Dark Winds

Dark Winds is an enjoyable if fairly standard cop drama based on the novels of Tony Hillerman. The chalk and cheese partners Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and FBI agent Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) investigate a series of apparently unrelated crimes. What sets it apart from the crowd is the setting and period: the Navajo Nation of the 1970s.

The action kicks off with a violent bank raid. The thieves make off in a chopper and are flying in the direction of the Navajo Nation when it disappears. FBI agent Leland Whitover (Noah Emmerich) charges Leaphorn with investigating. He also arranges to have Chee seconded into the police force in order to keep an eye on things.

Despite the somewhat formulaic plot - the twist and turns are what you would expect and where you would expect them - the pacing of the narrative makes Dark Winds very watchable. The series is laced with deadpan humour, subtle, wry and un-American. It is perfectly placed to adjust the pacing and bring the mood up from the personal tragedies experienced by some of the characters. There is Zahn McClarnon physical comedy and the running jokes between Leaphorn and his wife Emma (Deanna Allison). Jim Chee in conversation with Officer Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) have the same dry wit. As counterpoint there is the expounding humour of Rainn Wilson's Devoted Dan, a used car salesman but no High Priest of California.

All of the Navajo characters are played by actors of Native American descent. The series was shot almost exclusively within the Navajo Nation. A lot of care went into the building and dressing of sets, the costuming et cetera. Quite a large portion of the dialogue is spoken in Diné. It all goes to giving Dark Winds a really authentic feel, to an outsider.

In actuality the depiction of Navajo culture and language is off the mark. Diné is reputedly one of the hardest languages to learn. The actors had one month to get it down. To native speakers they sounded laughably bad. When it came to the depiction of culture one commentator, Jennifer Denetdale[1], put it, “It’s like a tourist gaze, coming out of Santa Fe.” In one episode it juxtaposes elements of two ceremonies in a way that is absolutely taboo. In response to the criticism, the director Chris Eyre brought on board a cultural and language adviser for the second series and made some progress towards authenticity.

Both Chris Eyre and Robert Redford (one of the executive producers) have been involved with the adaptation of Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee books before. Redford was behind the awful 1991 film The Dark Wind and Chris Eyre directed two of the three PBS adaptations. Dark Winds is a lot more enjoyable than those.

[1] chairwoman of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.