Meek's Cutoff (2010)
Directed by: Kelly
Reichardt.
Written by: Jonathan
Raymond.
Starring: Michelle
Williams (Emily Tetherow), Bruce Greenwood (Stephen Meek), Will Patton (Soloman
Tetherow), Zoe Kazan (Millie Gately), Paul Dano (Thomas Gately), Shirley
Henderson (Glory White), Neal Huff (William White), Tommy Nelson (Jimmy White),
Rod Rondeaux (The Indian).
Even
if you’re like me – and seen a lot of Westerns – you haven’t seen one quite
like Meek’s Cutoff before. This a Wagon Train movie – about three families making
their way across the vast Western landscape of America, in search of a better
life in a new location, led by a man named Meek, who assures them that they are
taking a shortcut. Even before the movie opens though, it’s clear that they are
lost, and that Meek has no idea where he’s going. They are simply wandering
around this vast empty space, not sure where they are going, or if they will
ever get there. There is no romanticization of the Old West in Meek’s Cutoff,
and none of the violence we are used to seeing. There isn’t much a plot either.
What it evokes, more than anything, is what it must have been like travelling
through this emptiness, not knowing where you’ll end up.
For
director Kelly Reichardt, she is interested more in the female characters, than
the male ones in the film. Yet, this isn’t a revisionist history about powerful
women – they are treated much like “womenfolk” in Westerns often are. The men
go off and talk amongst themselves – about how they doubt that Meek (Bruce
Greenwood) knows what he’s doing. Reichardt stays with the women in these
scenes though – often as they strain to hear what their husbands are saying.
Yet the women are the backbone of the story – and they are the backbone of the
families as well. As the film moves along, and they get more hopelessly lost,
it is Emily (Michelle Williams) who has the best ideas, although they are
filtered to the larger group through her husband Soloman (Will Patton) – at
least at first.
The
group starts to grow worried – they are in the desert, and starvation and
dehydration are real concerns. Eventually, the group with capture and Indian
(Rod Rondeaux) – but it is Emily who is smart enough to know they have to use
him to save themselves. He, and his people, have survived in this area for generations
– surely, he can lead them to water, and perhaps out. The depiction of The
Indian (never named) is another area in which Meek’s Cutoff is different than
other Westerns. He isn’t a savage, but he isn’t the “noble” type either. He
doesn’t befriend any of them, and remains largely silent and unreadable. He
needs to survive, and so do the settlers – so a mostly silent truce between
them is struck.
Reichardt
made the odd decision to shoot the film in Academy Aspect ratio – basically
almost a square (1.33: 1) – which is a format many old movies used, but few
newer ones do. It’s a particularly daring choice for a movie that takes place
in such wide open spaces – spaces in which you would expect to see large scale
vistas that dwarf the characters. No so here – the Aspect ratio basically traps
the character in the frame – in the spot they find themselves in. One vista is
the same as every other – they are still tapped, still have nowhere to go.
The
cast is uniformly excellent – even if it’s mainly Williams, making her second
straight film with Reichardt – who stands out the most. Again, this is a quiet
performance, like hers in Wendy & Lucy was. But it’s a forceful one when it
needs to be. She doesn’t want to die out here –and does what she can to survive.
Greenwood is quite good as Meek as well – a portrait of male folly. He is sure
he knows where he is going, and it takes him right up until the end to finally
admit he doesn’t.
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