WHITE SANDS: Blu-ray (Warner Bros./Morgan Creek, 1992) Sony Home Entertainment

Even at 101 minutes, director, Roger Donaldson’s White Sands (1992) is a meandering, often convoluted crime/caper that begins as inauspiciously as it ends. That said, it features very fine performances from Willem Dafoe, Mickey Rourke and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, with Samuel L. Jackson offering good solid second-string support. Add to this Peter Menzies Jr.’s superb cinematography, capturing the lush South Western landscapes in all their arid heat, and a rather ominous and understated score by Patrick O’Hearn, and White Sands has a lot to recommend it, despite being your run-of-the-mill thriller with a few unexpected surprises along the way. In hindsight, it is the red herrings that sink the plot; the inexplicable attraction Mastrantonio’s frizzy-haired sexpot, Lane Bodine has as she latches onto Dafoe’s bumpkin, Ray Dolezal - for no apparent reason, other than she needs to have an impromptu shower scene with yet another unavailable ‘married’ man. Such dead-end bedpost notches have become a main staple of pseudo-noir-styled thrillers. But are they really necessary? How about the ‘big reveal’ – Rourke’s seemingly scummy con artist, Gorman Lennox, who just happens to be undercover CIA. Or Dolezal himself, taking a perverse OCD interest in one Artie O’Brien (a.k.a. Bob Spencer) – shot through the head and left for dead in the middle of nowhere, still clutching a briefcase containing half a million in cold hard cash. White Sands ought to have been a better movie. That said, Daniel Pyne’s screenplay takes us on the prerequisite hair-pin turns and twists of a carnival dark ride with considerable finesse. Besides, Donaldson’s mostly competent direction masks a good many of these sins – long enough to make us forget what is here is not exactly Grade ‘A’ Hollywood chuck.  

Originally, Donaldson hoped to cast Kevin Costner as his lead, and perhaps, Jeff Bridges or Nick Nolte as Lennox. However, as discussions stalled over hefty salaries, Morgan Creek Productions encouraged Donaldson to seek out more bargain annex-friendly names above the title who could deliver the acting goods – if not exactly the box office cache of as well known ‘names above the title’. Shot in Estrancia, Taos, Santa Fe, and White Sands, New Mexico, at a cost of $22 million, the picture’s colossal belly-flop (barely grossing $9 million) was yet another bad omen for the under-performing Morgan Creek. In their prime, this indie production house was responsible for some very big hits, retaining copyrights to their product while orchestrating lucrative distribution deals with majors – 2oth Century-Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount and Universal. That White Sands has eventually found its way to Blu-ray via Sony is a bit of a muddle, likely stemming from Morgan Creek’s epic sell-off of international distribution rights and copyrights in 2014 – a sad, slow end to what was once a contender in Hollywood. After some breathtaking aerial views of the Rio Grande Gorge under the main titles, we settle on the body of a well-tailor man, lying face down with a bullet in his head, clutching a tiny revolver in one hand and a briefcase containing $500,000 in the other. Enter Torrance County Sheriff Ray Dolezal, barreling across this desolate plain in his police cruiser to meet with the town’s coroner, Bert Gibson (M. Emmet Walsh). Apparently, helicopter pilot, Delmar Blackwater (Fredrick Lopez) spotted the body while on a routine fly over the canyon. Tracing the dead man’s rental, the corpse is incorrectly identified as Bob Spencer (Steve Cormier) – not from around these parts.

Without provocation, other than he is supremely bored with his life in this one-horse town, despite having a good woman (Mimi Rogers) and young stepson, Ben (Alexander Nicksay) at home, Ray becomes obsessed with learning all he can about the dearly departed Bob. Discovering a single yellow carpet fiber on the body, Ray traces Spencer’s last known whereabouts to a seedy motel on the outskirts of town. Inside Spencer’s room, Ray discovers waxy-paper used to wrap a hamburger, with a piece deliberately bitten off. On a hunch, Ray has Bert perform an analysis of Spencer’s stomach contents; the remnant exhumed, with a phone number scribbled on it. Intrigued, Ray makes a phone call, feigning to be the dead man. He is ordered by the voice at the other end to engage in a money exchange at a hotel several miles away. Determined to solve this mystery, Ray goes it alone and is promptly attacked and robbed by a pair of knife-toting, viperous females – one (Lisa Cloud), posing as the motel’s cleaning lady. Despite his harrowing ordeal, Ray sticks it out, rudely awakened in the middle of the night and abducted by FBI Agents, Greg Meeker (Samuel L. Jackson) and Ruiz (Miguel Sandoval). Meeker informs Ray that his spirited yahoo has cost the FBI $500,000 – money, he now has to help them find. So, Ray goes undercover, posing as Spencer to keep his rendezvous with a man named Lennox. The ruse is nearly foiled when, at his meeting with Lennox, Ray is ‘reintroduced’ to Lane Bodine, a wealthy socialite with whom the other Spencer was already well-acquainted.

Intriguingly, Lane plays along with Ray’s charade, questioning him in private about the real Spencer’s demise. Ray also learns the $500,000 was part of a payoff to acquire unused military weaponry to arm left-wing freedom fighters in South America. Arranging for the exchange, Lennox takes Ray to White Sands where the arms dealers (John P. Ryan and Fred Dalton Thompson) show off their sophisticated WMD’s. Alas, added expenses on their end have increased the asking price by another $250,000. As yet unaware Ray is not Spencer, Lennox is relying on the real Spencer’s ability as his ‘money man’ to come up with the extra cash to seal the deal. So, Ray turns to Lane, whose connections might be exploited to attract rich humanitarian donors on a false pretext. Meanwhile, the real Spencer’s gal pal, Noreen (Maura Tierney) turns up, hoping to be reunited with her lover. As she and Ray do not know one another, they pass like two ships in the night; later, fatefully brought together at a rodeo where Lane is riding her prized stallion. Prior to this, Ray reveals his true identity to Lane. She is attracted to his honesty and prepares for a grand seduction in the shower. At the rodeo, Noreen pages the real Spencer to the visitor’s booth. When Ray turns up instead, Noreen attempts to flee. Now, Ray is intercepted by Internal Affairs agents, Flynn (James Rebhorn) and Demott (John LaFayette) – witnessed by Lennox, who steals Lane’s truck to pursue and run them off the road. Escaping his captors and returning to the rodeo on foot, Ray finds Noreen slumped in the front seat of her Volkswagen, shot through the head by an unknown assassin. Discovering a Polaroid of Noreen, looking very chummy with Spencer and Meeker, Ray rightfully deduces Meeker has killed Noreen.

Knowing Lane’s bungalow is bugged, Ray has her fake a passionate sexual encounter to throw the FBI agent (Royce D. Applegate), in the surveillance van just outside, off his scent, breaking into the van and accosting him with a heavy log.  Next, Ray burst into Meeker’s hotel room, pummeling him severely until he obtains a confession. Meeker admits he took the $500,000 without authorization as bait for Lennox. Spencer lost his nerve and wanted out. Instead, Meeker convinced him the only escape was suicide. Besides, who will believe the truth when pitted against the spotless record of a minority agent? Meanwhile, having bludgeoned Flynn and Demott nearly to death, Lennox now collects Ray, driving everyone into the desert where he proceeds to execute Flynn and Demott as Ray helplessly looks on. Lennox lets it be known he knows Ray is not Spencer since he, Lennox is actually a CIA operative pushing through the arms deal to ensure the survival of the military-industrial complex. Lennox informs Ray that Lane is his hostage.  Ray is ordered to recover the remaining $250,000 for Lennox or Lane will die.  The drop-off: an abandoned military base in the White Sands desert. Recalling an earlier conversation with Lane in her stables, Ray unearths the briefcase with the money in one of the horse’s stalls. As leverage, he takes Meeker as his hostage, arriving early for the drop-off and handcuffing Meeker to a metal pipe in an abandoned warehouse.  

Ray reveals to Meeker that Lennox is CIA. As the FBI will be arriving soon, Meeker can either turn himself in or attempt an escape.  Ray leaves his gun behind, though just out of range, forcing Meeker to struggle to obtain it. Ray also plants a briefcase inside the same building, in clear view of the open door, but just out of range, where Meeker is lurking. Thus, when Lennox arrives, explaining to Ray he has left Lane waiting at the entrance to the military base, Ray instructs Lennox to collect his payload inside. Unknowing what awaits him, Lennox confidently saunters into the building and is murdered by Meeker. Disabling Lennox’s getaway car, Ray drives his own vehicle to the entrance and collects Lane. The two drive off in a hurry.  FBI agents descend on the base. Having freed himself of his restraints, Meeker seizes the briefcase and makes an inept and pointless dash across the white sands, pursued by agents in helicopters. Shot through the shoulder by a sniper, Meeker collapses, reaching for the briefcase. But when he opens it, he finds it filled with the same white sand.  We cut to Ray and Lane returning to her estate with the real briefcase containing the $250,000. Depositing the money with Lane, Ray departs for home, leaving this sadder, but hopefully wiser girl, as well as all his wanderlust for espionage and intrigues far behind him.

White Sands lacks staying power, either as an emotional thrill ride or harrowing actioner. It never gets entirely off the ground. Superficially, everything works, even if the story begins to ramble in its second act, relying too heavily on a chronic misdirection of the audience, the characters becoming clichés and contradictions of themselves. The dark horse, Lennox, is not even in this for himself. Lane, self-promoted as an assembly-line love shack, is actually the sweet ‘wholesome’ type at heart. And Ray…well…for someone who wears a Sheriff’s badge, he is one dumb bunny, repeatedly disobeying even the thumbnail rules, as outlined in the officer’s training manual – not, because his plan is so much more devious and/or advanced than what the law allows for, but rather, bungling even the most basic instructions, repeatedly to land him in some very tight situations. The incidental characters – Bert, Flynn, Noreen, etc. are populated by memorable faces, given precious little to do, but augmenting their scenes as amiable filler. Thanks to Peter Menzies Jr.’s plush cinematography, we can practically taste the air these characters breathe, the world they inhabit looking utterly resplendent in all its sparse isolation.  Not much else to say about White Sands – it plays effortlessly, but without any lasting recognition to typify it as a superior example of the neo-noir.

As Sony Pictures has since become the custodian of this catalog release, we lose the opening Warner Bros. logo that once preceded the main titles. Sony has not been so bold as to foist its own company logo in its place. Instead, the movie begins with Morgan Creek’s logo. Thereafter, the image is solid, yet strangely unrefined. While colors pop with an enveloping richness, and contrast is bang on, there is a slight residual softness creeping in from the peripheries of the screen. Even in close-up, we are missing image crispness and, with it, the expectation of fine details that should have popped, but never do. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with the image. Yet, if anything, it appears to have had some untoward DNR applied, leading to ever-so-slight and waxy visuals, uncharacteristic of the movie’s age. Speaking of age, there are no artifacts. The image is clean and free of debris. The 5.1 DTS is engaging in subtle ways. Apart from a theatrical trailer, there are no extras. No chapter stops either – a real bargain-basement affair. Honestly, chapter stops are the least a big outfit like Sony could offer. Bottom line: White Sands is passable entertainment. Dafoe, the only real stand out here, has certainly done better work elsewhere. This Blu-ray is competently rendered, if, with unremarkable results. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

0