Dark Blood (1993)

Director:

George Sluizer

Writer:

Jim Barton (writer)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

Dealing with nuclear testing and its long-lasting deadly effects, the story portrays Boy, a young widower...

Plot Keywords:

Unfinished Film

Cast

River Phoenix	...	Boy
Jonathan Pryce	...	Harry Fisher
Judy Davis	...	Buffy
Rhonda Aldrich
T. Dan Hopkins	...	Joe Tapesi
Karen Black	...	Motel Woman
John Trudell	...	Indian #2
Julius Drum
Rodney A. Grant	...	Indian #3
George Aguilar	...	Indian #4
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tailinh Forest Flower	...	Wife
Stephen H. Silberkraus	...	The Fisher's Son

Filming Locations:

Gallup, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Fine Line Features

Trivia:

Director George Sluizer now owns the material and has suggested that he might use some footage as documentary material about River Phoenix.

Quotes:

Boy: He died in a mental institution. Melancholia, so I'm told.
Buffy: Your great, great grandfather? So that makes you...?
Boy: One eighth Hopi and prone to depression. (pause) Dark blood in my veins. Got some dark blood yourself. You're familiar with... the dark side of things.

Movie Connections:

Featured in George Sluizer - Filmen over grenzen (2006)

On River Phoenix and Dark Blood

The memory of River Phoenix comes across more vague than myth to me. But over time the enigma shapes into sharper image. Who River Phoenix was and whether his potential and gift ever fully blossomed is debatable to some. When I watch his films, it is obvious there is something very different about him. It has nothing to do with contrived quirkiness or facade. The level of honesty is definitively apart of this difference in him. Maybe you can call it opinion and taste, yet it's not really just opinion and taste. It is just there as I sense that mysterious soul inside of a person on film. I think River was ahead of his time. Brando, Dean, and Clift had something similar in their time. I see other actors' touching it on rare occasions, especially in the 70's as far as American Cinema goes. But even then, they are more of the actor kind than River was. River is quoted as saying he never saw any of Dean's films, and not many other films. But with River, it starts to point in another direction again of someone who is called an actor by profession, but it is not that. "My Own Private Idaho" is a good example of these transcendent moments on film where the watcher conscientiously or not knows they are in the presence of something great. And there is something that separates him from everything there ever was before. There is some kind of leap or new creation I sense about River. When I notice this I understand the confusion concerning his true place in film and acting.

He started out as a child actor, but in only a few films does this other thing begin to show. It is always there, but certain films put this particular individual quality to better use than others. "Dark Blood" is more than likely one of these important films.

Many brush River's memory off focusing on the tragedy of his death. There was a strange silence after his death through the years. Maybe that silence is good in order to get more clarity on someone out of focus. Even if there had been more films I think he would still be a difficult subject to tackle. He might have been in a Terrence Malick film if he had his choice. But River made the films he was in better than they were.

There needs to be something that ables us to look at him again. Not in the light of someone who tragically bit the dust. Whether he was cut short or not, something special did happen, and was revealed in his being. That is what really makes the heart ache when remembering him. Something very deep and important was working inside River Phoenix. Johnny Depp is quoted in a magazine article I read a few years ago when talking about River. "Whatever that something else, or 'it' is, River definitively had it." I don't mean to propose he was an alien. I think he was very human. But the eyes hint at something else beyond as all great art does. We feel and connect to that unexplainable beauty that encompasses life at its purist. George Sluizer owns the "Dark Blood" Footage. He say's it's sitting in a well cooled environment. He's quoted as saying, "I'll make a documentary about River Phoenix's acting style someday using footage of the film when I'm old and have nothing else better to do." Does he not realize what he has? It seems to me it would be so important in the arc of Phoenix's film roles, and the last days of his life.

River Phoenix is a very interesting person and oddity without trying to be. So just what is this "acting style" Sluizer speaks of. Maybe Sluizer really will do something with the "Dark Blood" footage at some point. But we haven't heard anything since he made this statement several years ago. Let us see the definitive documentary about River Phoenix's acting style. River Phoenix was an untrained actor who learned from experience, and maybe his style was that he had no particular style. Perhaps it was the necessity and need to express that 'something else' that can't be taught.

We have our great actors, but then there is something more. River Phoenix did something different. He had his own challenges to face and overcome in this life. But however many he lost, one thing is certain. He made it onto that big screen and then did what not many can do. He pierced straight through the celluloid and left a mark forever. Inside that mark resides a challenge for us shining in a soul that rages against the dying light, and becomes a source for us in seeing another side of that beautiful light. It has been thirteen years since his death. Peter Weir, the director of "The Mosquito Coast" once said commenting about his presence on film. "He has the look of someone who has secrets." It is the right time to see his "Dark Blood" performance whether it be a carefully made documentary about the film, or exploring other areas concerning his "acting style". Something with taste and dignity is what River Phoenix deserves. We know there is so much more to be learned and realized about him.