Ken Douglas | Through the Shattered Lens

In the 1960s, druken Pvt. Franklin Fairchild Bean (Charlie Sheen) punches an MP in West Germany. The rebellious Bean is hoping he’ll be discharged from the Army. Instead, he’s sent to the stockade for 90 days. The stockade is run by an alcoholic tyrant named Sgt. Otis McKinney (Martin Sheen) and, shortly after arrival, Bean discovers that he’s the only white prisoner. With McKinney determined to break him, Bean befriends his fellow prisoners, including Roosevelt Stokes (Laurence Fishburne), and the two white corporals (James Marshall and Ramon Estevez) who try to protect the prisoners from McKinney’s erratic behavior.

Cadence is the only film to have been directed by Martin Sheen. Considering that it co-stars two of his sons, it’s unfortunate that Cadence isn’t a better movie. Charlie Sheen gives a one-note performance as Franklin Bean but he still does better than his father, who is such a raging monster as Sgt. McKinney that it’s difficult to take him or the movie seriously. As a director, Martin Sheen always goes for the most ham-fisted shot and it’s hard to see what he’s really trying to say about the Army or Franklin Bean’s rebellion.

The supporting cast is better, especially James Marshall and Ramon Estevez. Laurence Fishburne brings his trademark gravitas to the role of Stokes. The other prisoners are played by Michael Beach, Blu Mankuma, John Toles-Bey, and Harry Stewart and they all make a good impression. Stewart plays the most saintly and innocent of the prisoners. Guess what happens to him.

Back in the day, this movie was an HBO mainstay. Somehow, I always seemed to catch the end of it but never the beginning.

Originally broadcast in 1985, Into Thin Air is a made-for-TV movie that is based on a true story. It’s film that brings to life the horror of every family’s nightmare. Brian Walker (Tate Donavon) is an intelligent, soft-spoken, and somewhat naive college student in Ottawa. He’s been accepted into a summer writing program in Colorado. As he gets in the van that he will be driving to Colorado, he promises his mother, Joan (Ellen Burstyn), that he’ll call her when he reaches Nebraska and again when he reaches Colorado.

Brian drives away and that’s the last time that Joan ever sees her son. Brian calls from Nebraska and talks to his brother, Stephen (Sam Robards). Joan arrives home just as Stephen is saying goodbye. Brian never calls from Colorado. He has vanished, seemingly into thin air.

Joan, Stephen, and Joan’s ex-husband, Larry (played the great character actor Nicholas Pryor) travel to America to search for him. At one point, Stephen thinks that he’s spotted Brian’s van on the road and chase after it, just to discover that it’s a different van. Joan talks to cops in Nebraska and Colorado and discovers that different jurisdictions don’t work together or share information. As the days pass, Joan keeps hoping that Brian is somehow still alive….

I was about ten minutes into this film when I started sobbing. I pretty much cried through the entire film. Some of that was because I knew that they were never going to see Brian again. Some of that was because of the powerful, heartfelt performances of Ellen Burstyn, Nicholas Pryor, and Sam Robards. Most of it was because this film did such a good job of capturing the feeling of hopelessness and the dread that comes with not knowing what has happened to someone who you love. I found myself crying for Brian’s lost potential. He was a writer and he was engaging in a time-honored writing tradition. He was taking a road trip and he was discovering the world. He deserved better than whatever happened to him. He deserved see his novel sitting in a bookstore. Instead, he ran into the wrong people.

It’s the little details that really got to me. Stephen flies into a rage when he sees his younger brother wearing one of Brain’s sweaters. Joan momentarily gets her hopes up when she discovers that Brian reported some lost traveler’s checks, just to have that hope shot down when she’s told that the bank can’t reveal where Brian called them from unless Brian himself gives permission. When the van eventually turn up in Maine, it’s been totally trashed by whoever took it from Brian.

Eventually, Joan hires a private detective and Robert Prosky is well-cast as Jim Conway, a seemingly cynical ex-cop who dedicates himself to trying to provide closure for the Walkers. The scene where he finally discovers what happened to Brian is one of the strongest in the film and one of the most upsetting. So many people could have saved Brian if they only had the courage to speak up.

Into Thin Air is a powerful film. No one should ever be forgotten.