CinemaNerdz

Movie Review: Meek’s Cutoff

Gregory Fichter

O Pioneers! You endured the most immense hardships in your dedication to find arid land and the promise of prosperity in the badlands of a still-unknown America. An epic struggle fueled by an unerring faith in Providence and manifest destiny that resulted in numerous land wars and the dissipation of native peoples. Plenty of movies have been made about this hardscrabble time in American history, but most have traditionally laid the focus on the lawmen, cattle barons, cowboys, and town preachers. Few entertainments have tackled the life of the pioneer woman in her silent dedication to the menfolk’s foolhardy and brave travels. Meek’s Cutoff favors an austere realism and a quietly feminist heroine in a film easy to admire but hard to love.

Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Shutter Island) continues her propulsive streak of challenging, naturalistic roles in her second movie for director Kelly Reichardt. Their previous effort Wendy & Lucy (2008) was an indie surprise, aided by Reichardt’s gift for unfussy realism and Williams’ everywoman appeal. In Meek’s Cutoff, Williams dons a bonnet and prairie dress as Emily Tetherow, the forthright young bride of the leader of an expedition in 1840s Oregon which has gone off course due to the folly and hubris of their hired tracker Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood). The men have begun deliberations on from which tree to hang Mr. Meek should they not reach their destination. With water running out and signs of Indian activity, Meek steadfastly continues to argue for his perilous route. One character queries: “Is he ignorant or just plain evil?”

We meet this ill-fortuned band of settlers in a long, dialogue-free sequence as they traverse a river with their covered wagons. The allusions to Werner Herzog (Aguirre, the Wrath of God) and Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven) are inescapable as the land takes on greater character than the faceless ones trudging upon it – a glimpse of the mystical aspects that coalesce in the latter half. Following the poetic tedium of the early scenes, a traditional character drama develops as we learn the details of Meek’s role and the party’s growing mistrust. Greenwood does his best to bring the film alive with a gruff, lively performance that is in direct contrast to everyone else. But with dialogue often spoken at a whisper, getting a firm take on the personalities and motivations of the rest of the characters is muffled in an over-reverence for authenticity. We are left with sympathy for their plight, but little personal investment in the outcome.

For those willing to slow their heart-rate and wade through the early scenes with the sense of being adrift to the details of plot and character, the second half of the picture rewards that patience with some fantastic work by Williams as she asserts herself within the group, challenging Meek’s dusty philosophies in a decisive showdown, bringing him into the fold of the unsure and (perhaps permanently) “lost.” Being “lost” takes on otherworldly definitions in the film’s best sequences, evoking a preternatural unease similar to the enigmatic happenings in Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout and the early work of Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave).

A pivotal scene in which Emily first lays eyes upon a Native American man and slowly prepares her rifle is fraught with tension and underlines Reichardt’s political intention to shift the Western’s traditional focus from the white men to the women and Native people, taking care to avoid naïve Kevin Costner-style platitudes. I call this a Western out of convenient genre placement, but those expecting the usual trappings will find them in meager doses (a Mexican standoff here, a covered wagon disaster there). It is a revisionist Western that reminds me of Patton Oswalt’s joke about someone watching The Searchers (1956) and grumbling about the servitude of the women at the homestead, thus wanting to rewrite a more politically correct history for America. Standing in for the anti-hero John Wayne-type, Stephen Meek is the torchbearer for a brand of violent-minded, racist thinking that is brought to its knees by the end of the film.

As the abrupt final scene lays bare, the Meek’s of the world are not destined to inherit the earth, for they have not viewed it with the proper awe and respect. In the end, Meek’s Cutoff remains a hard-to-pin-down spiritual, political, environmental allegory with an eye fixed toward a humbling horizon.

WHERE TO WATCH (powered by JustWatch)


Gregory Fichter

Greg toiled for years in the hallowed bowels of the legendary Thomas Video and has studied cinema as part of the Concentration for Film Studies and Aesthetics at Oakland University. He has hosted the cult movie night "Celluloid Sundays" at The Belmont in Hamtramck, MI. and enjoys everything from High Trash to Low Art.

Latest posts by Gregory Fichter (see all)

Exit mobile version