It does not take very long for a dark wind to appear in this 1970s-set murder mystery. We first meet the Navajo Nation cop Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) out in the middle of the parched plains of Monument Valley as he compels a sweaty white biker to dig a hole that looks like a grave. Could this be a prelude to some old-school frontier justice? A bullet to the skull, a body swallowed by the desert?
It is, in fact, a fake-out. The biker is being obliged to rebury some Native American artefacts he stole. But Leaphorn’s piercing gaze suggests that it would be a bad idea for the looter to push his luck. On cue, angry storm clouds blow in overhead.
