Watch Waking the Dead

What if you had to choose between true love and your deepest moral and political beliefs? That is the question at the heart of Waking the Dead, Keith Gordon's 1999 film based on the Scott Spencer novel. Billy Crudup stars as Fielding Pierce, a Coast Guard officer who dreams of being the president one day. During the final years of Vietnam, he meets an idealistic young woman named Sarah Williams, played by Jennifer Connelly. The pair fall in love, but Sarah is drawn to a life of charity and rebellion against the system, while Fielding's ambition compels him toward the government. The film flashes back and forth between Fielding and Sarah's relationship in the 1970s and Fielding's political campaign in the 1980s. He believes that Sarah died in a car bomb explosion in Chile, but he is continually haunted by her image as he moves closer to his goals. Is Sarah really dead? Or is Fielding losing his mind? Waking the Dead explores this question through its non-linear structure, as well as the question of whether he will succeed in his political ventures.