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
The first-ever American Indian-produced documentary to air on a major television network, The World of American Indian Dance premiered on NBC on April 19, 2003. Filmed at the Crow Fair in Montana with high-definition video, it features a cast and crew from various tribal groups, including the Oneida, Ponca, and Lakota. Narrated by Peter Coyote, this program introduces the unique styles of Native American dance traditions across different tribes and nations. Includes separate chapters for each dance, including the Indian Wheel, Crow Hop, Grass Dance, and Fancy Dance. Also includes separate chapters for men's and women's traditional dances. These ancient dances have proven to have a lasting influence on many contemporary American Indians. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
This documentary examines the history of healthcare for American Indians, from its beginnings in the early 1800s to the Healthcare Reform Act of 2010. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote
Featuring Lila Kedrova and Melvyn Douglas as elderly couple Eva and David who, after forty years of a less-than-satisfying marriage, find the lost love they once had for each other as they travel to San Francisco to visit their grandchildren. Actress Lee Grant's first directorial feature, this drama is based on a novella by Tillie Olsen. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Lila Kedrova, (more)
- 1980
Filmed on location at Alcatraz Island, this two-part "whole story" actually concentrates on a handful of the denizens behind the cold grey walls of "The Rock". Michael Beck plays the real-life Clarence Carnes, an Oklahoma Choctaw Indian said to be the youngest man ever incarcerated in the notorious maximum security prison. Serving a 99-year sentence for a gas station holdup and murder, Carnes makes periodic attempts to escape, the final attempt being the most violent. Many of the subordinate characters are fictional (as are most of the details concerning Carnes' escape efforts); the one exception is Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", here portrayed by Art Carney as a gentle, kindly philosopher. Telly Savalas, a costar of the Burt Lancaster vehicle Birdman of Alcatraz, also guest starred in the 1980 film. Originally titled Alcatraz and Clarence Carnes, this made-for-TV movie wavers between gritty realism and "I'm bustin' outta here!" artifice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Beck, Telly Savalas, (more)
- 1980
- PG
In this black comedy, a humble cab driver spends his days daydreaming of becoming a rock-star. His blissful reverie is one day interrupted when ends up inadvertently blamed for the assassination of a world-renowned nuclear scientist. Soon afterward he finds that he has a stowaway, the late scientist's chimpanzee, the only one who knows his master's secret formula, which if ever written down could cause the destruction of the world. Now the hapless taxi driver must evade both the cops and two villainous Russian Spies. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robby Benson, Linda Grovenor, (more)
A handful of part time soldiers unwittingly turn a field exercise into a miniature war in this offbeat action drama from writer and director Walter Hill. A group of National Guard reservists are sent to Louisiana on a chilly weekend for war games exercises. None of these weekend warriors seem especially happy to be there, especially laid-back Spencer (Keith Carradine), tightly-wound macho man Reece (Fred Ward) and transplanted Texan Hardin (Powers Booth). While making their way through swamp country, the reservists discover their maps are out of date and they've become lost. Rather than march back to camp and start over, they decide to "borrow" several canoes they've found by the banks of the bayou, which should put them back on track. When a Cajun local catches the soldiers stealing his canoes, Stuckey (Lewis Smith) fires a few rounds in his direction; for the purposes of their exercises, the Guardsmen have been given blank shells, so Stuckey imagines this is a harmless way to scare the man off. However, the Cajun soon returns fire -- with real bullets. After Poole (Peter Coyote) is killed by a shotgun blast, the Guardsmen find themselves lost in a place they do not understand, surrounded by angry men determined to drive the unwelcome visitors off their land at all costs. A taut and atmospheric action film which is also serves as an intelligent and evocative metaphor for America's role in the Vietnam war, Southern Comfort also features an excellent score by guitarist (and frequent Walter Hill collaborator) Ry Cooder. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, (more)
The videotaped TV movie The People vs. Jean Harris premiered May 7, 1981-five weeks after the outcome of Jean Harris' trial. Ellen Burstyn plays Jean, the 57-year old headmistress of a Virginia girl's school. Jean was also the longtime lover of Scarsdale Diet author Dr. Herman Tarnower. On March 10, 1980, Jean was arrested for the murder of Dr. Tarnower. She never denied her guilt, but insisted that the court hear out her reasons. Those reasons form the dramatic core of this two-part, four-hour film (its second half was aired May 8, 1981). Martin Balsam and Peter Coyote co-star as, respectively, the defense and prosecuting attorneys. It was difficult for contemporary reviewers to assess The People vs. Jean Harris, since it wasn't completed until virtually the eve of its television premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ellen Burstyn, Martin Balsam, (more)
- 1981
Isabel (Jean Stapleton), a widowed executive secretary, is forced into early retirement by executive Lymon Jones (Richard Kiley), whom she herself trained. Actually, Jones has an ulterior motive; he's fallen in love with Isabel, and wants to marry her. Now Isabel must choose between Jones or keeping her job in order to train Jones's successor Peter Coyote. For her work in Isabel's Choice (working title: A Life of Her Own), Jean Stapleton won an award from the National Commission for Working Women. The made-for-TV film was first telecast December 16, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Both a classic movie for kids and a remarkable portrait of childhood, E.T. is a sci-fi adventure that captures that strange moment in youth when the world is a place of mysterious possibilities (some wonderful, some awful), and the universe seems somehow separate from the one inhabited by grown-ups. Henry Thomas plays Elliott, a young boy living with his single mother (Dee Wallace), his older brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton), and his younger sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore). Elliott often seems lonely and out of sorts, lost in his own world. One day, while looking for something in the back yard, he senses something mysterious in the woods watching him. And he's right: an alien spacecraft on a scientific mission mistakenly left behind an aging botanist who isn't sure how to get home. Eventually Elliott puts his fears aside and makes contact with the "little squashy guy," perhaps the least threatening alien invader ever to hit a movie screen. As Elliott tries to keep the alien under wraps and help him figure out a way to get home, he discovers that the creature can communicate with him telepathically. Soon they begin to learn from each other, and Elliott becomes braver and less threatened by life. E.T. rigs up a communication device from junk he finds around the house, but no one knows if he'll be rescued before a group of government scientists gets hold of him. In 2002, Steven Spielberg re-released E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in a revised edition, with several deleted scenes restored and digitally refurbished special effects. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, (more)
- 1982
- R
Based on a true story, Endangered Species stars Robert Urich and JoBeth Williams. Urich plays vacationing ex-cop Ruben Castle, while Williams portrays Harriet Purdue, a small-town sheriff. Intrigued by Purdue's investigation of a rash of cattle mutilations, Castle begins following the evidence trail himself. What has been attributed to a religious cult or extraterrestrials by the locals turns out to be a covert operation conducted by a corrupt cartel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Urich, JoBeth Williams, (more)
- 1982
- R
Released to cable TV in 1985, Breach of Contract was completed at least three years earlier. Starring in this domestic drama are Michael Margotta, Cindy Pickett, and George DiCenzo. Margotta and Pickett play a husband and wife, both of whom are career-oriented and want to continue pursuing their pre-nuptual jobs. They agree never to step on the other's ambitions. Unfortunately, both become too ambitious for their own good, and, true to the film's title, their verbal "contract" is shattered. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Based on a novel by Ronald Sukenick, this off-beat, slyly satirical road movie chronicles two decades in the life of a traveling mercenary who philosophizes about American culture and hopes to find himself while carrying out the orders of his enigmatic employer, who gives him assignments via bowls of vegetable soup. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote
Among the first original anthology series to be produced for cable television, The Hitchhiker was a collection of tales of the supernatural and bizarre. The title character, played during the first season by Nicholas Campbell and thereafter by Page Fletcher, was an unnamed drifter who wandered ubiquitously from story to story, sometimes briefly commiserated with the main characters, sometimes acting as a disinterested observer, but always ready with a few pithy and occasional chilling comments of the events which had transpired. Inasmuch as the series carried on pay cable and not "mainstream" commercial TV, the stories contained an abundance of nudity, profanity, and violence. Even so, in most of the half-hour playlets, Evil was severely punished (usually in an ironic "postman always rings twice" fashion) and Virtue more or less triumphed. After 39 episodes on HBO, the series moved to a basic-cable channel, USA, for 46 additional installments. While censorship was somewhat more stringent on USA, The Hitchhiker still managed to serve up rawer and meatier fare than was customary on over-the-air TV of the period. The series was first-run on HBO from November 23, 1983, to May 12, 1987, and on USA from January 4, 1989, to February 22, 1991. ~ Rovi
- 1983
- R
Strangers Kiss stars Peter Coyote as an obsessive independent filmmaker who will allow nothing to interfere with the completion of his B-flick "masterpiece." Gangster Richard Romanus agrees to bankroll the film, provided that his girlfriend Victoria Tennant is cast in the leading role. Aware that there is no rapport whatsoever between Tennant and leading man Blaine Novak, Coyote stage-manages a real-life romance between the two--even though this will mean disaster for Novak should Romanus find out. Best described as a whimsical roller-coaster, Strangers Kiss doggedly avoids predictability throughout. The film might make an intriguing double feature with Woody Allen's similarly-themed Bullets Over Broadway (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Victoria Tennant, (more)
Given the off-the-wall premise in this sci-fi western -- that a motorcyclist rides his bike through a time warp right into the Wild West, into the middle of a gang of outlaws, and cannot figure out what happened -- the glitches and gaps in the plot fit right in with the spirit of the adventure. When the outlaw Reese (Peter Coyote) catches sight of the macho bike, he decides that several hundred horsepower are better than his one and is out to rustle the vehicle any way he can. Unfortunately, the bike does not run on high-octane hay -- an issue that bites the dust when pistol-packing Clair (Belinda Bauer) appears on the scene. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fred Ward, Belinda Bauer, (more)
Director Martin Ritt's bucolic rural environments of Norma Rae, Conrack, and Sounder, are re-visited once again in Cross Creek, based on author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' memoirs of her times on a remote Florida bayou. Mary Steenburgen plays Rawlings, author of The Yearling, who, in 1928, makes the abrupt decision to leave her husband and move to an isolated orange grove to concentrate on her writing. Rawlings buys a run-down house covered with cobwebs that she restores with quick dispatch. In these desolate surroundings, Rawlings pauses in her housecleaning to listen reflectively to the otherworldly noises of the swamp. But suddenly out of this loneliness, people emerge. There is Geechee (Alfre Woodard), Rawlings' devoted servant; Marsh Turner (Rip Torn), a liquor-guzzling swamp rat; Floyd Turner (Cary Guffey), a cute harmonica-playing boy; and Ellie Turner (Dana Hill), a little girl whose fawn becomes the basis of Rawlings' Yearling book. Rawlings becomes involved with Norton Baskin (Peter Coyote), the owner of the local hotel, and, as she settles into life on the bayou and her friendship with Norton and Geechee, she is inspired to begin writing. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, (more)
- 1984
- R
Los Angeles is the playing field for producer/ writer/ director Bobby Roth's Heartbreakers. Peter Coyote and Nick Mancusco play a couple of thirty-something holdovers from the 1960s. Coyote is an artist specializing in S&M poses, while Mancusco is heir apparent to a large garment-manufacturing firm. Curiously, it is the hedonistic Coyote who desires a lasting relationship with a woman, while the "conservative" Mancusco is dedicated to the proposition of one-night stands. Carol Laure and Carol Wayne are the ladies who strain Coyote and Mancuso's friendship--and in so doing, force both arrested adolescents to do some growing up. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Nick Mancuso, (more)
In this undistinguished crime drama, Peter Coyote plays a thief on the run after an attempt to rob an armored car in upstate New York ends in the death of a little girl. Her father sends a hitman (Philip Sayer) to avenge her death, and the rest of the film is a long series of near-misses as the hitman chases the thief, until the latter ends up in England at the home of a friend whose wife owns an amusement park. But in this jet age, an ocean does not offer much of a barrier, and the chase continues on British soil. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Mel Smith, (more)
- 1984
In this romantic, sentimental homage to America's well-known Beat writer Jack Kerouac, director John Antonelli combines readings from Kerouac's works, footage of the writer with figures such as Steve Allen and William Buckley, views of his home and favorite locales, commentary by fellow writers like the late Allen Ginsberg, and scenes in which Jack Coulter takes the role of Kerouac. A jazz score enhances this docudrama. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Coulter
- 1984
Patty Duke Astin plays the wife of police officer Frederic Forrest, who wants to join a special investigative unit. Forrest is denied this position on the basis of information concerning his wife. The information, which reveals a dicey extramarital affair, was culled from a department surveillance file that was supposed to have been destroyed by court order. Astin battles through legal channels to expose the police force's illegal actions, even as she and her husband suffer the innuendoes and cold shoulders from his fellow officers. The made-for-TV Best Kept Secrets premiered on March 26, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1984
In this crime drama, an antique dealer falls and marries a seemingly successful businessman who ends up conning her out of every penny and leaving her. Unlike the many others he has conned, this plucky lady decides to stop him once and for all. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tuesday Weld, Peter Coyote, (more)
- 1985
- PG13
With their father dead and their mother busy trying to land a steady beau, pretty teen Billy Jean Davy (Helen Slater) and her younger brother, Binx (Christian Slater), spend their time riding Binx's moped and dreaming of life in Vermont -- several climate zones away from the humid, omnipresent heat of their Texas town. One day, on their way from their trailer park home to a swimming hole, the Davy kids run afoul of rich boy Hubie Pyatt (Barry Tubb) and his cronies, who steal -- and later trash -- the scooter Binx bought with his father's paltry life insurance benefits. Demanding payment from Hubie and his merchant dad (Richard Bradford) for the damage that's been inflicted on both the bike and her brother's face, Billie Jean narrowly escapes being raped by the elder Pyatt. In the ensuing scuffle, Binx accidentally shoots Mr. Pyatt, sending himself, Billie Jean, and their friends, Ophelia (Martha Gehman) and Putter (Yeardley Smith), on the lam. When the "Billie Jean Gang" becomes a media sensation, Pyatt capitalizes on their notoriety by selling T-shirts and bric-a-brac, while policeman Ringwald (Peter Coyote), who feels guilty for having refused to help Billie Jean, tries to bring the kids in without anyone getting hurt. However, when the gang mock-kidnaps rich amateur filmmaker Lloyd (Keith Gordon), unaware that he's the district attorney's son, the situation spins out of control. Soon, Lloyd's videotape of the suddenly crop-topped, Joan of Arc-emulating, eminently telegenic Billie Jean elevates a local headline into a national sensation, and even Lloyd's attraction to Billie Jean can't protect her from the media lightning rod she's become. The Legend of Billie Jean marks the screen debut of Christian Slater, who is no relation to co-star Helen Slater. Actor Gordon, who made his debut as a screenwriter with Mark Romanek's Static the year Billie Jean came out, would go on to direct a number of critically acclaimed films. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Helen Slater, Keith Gordon, (more)
In this hit thriller, a prosecuting attorney-turned-defense lawyer falls in love with a rich, charming client who's been accused of murdering his wife and her maid with a hunting knife. When an unknown assailant gruesomely slays San Francisco newspaper heiress Paige Forrester (Maria Mayenzet), her husband and business partner, Jack Forrester (Jeff Bridges), turns to corporate attorney Teddy Barnes (Glenn Close) for counsel. Teddy, who quit her job with the district attorney's office four years earlier over an ethical dilemma, has reservations about returning to criminal work; nevertheless, she accepts the assignment, convinced of Jack's innocence and eager to face off in court against her old boss, DA Thomas Krasny (Peter Coyote), who's about run for attorney general. With the help of investigator Sam Ransom (Robert Loggia), the recently divorced Teddy builds a strong defense for her client, though the work -- and her incipient romance with Jack -- cause strain in her relationship with her children. When Jack's innocence and his romantic intentions come into question, Teddy feels her life slipping back into a moral quagmire until a series of courtroom denouements set the stage for even bigger surprises. Big-name screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' follow-up to Flashdance, Jagged Edge was directed by Richard Marquand, who had previously lensed Return of the Jedi. Parts of Jagged Edge were shot on-location in San Francisco, whose City Hall provides the film's courtroom exteriors. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, (more)
- 1985
Page Fletcher stars as the title character in this 1983-1988 made-for-cable suspense anthology. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
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