Six years after World War II has ended, Jack Chismore, a veteran suffering from PTSD, runs a gas station in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jack is married to Lily, and stepfather to Lily's three daughters including Rose, a teenager at an impressionable age. Lily's sister, Starr, has come to Las Vegas for a quick divorce and comes to live with them, upsetting the routine of what is already a small and cramped house.
Lily lands a job with the Atomic Testing Office and cannot tell Jack or the girls when the military is conducting atomic-bomb testing in the desert region nearby. This embitters and frustrates Jack, who takes his anger out on Rose many times.
When Rose runs away, it is Jack who shows the most courage and concern.
Desert Bloom contains the material for a very good film and it certainly contains the performances, but it moves in too many directions and contains too many issues. It's about the bomb, McCarthyism, the role of women, alcoholism and child abuse, and it's a wonder it doesn't get around to gambling.
There are scenes that start out as perfectly observed moments and end up as a series of speeches as the movie tries to keep track of all of its issues. If they had just gone through and strengthened the characters and allowed the messages to find themselves, they would have really had something here.[4]
Gene Siskal however disagreed with Ebert on this film, calling it a "near classic" and unforgettable.[5]
References
^"Indie Aussie Films; U.S. Preems Listed For Utah Festival". Variety. November 27, 1985. p. 5.
