Eric Schweig Movies
A prolific Canadian actor of German and Inuit decent, Eric Schweig has excelled onscreen since his feature debut in the 1990 drama The Shaman's Source. A notable key player in such subsequent features as The Last of the Mohicans, Squanto: A Warrior's Tale, and Ron Howard's The Missing, the stocky, physically imposing Schweig has built a lucrative career in Hollywood by both embracing his Inuit heritage and delivering performances that are thoughtful and moving. Schweig was adopted by a German family living in the Western Arctic shortly after his birth in the Canadian Northwest Territories in the summer of 1967, and though he would spend much of his youth living in Bermuda with his adopted family, the clan eventually returned to Canada to settle in Northern Ontario. Striking out on his own at the age of 16, the resourceful teen made a living by framing houses in his native Canada before a role in a 1987 Ontario stage production of The Cradle Will Fall sparked an interest in acting. In 1992, Schweig's career received just the boost it needed when he was hired by director Michael Mann to appear in The Last of the Mohicans, and the remainder of the 1990s found his onscreen career flourishing thanks to roles in such features as Squanto: A Warrior's Tale, The Scarlet Letter, and Tom and Huck. Schweig's 2000 portrayal of a quiet and unassuming general store owner who unexpectedly falls for a New York artist in the independent drama Big Eden offered what was perhaps his most emotionally complex role to date, and the grateful actor earned almost unanimous critical praise for his memorable performance. Though Schweig's strong leading performance as a policeman attempting to save his brother from self-destruction in Skins also earned positive critical notice, the film unfortunately went largely unseen. Following a pair of supporting roles in 2003's Mrs. Barrington and Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story, Schweig could next be seen as the menacing mystic whose powers border on the supernatural in acclaimed director Ron Howard's brutal Western The Missing. In addition to his acting career, Schweig has also gained a solid reputation as an artist thanks to his remarkable series of Inuit-inspired masks. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Director Yves Simoneau explores the plight of the American Indian in the later half of the 19th century in this docudrama exploring the effects of westward expansion and based on the book by Dee Brown. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aidan Quinn, Adam Beach, (more)
Imagine being trapped inside a forest ranger station with your loved ones - and praying for your life as a fearsome, carnivorous creature lurks outside, waiting to clean up. This is the fate that befalls the young Danielle St. Claire (Cerina Vincent) and her boyfriend, Justin(Dominic Zamprogna) one evening, in acclaimed TV producer Stephen J. Cannell's made-for-television frightfest, It Waits. Traumatized by a recent auto accident that killed her friend - in which she was driving - St. Claire exiles herself to a ranger station in the San Bernardino Mountains. Meanwhile, a group of archaeology students from Princeton unwittingly open a nearby cave and unleash a centuries-old demon - that heads straight for Danielle. Underplayed and subtle, director Stephen R. Monroe leaves the goriest and most gruesome details off camera, allowing terror to build in the viewer's mind. Cannell co-scripted in addition to executive producing. Eric Schweig co-stars. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Director Ron Howard turns to the Western genre in this tale of a father and daughter who are brought together under difficult circumstances. Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) is a man living in New Mexico in the 1880s. He had abandoned his family years before to live and travel with a band of Apaches, but his conscience has finally gotten the better of him and he's decided to return home. Jones, however, does not receive a warm welcome upon arrival -- his wife has died and his daughter Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett), now grown and raising two children with her husband Brake (Aaron Eckhart), has no desire to see the man who left her mother to fend for herself. As Jones prepares to depart on a note of bitterness, a band of ruthless bandits, let by Army deserter Chidin (Eric Schweig), descends upon the homestead, murdering Brake and kidnapping his 15-year-old daughter Lily (Evan Rachel Wood). While Maggie feels no desire to forgive her father, she realizes he's her best hope to track down the criminals who took her child, and Jones and Maggie team up to find the bandits before they can disappear into Mexico. The Missing was based on the novel The Last Ride by Thomas Eidson. Val Kilmer and Jenna Boyd highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, (more)
Directed by Dana Packard, Mr. Barrington centers around the lives of Lila, an acutely agoraphobic poet going through a bout of writer's block, and her husband, Samuel, who is only vaguely aware of his wife's psychological troubles. When Lila hears a noise coming from her front porch one morning, her subsequent investigation reveals Mr. Barrington, a charming and oddly familiar man atop an old-fashioned bicycle. Lila becomes obsessed with Mr. Barrington's increasingly surreal visits, and her mental health deteriorates even further. Unable to continue ignoring Lila's problems, Samuel pays a visit to the dreary orphanage where Lila was raised as a child. Once there, the convent director reluctantly reveals a shocking piece of history. Mr. Barrington features Jennifer Nichole Porter, Eric Schweig, Jonelle Allen, Nancy Davis, C. James Roberts, and William McDonough. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
Filmmaker Chris Eyre, who directed the independent success story Smoke Signals -- one of the first motion pictures directed by, written by, and starring Native American talent -- offers another look at contemporary Native American culture in this hard-hitting drama. Rudy (Eric Schweig) and Mogie (Graham Greene) are two brothers living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Located in the poorest county in the United States, joblessness and alcoholism are all-too-common facts of life in Pine Ridge, and Rudy and Mogie represent opposite ends of the scale of fortune. Mogie, a Vietnam veteran who came home emotionally scarred by the war, has a severe drinking problem and can't relate to his teenage son Herbie (Noah Watts), while Mogie's younger brother Rudy has struggled to better himself, and as a law enforcement officer is a respected member of the Pine Ridge community. But while Rudy is determined to do something positive for his town, he feels there's only so much he can do as a lawman, and in his off-hours he's become a vigilante, roughing up people whom he believes are helping to bring down Pine Ridge, and plotting to blow up a nearby liquor store that profits from the widespread alcoholism that has destroyed the lives of so many of his people, including his brother. Skins received its world premier at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Schweig, Graham Greene, (more)
Arye Gross plays an up-and-coming artist who foregoes the convenience of big-city life for the charms of Montana in this drama, writer-director Thomas Bezucha's debut feature. On the eve of his first show at the Whitney Museum, Henry (Gross) hears news that his grandfather back home has had a stroke. Upon returning to his idyllic birthplace, however, Henry realizes that the old man isn't the only thing he has to tend to: There's the semi-closeted issue of his sexuality, which he longs to reveal to his clan -- as well as to his old high-school crush, Dean (Tim DeKay). Amidst all the angst, Henry fails to notice the advances of the sensitive Pike (Eric Schweig), an espresso-brewing outdoorsman who owns the town's general store and cooks meals for the stroke-addled grandpa Sam (George Coe). ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Arye Gross, Eric Schweig, (more)
This Disney live-action film is a very loose adaptation of Mark Twain's two novels about boyhood friends in Hannibal, MO, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which omits some of the darker themes and undertones in the original books. Television star Jonathan Taylor Thomas (of Home Improvement) is the prankish Tom Sawyer. Tom wants desperately to be friends with the renegade orphan boy Huck Finn (Brad Renfro), who lives on his own on the edge of town. Tom is also smitten with the tomboyish Becky Thatcher (Amy Wright), daughter of the town judge. On an adventure one night, Tom and Huck stumble upon a murder in a graveyard. They see Injun Joe (Eric Schweig) killing the town undertaker to get a map to a treasure. Tom's friend Muff Potter (Michael McShane) is wrongly accused of the crime, but Tom and Huck both know the real killer. Huck has made Tom swear not to reveal the truth and both boys fear that Injun Joe will come after them if they squeal. Tom must choose between his friendship with Huck and his desire to vindicate Muff and get the real killer brought to justice. They try to find the treasure and end up confronting Injun Joe in a cave. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, (more)
Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel of hypocrisy among America's pilgrims was brought to the screen by director Roland Joffe in this 1995 feature. Demi Moore stars as Hester Prynne, a new arrival to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1666. Prynne, who interacts freely with slaves and Quakers and wears revealing garb, is something of a free thinker and off-putting to the uptight locals. She awaits the arrival of her husband, Roger (Robert Duvall), but he is reported killed. One person who does not find Prynne unsettling is the new preacher, Arthur Dimmesdale (Gary Oldman). A torrid encounter between them produces a child, Pearl, and Hester is condemned by the colony, forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" (for "adultery"). Roger reappears; he had been living with a native tribe -- an experience that has driven him mad. He masquerades as "Roger Chillingsworth," trying to discover the identity of Pearl's father. When Hester is about to be executed, Dimmesdale confesses, but a timely Indian raid intervenes, saving him and Hester. The Scarlet Letter was widely derided by critics for sexualizing and changing Hawthorne's novel to an absurd degree. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, (more)
Sheryl Lee stars in this fact-based story of a colonial woman taken prisoner by a tribe of Shawnee Indians during the French and Indian War. After being abducted to the tribe's settlement in the wilds of Virginia, Mary Ingles (Lee) befriends a Dutch woman who is also being held captive, and the two manage to escape and work their way back home through the dangerous Virginia wilderness. Based upon the novel by James Alexander Thorn. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sheryl Lee, Ellen Burstyn, (more)
A dysfunctional family reunites during the Apollo XI moon landing in this drama starring real-life couple Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. In 1969, eccentric teacher Washington Bellamy (Danson) turns the arrival of men on the moon into a science project for his son Andy (Ryan Todd). They drive across the country to Idaho's Spires of the Moon National Park, where the odometer of Washington's classic Pontiac Chief will read 238,857, the exact mileage traveled by Apollo XI. Left behind is wife and mother Katherine (Steenburgen), an agoraphobic who never recovered emotionally from a miscarriage seven years earlier. On the road, Washington and Andy encounter a Native American soldier (Eric Schweig), a flirty barfly (Cathy Moriarty) and Washington's long-lost brother (Max Gail). Back home, Katherine nervously ventures outside to follow her family. When Washington's car breaks down, he steals a new engine, bringing the authorities after him and leading to a rendezvous at the park between father, son, mother, and cops, as the astronauts simultaneously land on the moon. Pontiac Moon (1994) was a critical lemon for director Peter Medak, who enjoyed more success with his British crime dramas such as The Krays (1990) and Let Him Have It (1991). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, (more)
- 1994
Hosted by Kevin Costner and narrated by Gregory Harrison, the historical documentary 500 Nations, Vol. 3: Clash of Cultures - The People Who Met Columbus is part of an eight-part series that portrays America's original inhabitants. The film provides an in-depth look at Columbus' arrival in the New World, the conquering of Caribbean nations by the Spaniards, and Hernando de Soto's conquests in Florida and the Mississippi Valley. ~ Kathleen Wildasin, Rovi
- 1994
Hosted by Kevin Costner and narrated by Gregory Harrison, the historical documentary 500 Nations, Volume 4: Invasion of the Coast - The First English Settlements portrays America's original inhabitants before and after the Europeans arrived. The film begins in the Arctic where the Inuit culture -- during the search for the Northwest Passage -- is examined. Also featured in the film are the stories of Pocahontas, the Pilgrims, Samoset, Captain John Smith, and the Powhatans. Other episodes in the 500 Nations series include 500 Nations: Removal, 500 Nations: Clash of Cultures, 500 Nations: Attack on Culture, 500 Nations: Cauldron of War, 500 Nations: Roads Across the Plains, and 500 Nations: Mexico. ~ Kathleen Wildasin, Rovi
- 1994
This Canadian made-for-television movie spawned the popular series about a crime-fighting Royal Canadian Mountie. Paul Gross stars as Constable Benton Fraser, an RCMP who sets out to track down his father's killer. His chase takes him all the way to Chicago where he hooks up with Ray Vecchio, (David Marciano) a macho, local Chicago detective. Together they hit the streets as a crime-fighting and justice-seeking duo. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1994
This made-for-cable drama relates, via two Mohawk friends, the historic events that took place when the Iroquois Confederacy faced off with the French in the American Northeast during the wars of the 1700s. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pierce Brosnan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, (more)
- 1994
Accompanied by his trusty pet wolf Diefenbaker, RCMP constable Benton Fraser doggedly pursues the murderer of his Mountie father (whose death has been officially deemed an "accident") from the snowy environs of the Yukon to the urban sprawl of Chicago. Once in the Windy City, Fraser meets wisecracking local police detective Ray Vecchio, whose career has likewise been motivated by the death of his father. Forming a tentative friendship, Fraser and Ray become an unofficial team, determined to track down miscreants by combining their separate but equally effective police methods. Along the way, our heroes discover that Fraser's father was killed while investigating a large-scale coverup involving a hydroelectric dam project. This two-hour pilot episode of the weekly seriocomic cop series Due South has since been divided into two hour-long episodes for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Gross, David Marciano, (more)
Native American history got the Disney treatment in this biography aimed at younger audiences. Adam Beach stars as Squanto, an Eastern Massachusetts native of the 17th century, who befriends the English settlers who are starting to colonize the region. Naively trusting his new friends, Squanto and his best friend Epenow (Eric Schweig) offer to help some sailors load a vessel that's departing for England. The two Indians are shanghaied and taken across the ocean to serve as sideshow attractions for the greedy owner (Michael Gambon) of the shipping line. Squanto quickly escapes and finds refuge in a nearby cloister, where he is protected by the kindly monks, in particular Brother Daniel (Mandy Patinkin), who teaches Squanto to speak English. Squanto learns of a ship carrying more settlers to the New World, so he stows away and returns to his homeland, where he finds that his village has been wiped out by disease brought by the colonists. Nevertheless, Squanto brokers a peace deal between his hostile brothers and the settlers, and they celebrate the first Thanksgiving together. Beach went on to star in the Native American drama Smoke Signals (1998). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Adam Beach, Mandy Patinkin, (more)
Director Michael Mann based this lushly romantic version of the James Fenimore Cooper novel more on his memory of the 1936 film version (starring Randolph Scott) than on Cooper's novel (in fact, Philip Dunne's 1936 screenplay is cited as source material for this film). Set in the 1750s during the French and Indian War, the story concerns Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), the European-born adopted son of Mohican scout Chingachgook (Russell Means). Hawkeye and his party, which also includes the Mohican Uncas (Eric Schweig), joins up with a group of Britons who have recently arrived in the Colonies. The group consists of Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) and her younger sister, Alice (Jodhi May), who are rescued from a Huron war party by Hawkeye. Hawkeye's band accompanies them to the British Fort William Henry, which is being besieged by a French and Huron force. The fort falls to the French, and Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves) surrenders to French General Montcalm (Patrice Chéreau). The terms of the surrender are that the British merely abandon the fort and return to their homes. However, the French's bloodthirsty ally, the Huron warrior Magua (Wes Studi), has made no such agreement, and, as the British retreat from the fort, he plans to massacre them in a terrible Huron attack. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, (more)
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