reevis is Two Stones; Jay Tavare is
Kayitah; Simon Baker is Honesco, Kayitah's son; Deryle J.
Lujan is Naazhaao/'Hunter.'
According to director Ron Howard, as much as it is a
character-driven suspense drama, The Missing is also the
story of an arduous journey through New Mexico. "This
story is a true expedition that starts out in the high
country and ends up at the Mexican border in the high
desert," says Howard. "Like the characters, we went from
snow to heat waves. That made the story palpable for
audiences in grasping the characters' transitory experience."
The movie was filmed in the Valles Caldera in the high
country north of Santa Fe, near the national park at
Los Alamos. At the Zia Pueblo, an eerie, desiccated mesa
of white gypsum, 65 mph winds suddenly kicked up,
blinding and choking the cast and crew. Some exterior
shots were made at the Santa Clara Pueblo. The producers
reproduced the ancient site to shoot more of the interior
details.
To quote from the movie's official website, "In terms of the
Native American characters, it is much more time-specific,
Weiss says, "Because of when the film takes place, we were
able to show what was happening to the Apache nation at
that time, how sad it was that they were being forcibly
'westernized.' Any time a costume designer is asked
to help represent a group where there has been an attempt to dispense
with their identity, it is an honor as well as a responsibility. The
Apaches were on a part of their journey
where their clothing was becoming 'westernized' without
choice. Through dress, their culture and identity was being
stripped away. Although Kayitah and Honesco's clothes remain
closer to their tribal base, availability of materials had
become easier. The Apache scouts would often wear pieces
of the Calvary uniform. But when the military no longer
wanted any part of them, the visual history gets mixed up
and you can see it in their clothing, which reflects where
they have been rather than who they are."
Pesh-Chidin, however, knows exactly who he is, and everything
about his clothing conveys a sense of demonic power and
foreboding, according to Weiss. "Pesh is an outsider. If
he is foreboding, it's because those who know that they
have the power to terrify can emit an aura of the abuse of
power, an emotional clearing around them. The power of Pesh
is toxic. Whatever gifts he had as a healer became tainted.
He chose a path of evil pride. He wears his trophies (the
tintypes), which are a roster of his victims. Anyone who has
to wear his past to shield a misuse of power is someone who
should not only shed his costume, but his soul."
One of Howard's boldest gambles in The Missing was the use
of Apache dialogue (with subtitles) against a backdrop of
palpable action. The reason it worked so well and didn't
interfere with the momentum, says Grazer, "is because we
treated it in a very vital way. The characters who spoke
Apache, did so in a modern way. There was humor. There was
an edge to it. It was how real people would talk, not like
characters in a history book."
In preparation for the film, Jones, Tavare, Baker and other
Apache characters had to learn how to speak Chiricahua, a
dialect of the Apache language. The Missing contains several
scenes with interchanges in this difficult and demanding
Apache tongue. "There are five or six different groups of
Apaches, each of whom speak a slightly different language,"
explains Jones. "We had to study the Chiricahua dialect
carefully and thoroughly."
The actors were taught by teachers who also served as
consultants on the film -- Elbys Hugar and Berle Kanseah,
Chiricahua elders with an impressive Apache pedigree, as
well as Scott Rushforth, a college professor with a
specialty in Native American languages. "Apache is one of
the most difficult of all the native languages to perfect,"
explains Tavare. "It has glottal stops, sibilent Ls, and
there are some words that, even if you pronounce them
correctly, if you punctuate them in the wrong place, mean
something completely different."
"In my mind, there was never any question that the actors
playing Native Americans would have to speak Apache,"
Howard explains. "We were extremely fortunate that Elbys,
Berle and Scott agreed to help us. Elbys in particular,
comes from a line of great Apache leaders. Her grandfather
is Cochise and her great-grandfather is Naiche. Cochise
is well known as a formidable and infamous Chiricahua
warrior. Naiche was the chief of the Chiricahua band that
evaded the military for many years, along with Geronimo,
who is better known. But in truth, Geronimo was just the
medicine man."
The actors went beyond the rudiments of Chiricahua to
learn many of its subtleties. "One of the great joys for
me was how intriguing and entertaining the culture is and
how that comes across in the language," says Howard. "Much
of the humor in the film comes in the interactions between
Jones and Kayitah (Jay Tavare) and the Apaches talking
about the white folks. They are famous for their dry sense
of humor. It's quite an amazing culture." In the script,
Chiricahua Apaches have given the wandering Jones an
affectionate and humorous name. It emerged from a
conversation producer Ostroff had with Rushforth. "Dan
asked me what the Chiricahua might call someone like Jones,
who can't settle down, abandons his family, and is alone,"
says Rushforth. "The Chiricahua hold family in extremely
high regard, so I jokingly told Dan that they'd call Jones
'shit out of luck.' Dan passed my comment along to Ron
Howard, who thought it was funny, and the name stuck."
The actors studied with their teachers for about seven
weeks prior to filming and continued throughout the
production. For Hugar, who has compiled two Chiricahua
dictionaries with Rushforth, it was a chance to demonstrate
the beauty and intricacy of the language, which is in
danger of disappearing. "It was an opportunity to show
young people that they can learn the language, too, which
is important, because it's dying out," says Hugar. "When
I was working as a curator at a museum, I had a class of
about 50 kids and asked how many understood their language
and could speak any Apache. Just two of them raised their
hands."
The actors appreciated learning not only the language,
but also the nuances of the culture. "It was wonderful
to work with the Apache elders," Tavare says. "Their
stories were fascinating and gave me a stronger sense
of my character."
While the movie heightens the evil nature of Pesh-Chidin,
it also features American Indian characters that are more well-rounded.
Granted, this is intended to be a thriller, not an anthropological
study. The DVD version of the movie has some interesting background
information of the production of the
movie.
