A murder case reopens wounds both personal and public in a small Pacific Northwest island community.
Snow Falling On Cedars by writer David Guterson was a bestselling novel and PEN/Faulkner award winner. Australian director Scott Hicks, coming off his surprise independent breakout Shine, passed up many opportunities for a follow-up until he went after the job to direct the adaptation.
Hicks worked on the screenplay with Ron Bass (Rain Man), and made an effort to balance the historical element of the novel (particularly the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II), the interracial romance at the heart of the story, and the murder mystery.
On the aesthetic front, Hicks was interested in playing with time frame and hurtling the viewer back and forth between different layers of memory, often several within seconds. He enlisted cinematographer Robert Richardson and editor Hank Corwin (both of whom had worked with similar strategies on Oliver Stone's JFK) to these ends.
The cast is headed by Ethan Hawke, who is joined by Japanese newcomers Yuki Kudo and Rick Yune, iconic veterans like Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist), Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff), and reliable character actors James Cromwell, Richard Jenkins, James Rebhorn, and Celia Weston.
The film was shot on location in Washington state and in British Columbia. Actual Japanese-Americans who had lived in the internment camps appeared as extras in various scenes. Vintage boats from the time period were provided by a local maritime museum.
Despite receiving good reviews, the film fared very poorly at the box office, either due to the subject matter or being lost in the shuffle during an extremely good year for movies. The cinematography received a handful of critics awards despite the strong competition, and was nominated for an Oscar.
Running time is approx. 2 hours.
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