Peter Coyote Movies
There are several theories as to why Peter Cohon chose the stage name of Peter Coyote; for his part, the actor is reluctant to discuss an event that apparently was the end result of an evening's experimentation with controlled substances. In the late 1960s, Coyote quit his job as a dockworker to "turn on, tune in and drop out." With hair so long that he could sit on it (by his own admission), Coyote was a "fringie" with such varied organizations as the Grateful Dead and the Hell's Angels, and also worked for a while with a guerilla mime group. After years of deprivation, Coyote dropped back into society in 1975, accepting a job as a drama teacher at a public school. Rapidly approaching middle age, Coyote entered films with 1980's Die Laughing. Throughout the 1980s, he alternated between good guys, villains, and a vaguely defined stereotype known as "loser boyfriends." As the vengeful public prosecutor in The Jagged Edge (1985), Coyote turns out not to be the film's principal heavy; even so, we leave the picture disliking his character more than anyone else's. Leading roles came his way in such films as Exposure (1991), but even here he could not completely escape an aura of slime (his ostensibly heroic character burrows through the seamy underside of Rio in search of a prostitute's murderer). One of Coyote's few unconditionally "nice" roles was as the enigmatic scientist Keys in the champion moneymaker E.T. (1982). In the late 1990s, Coyote published Sleeping Where I Fall, a candid memoir of his years as a cultural drop out. In 1992 Roman Polanski tapped him to play the lead in his psycho-sexual black comedy Bitter Moon, and he continued to work steadily in a variety of projects after that such as Kika, Buffalo Girls, Patch Adams, and Sphere. With his deep, distinctive voice he became an in demand narrator for documentaries. He had a small but memorable turn in Erin Brokovich, and was cast in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale. He was in the teen drama A Walk to Remember, and the Polish brothers cast him in their 2003 film Northfork. Although his big-screen appearances began to dwindle, he remained one of the most ubiquitous narrators of non-fiction films of various types. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 2007
The Summer of Love was still eighteen months away when a collective of San Francisco-based filmmakers, musicians, performance artists, entrepreneurs, and futurists planted the seed of the counterculture movement, and that seed was called the Trips Festival. For three full days, attendees at the Trips Festival were treated to a non-stop multimedia rock show comprised of guerilla theater, psychedelic light shows, and Grateful Dead music. Of course the LSD-spiked ice cream didn't hurt in creating a transformative vibe that would resonate throughout the culture in the coming months. In addition to highlighting how the Trips Festival would ultimately become the blueprint for Burning Man, director Eric Christensen and narrator Peter Coyote trace the careers of festival presenter Bill Graham (who forever altered music history by booking the very first rock show at the Fillmore Auditorium), and festival producer Stewart Brand (who not only created the Whole Earth Catalog, but also pioneered the online community the Well). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote
Filmmakers Gary Weimberg and Catherine Ryan take an extensive look at the conscientious objector experience as related to the war in Iraq in this documentary that gives American soldiers from all walks of life the opportunity to speak openly and honestly about their moral concerns regarding their military duties. In the United States, every citizen has the right to abstain from armed combat on the grounds by citing religious or ethical conflict. But these aren't the only people who wrestle with their conscience over killing, because as Weimberg and Ryan reveal, even the soldiers sent to fight on the battlefield often fail to follow through on their orders when the time comes to pull the trigger. By examining extensive footage of military boot camp training techniques and listening to conversations with military personnel, the viewer becomes aware of the methods implemented by the armed forces to strip soldiers of their confidence in favor of building a more effective military. West Point graduates, experienced drill sergeants, Abu Ghraib interrogators, and low-ranking reservists alike all weight in with their deepest moral concerns regarding the duties that the military expects them to perform when deployed to the front lines. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote
- 2007
- Add Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco to Queue Add Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco to top of Queue
While Los Angeles has been the capital of major studio filmmaking in America since the early ears of the 20th Century, in the northern part of California, San Francisco has become home to a different breed of filmmaker -- artists who treasure their independence and carefully guard their creative vision, even while working in the highest echelons of the commercial movie business. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas are just two of the best-known directors to emerge from the San Francisco film community, and Fog City Mavericks is a documentary which pays homage to a number of important filmmakers from the City by the Bay. In addition to Coppola and Lucas, Fog City Mavericks profiles directors Clint Eastwood, Carroll Ballard, Philip Kaufman and Chris Columbus, pioneering independent auteur John Korty, experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner, producer Saul Zaentz, editor and sound designer Walter Murch, cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel, digital animation moguls Brad Bird, Pete Docter, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, and actor Robin Williams, and many more. While examining these individuals, the film also embraces the whole of the San Francisco film scene, and explains why these artists remain so loyal to their hometown. Fittingly, Fog City Mavericks received its world premiere at the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Filmmaker Lynn Hershman-Leeson examines a strange miscarriage of justice amplified by post-9/11 hysteria in this imaginative fusion of documentary and docudrama. Steve Kurtz is an artist and political activist who was an associate professor at the State University of New York's Buffalo campus and a member of a politically oriented creative collective known as the Critical Art Ensemble. In the spring of 2004, Kurtz was preparing an installation of pieces commenting on the potential dangers of genetically modified foods for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art when his wife, Hope Kurtz, unexpectedly suffered heart failure. Kurtz called 911 to report the emergency, but by the time the police arrived she was dead. While looking through Kurtz's home, authorities found petri dishes used to grow bacteria and genetically modified flies the artist had obtained for his exhibit; soon, a Hazmat crew had sealed off the house, and Kurtz was behind bars under laws designed to combat bioterrorism. While Kurtz purchased his materials legally through the Internet and the case against him is flimsy at best, the FBI has refused to drop charges against him, in part because the federal government is eager to strengthen bioterrorism laws rather than call attention to their flaws, and in part because the Food and Drug Administration would prefer to keep critics of bioengineered food (which the FDA has embraced over the objection of many in the scientific community) as quiet as possible. Since Kurtz is not able to tell his own story on camera, for the film Strange Culture Hershman-Leeson has combined interviews and newsreel footage with cinéma vérité-style re-creations, featuring actors Thomas Jay Ryan as Steve Kurtz, Tilda Swinton as Hope Kurtz, and Peter Coyote as Steve's associate Robert Ferrell. Strange Culture also features an original score by pioneering experimental rock group the Residents. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2006
A mail-order bride from Thailand arrives in America with bright hopes for the future, only to find that her new home is a virtual prison in director Thymaya Payne's emotionally turbulent short film. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Matthew Carey, (more)
- 2006
- R
- Add Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil to Queue Add Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil to top of Queue
North Korea is threatening to flex its nuclear muscle, and it's up to a team of US Navy SEALs to prevent a catastrophe in this action-packed sequel to Behind Enemy Lines starring Bruce McGill, Keith David, and Peter Coyote. Everything was going as planned, but when the mission is aborted after the troops have already deployed, four American soldiers are forced to fight for their lives deep in enemy territory. As the rebel forces close in on the stranded men, the battle heats up and the fate of the free world hangs in the balance. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
In 1968 members of San Francisco's Mime Troupe and Digger Movement decided to separate from society and form their own community, known as the Black Bear Ranch, to reconnect with nature and experience a different way of life. At the turn of the new century the resilient counterculture settlement was still active at the base of majestic Mount Shasta, and filmmaker Jonathan Berman traveled to the eighty-acre tract to explore just how the Black Bear Ranch continues to thrive despite the concerns of their suspicious neighbors and the ever-present eyes of the F.B.I. Life is lived at a different pace at the Black Bear Ranch, and now, as nostalgic members of the commune openly discuss just how life in the community has changed over the years, outsiders can finally see precisely how the bold social experiment has continued to defy all predictions regarding its longevity. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
An orphaned drifter recently released from the hospital and seeking gainful employment finds that sometimes fate can play cruel tricks on the desperate in a tightly wound tale of adultery, deception, and murder starring Peter Coyote and Lucas Black. Nat Banyon (Black) is an orphan just looking to get back on his feet after an extended convalescence in a Wyoming hospital. When by chance Nat spots a bad car accident and bravely acts to save the life of the car's eccentric driver, Herman Finch (Coyote), the grateful wheelman kindly extends an offer of work to the young drifter, with the understanding that room and board will be provided free of charge. Assigned the task of cleaning up Finch's rundown Deepwater motel in exchange for a street-worthy car, Nat sets about performing his duties while slowly becoming aware that, in this ramshackle motel, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucas Black, Peter Coyote, (more)
- 2005
- R
- Add Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis to Queue Add Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis to top of Queue
A pair of orphaned teens experience an unexpected reunion with their parents in this fourth installment of the long-running Return of the Living Dead franchise. After a traffic accident kills his folks, high-school senior Julian (John Keefe) leads a more or less typical suburban life. Sure, he's a little depressed, and sure, his brother, Jake (Alexandru Geoana), has a problem with matches. But otherwise everything is business as usual. All of that changes when their friend Zeke (Elvin Dandel) is injured in a dirt-bike accident and rushed to the hospital. Although the authorities claim Zeke is dead, he's actually carted off to a secret laboratory by the evil Hybratech corporation, whose scientists plan to experiment on him with a chemical that can reanimate the dead. Unfortunately for Julian and Jake, their uncle Charles (Peter Coyote) is one of the bad guys -- and he's not above using members of his own family as test subjects. With a group of friends in tow, the boys must infiltrate Hybratech's lab, find Zeke, and fend off a horde of angry zombies. Filmed back to back in Romania and Ukraine with Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave, Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis premiered on the SciFi Channel cable network before receiving a DVD release. Both films were directed by Ellory Elkayem, who previously helmed Eight Legged Freaks. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aimee Lynn Chadwick, Cory C. Hardrict, (more)
Three stories of human treachery are given an unexpected link in this dry comedy drama from Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur. Holt (Forest Whitaker) is an insurance investigator who is sent to Minnesota to look into a bus accident; the bus seems to have had significantly more passengers after it crashed than it had when it left the station, and Holt, posing as a police detective, needs to know who is telling the truth and who is attempting to cash in on the tragedy. Later, Holt is back on the job, when a badly burned body is found in a wrecked car, and the ID on the corpse indicates the victim was a small-time con artist with a police record. The victim's sister, Isold (Julia Stiles), claims that her brother's accident happened after his gas tank was drained and he was struggling to make his way home on a stormy night, but Holt isn't buying it; and Isold's husband, Fred (Jeremy Renner), and son, Thor (Alfred Harmsworth), don't seem especially trustworthy. Finally, a man and a woman struggle to make their way to shore after their car sails off a cliff into a body of water. While they seem grateful to make it back to dry land, it seems the woman has reason to be unhappy with her mate when she viciously attacks him. Who are these people, and what is their story? A Little Trip to Heaven received its North American premier at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles, (more)
- 2005
- R
- Add Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave to Queue Add Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave to top of Queue
In this sequel to 1985's Return of the Living Dead, a bunch of horny teens discover that their new designer drug is actually a chemical that turns humans into flesh-eating zombies. Unfortunately, they don't make this discovery until they're in the middle of an enormous outdoor dance party, where the wild costumes and chemically induced shenanigans make it difficult to tell who's a zombie and who's simply having a good time. Although it shares plot points, characters, actors, and crew with Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis, Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave features only a cameo from Peter Coyote, the sole bold-faced name from the previous film. Both movies were co-written by William Butler, who previously acted in 1990's Night of the Living Dead remake, among other horror films. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aimee Lynn Chadwick, Cory C. Hardrict, (more)
- 2004
This deeply critical and often humorous documentary opens with President George W. Bush's acceptance of the 2000 Republican nomination and Bush's assertion that each U.S. president must be fully responsible for his actions. It then moves forward in time to examine the extent to which Bush failed to live up to this oath, via eviscerating commentary from numerous left-wing spokespeople including Arianna Huffington, Michael Moore, Bill Maher, Al Franken, and others. Peter Coyote narrates. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2004
Jean-Michel Carre's documentary The Kursk: A Submarine In Troubled Waters examines the events surrounding the sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine that gives the film its title. The filmmakers examine physical evidence that seems inconsistent with the official explanation of how the tragedy occurred, and pose provocative questions about the possibility of the United States being somehow responsible. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote
- 2004
The Lakota Native American tribe has a long tradition of ceremonial horseback rides, which are used to celebrate within the community or bring positive spiritual energies toward matters of concern. In 1990, members of the Lakota Nation felt it was time the tribe addressed the growing need for peace around the world, and with this in mind they began a series of rides dedicated to ending war and bringing greater understanding to the peoples of the Earth. Documentary filmmaker James Kleinert examines the growing Native American peace movement in Spirit Riders, which looks back to Lakota traditions and takes them into the present with the continuing phenomenon of the Spirit Rides for Peace. The film includes interviews with activists and ride participants, including Charlotte Black Elk, Chris Leith, Ron His Horse Is Thunder, and actor Viggo Mortensen; Peter Coyote narrates. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Viggo Mortensen, Charlotte Black Elk, (more)
An actor who lands the role of his life is forced into an even greater real-life acting challenge in this comedy drama from France. Maurice Kurtz (Stéphane Freiss) is an actor who is passionately in love with his wife, Perla (Bérénice Bejo), and wishes he could provide a better life for her. Maurice and his friends Simon (Lionel Abelanski), Sami (Olivier Sitruk), and Edouard (Stéphan Guérin-Tillié) work for a company that dubs American films into French when they're not looking for acting work, and when they learn that famous American filmmaker Grichenberg (Peter Coyote) is coming to Paris to shoot a Yiddish-language version of The Merchant of Venice, they all show up at a "cattle call" audition hoping to land bit parts. To his great surprise, Maurice's reading wins him the leading role of Shylock, and he quickly passes the good news along to Perla. As it happens, Perla needs some good news -- she's just been diagnosed with cancer, and her doctor tells her she's not long for the world. Maurice is comforted by the fact that his good fortune is lifting Perla's spirits, so when Grichenberg recasts him a few days later with a major American star, Maurice and his buddies devise a variety of scams to convince Perla that her husband is still making the movie that will make him famous. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stéphane Freiss, Bérénice Bejo, (more)
The first season of USA Network's sci-fi thriller The 4400 begins (pardon the cliché) with a bang, as a huge, glowing object falls from the sky and lands near Highland Beach, Washington. The comet-like object then disgorges some 4400 human beings, all of whom had vanished from the earth over the past 58 years! After a brief quarantine, the "4400" leave for various parts of the world--and then several returns, exhibiting such paranormal abilities as telekinesis, mind control, supersensitve hearing, and even, in the case of Shawn Farrell (Patrick Flueger), the power to revive the dead. Another of the 4400, Lily Moore, is pregnant with the child of Richard Tyler (Mahershalahashbaz Ali) Acutely aware that the returnees' otherworldly powers can be used for evil as well as good, Dennis Ryland (Peter Coyote), head of the National Threat Assessment Command division of Homeland Security, dispatches agents Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) to locate the rest of the 4400 to make certain that nothing terrible happens. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done, as witness the serial killer who has the power to make others do his dirty work. Also, whatever has caused the 4400 to develop these skills also has a profound effect on the two NTAC agents--to say nothing of Tom's son Kyle (Chad Faust), whose erratic behavior turns is a harbinger of things to come. Meanwhile, another of the 4400, the mysterious Jordan Collier (Bill Campbell), offers protection and shelter to his fellow retunees at Arcadia Estates--an outward act of altrusim that may be a cover up for a sinister hidden agenda. The five-episode first season ends after several of the 4400 are assassinated once their identities are made public--and after the startling secret behind the 4400 is revealed (we won't give too much away here: suffice to say that, though the 4400 were definitely abduction victims, their abductors were NOT aliens from another planet!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Joel Gretsch, (more)
When an underground society of powerful and dangerous men transforms from a secretive safe haven into a tangled web of lies and deceit, their unwavering desperation culminates in a shocking act of murder in this thriller from director Rich Cowan. Everyone in the secret society has committed a crime that could bring their fortune and public face crumbling to the ground, and Harrison French (Matt Davis) is no exception. Convinced by leader William Ashbury (James Spader) that the only way to make his troubles disappear is to confess his agonizing secret to the members of the group -- who will in turn exchange his confession for a "favor" designed to take the weight off his crushing conscience -- French soon discovers that the price for a future of lies and deception may be more than he is willing to pay. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Spader
- 2004
- R
- Add Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room to Queue Add Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room to top of Queue
Alex Gibney, who wrote and produced Eugene Jarecki's The Trials of Henry Kissinger, examines the rise and fall of an infamous corporate juggernaut in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, which he wrote and directed. The film, based on the book by Fortune Magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, opens with a reenactment of the suicide of Enron executive Cliff Baxter, then travels back in time, describing Enron chairman Kenneth Lay's humble beginnings as the son of a preacher, his ascent in the corporate world as an "apostle of deregulation," his fortuitous friendship with the Bush family, and the development of his business strategies in natural gas futures. The film points out that the culture of financial malfeasance at Enron was evident as far back as 1987, when Lay apparently encouraged the outrageous risk taking and profit skimming of two oil traders in Enron's Valhalla office because they were bringing a lot of money into the company. But it wasn't until eventual CEO Jeff Skilling arrived at Enron that the company's "aggressive accounting" philosophy truly took hold. The Smartest Guys in the Room explores the lengths to which the company went in order to appear incredibly profitable. Their win-at-all-costs strategy included suborning financial analysts with huge contracts for their firms, hiding debts by essentially having the company loan money to itself, and using California's deregulation of the electricity market to manipulate the state's energy supply. Gibney's film reveals how Lay, Skilling, and other execs managed to keep their riches, while thousands of lower-level employees saw their loyalty repaid with the loss of their jobs and their retirement funds. The filmmaker posits the Enron scandal not as an anomaly, but as a natural outgrowth of free-market capitalism. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote
The documentary Oil on Ice discusses various factors that are having negative effects on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The film explains how America's energy policy, the rights of Gwich'in Indians, animal rights, and global warming are all causing serious disturbances to the Refuge. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
Although the feature length UFO documentary Out of the Blue first aired on the Sci-Fi Channel, the film takes a sober, clinical and surprisingly down-to-earth approach to its subject matter. Assuming that the audience already accepts the existence of UFOs, the producers -- and narrator Peter Coyote -- calmly offer spoken testimony of "close encounters" from several high-profile witnesses, among them ex-presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, retired American astronauts Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell, and former Soviet cosmonaut Pavel Popovich. Also disseminated are previously classified government documents, and palpable evidence of UFO "interference" with American aircraft. One of the more intelligent and logical films of its kind, Out of the Blue will probably not convert any skeptics, but it won't make the True Believers feel foolish either. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote
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