FREE: SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS VHS!

The listing, SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS VHS! has ended.

Set in the Pacific Northwest in 1950, Scott Hicks's movie (his first since "Shine") confronts all the big issues: love, death, memory, war, forgiveness, racial hatred, and the irresistible urge welling from the heart of primitive man-to flick an entire bagful of M&M's at a movie screen. The story turns on the demise of a local fisherman, who died of either family vengeance or, more likely, boredom. His friend Kazuo (Rick Yune), a respected member of the local Japanese-American community, is accused of murder. Ethan Hawke stars as a young reporter covering the case; the attorneys are played by James Rebhorn and Max Von Sydow, who steals the picture as a way of passing the time. Given the additional presence of James Cromwell and Sam Shepard, it should have been impossible for the director to screw up; somehow, Hicks pulls it off. The film is so entombed in gloom and crummy weather, so rich in meaningless detail, that by the end you don't particularly care who whacked the poor victim, let alone why; on the other hand, under the weight of all that snow, you get a pretty good idea of what it feels like to be a cedar.