GamerTab That was an excellent one.

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

classicsoncall I looked up this film after I saw it mentioned on some internet list of the Top Twenty Five Westerns of the past twenty five years. Along with such heady company as "Unforgiven", Open Range" and "Dances With Wolves", I was expecting at least a compelling story even if it wasn't your traditional shoot 'em up sagebrush saga.Very disappointed. This is a film that ends abruptly and leaves the story's conclusion up to the imagination of the viewer. Fair enough, but given what we've watched for almost two hours, even one's own evaluation comes across as ambiguous because everything we've come to know about the travelers is steeped in ambiguity. Until Emily Tetherow (Michelle Williams) takes her stand against the title character Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), essentially effecting the 'cutoff' of the story, the rest of the group are basically spineless followers unwilling to make a decision one way or the other regarding their guide's expertise. The men in particular offer no alternatives preferable to simply staying the course, while Meek himself attempts to regale them with past exploits and victories. I'll give the kid Jimmy (Tommy Nelson) a pass because after all, he was just a kid, but at least he showed some initiative by wandering off every now and then to get the lay of the land.Now there's a way to look at this picture that makes it brilliant if you want to take it there. I'm not familiar with Kelly Reichardt's other film work and don't know her politics, but if you want to see the film as an indictment of a political system that's directionless (demonize the party of your choice, it works both ways) in a world fraught with danger, then the movie is spot on. While the citizen/viewer grows increasingly afraid for the direction of the country while it disengages from the world and terrorist tyrants fill the vacuum, it's going to take an Emily Tetherow to make a stand, one way or the other. One path leads to death, the harder path means fighting one's way back to triumph and survival. The easy way gets us where we are now.

paparidgeback Earlier tonight I described "Meek's Cutoff" (2010) to a friend as "For fans of independent films, it's 104 minutes of licking the icing off chocolate cake." Director Kelly Reichardt redefines the Western genre with this somber tale of three families crossing the Oregon badlands together by covered wagon in 1845, but don't let the seemingly dull and uninteresting setup dissuade you from watching: the story isn't found within words or in tracking shots following bonnet-adorned women trudging in the dust behind creaking wagons, but in the unspoken complications of the characters' interaction and mistrust of each other as their situation deteriorates from unpleasant and exhausting (imagine walking across the desert to Oregon) to urgent, life-threatening and desperate.Many viewers will lose patience and give up in the middle of the second reel, complaining that the pacing is "too slow" or that "nothing's happening" or that "it's not interesting at all." But that is asking to have your cake and eat it too, and all at once. Meek's Cutoff does not reward its audience with immediate Hollywood-style gratification, or hand-hold impatient viewers by offering pat explanations and solutions, neither does it pander to the popcorn crowd by including gratuitous romantic side plots or wild West-style gunfights and shootouts.Tension, fear and anxiety must be purposefully assembled, element by unsettling element, if our suspension of disbelief is to support the terrible weight of dread, or joy, that lies just over the horizon. Or does it? But certainly tomorrow will deliver the answer beyond the next ridge. Surely we'll know by the end of the day ... or will we?IMDb.com readers gave Meek's Cutoff just 6.5 stars. I'm giving it 9, and each one is solid gold.

nellodeangelis Presented in Academy ratio and operating within an immeasurable form of time and space, Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff is a Revisionist Western that examines the ways in which history has been purported. Following the titular Stephen Meek (a gruff Bruce Greenwood) as he guides a caravan of settlers through the most unforgiving reaches of the Oregon territory, Meek's Cutoff questions the reliability of the traditional West as a whole, as there is little Meek himself offers to the journey other than misguidance and racial bigotry. Rather than the valiant male hero of the Mythic West that audiences have been subjected to time and time again, Reichardt reverses the role, placing it into the hands of the more than capable and collaborative mainstay, Michelle Williams.This subversion of character allows for the story to operate centrally from the perspective of Williams' Emily Tetherow, although the men are portrayed as – strictly in appearance – still in control. Classical motifs of the Western such as villainous Native Americans, gun violence, and the heroic male are abandoned for an honest perspective of the era in which it is the err of the male which destroys rather than their courageous heroics as a saving grace. This refusal to abide by the clichés of the Mythic West, allows Reichardt to heavily scrutinize the trail in which her ensemble trudges along to have been eventually named after the moronic, fraudulent, and brutish Stephen Meek.Opening with the setting of the film's events, "Oregon 1945," yet occupying a spatial form that adheres to the lack of physical actualities – as if the characters are traveling through a rift – observed in Monte Hellman's The Shooting as well as Ben Wheatley's A Field in England. As in, while the journey's end is the character's goal (i.e., the pub in A Field in England or Kingston in The Shooting), it is irrelevant to Reichardt's objective. The characters venture endlessly, while nature itself eventually takes on its own character as an unforgiving and opposing force. This push-and-pull of man versus himself allows for nature to continuously creep upon the caravan, slowly eradicating any glimpse of hope. It is the systematic form in which nature then attempts to disband and discourage Tetherow and company that reflects the work of Hellman, as it is their humanly misgivings that allow for the absence of worriment for far more worldly and pertinent conflicts. Concluding in a sudden yet incredibly appropriate moment, Reichardt ends the film only partway through the journey. For, as the aforementioned stated, the destination never had any distinct relevance to the story. Meaning that, while the viewer yearns for the caravan to reach its end- goal, Reichardt's vision calls for a completely different experience. The removal of Stephen Meek from power and the bond formed between Emily and The Indian – women and Native Americans as two groups that have been heavily oppressed by men – is the catharsis in which Reichardt plays with. As if Meek's Cutoff serves as rectifying tale for the mistreatment of the previously stated parties, Reichardtseeks to set the record of the Old West straight, while offering an equally distant and unique, yet poetically minimalist cinematic experience at the same time.

meritcoba "What a curious movie," Kristl said when the credits rolled."It was boring," Henry exclaimed waving his hands around in an agitated manner, "Nothing happens. A group of settlers travel through a desert landscape trying to find water and escape it. Eventually they capture an Indian who might know where they can find water. The movie ends abruptly as it started. With no introduction and no conclusion. Like you just get to see a part of a story.""Perhaps that is what they meant to show?""Well, they showed it in a boring way.""I liked the movie. Even though it starts and ends suddenly. A movie that takes its time. Not too much dialog. And there is something happening. The Indian and the guide Meek are opposites. Both offer the settlers a way out, but both can not be trusted to deliver. The Indian because he is considered a hostile and they can not understand him and the guide because he does not know what he is doing.""But it's not very exciting.""And there is this part in which you see the relation between the men and the women. When they are 'voting' the women have no vote apparently. I like the way it felt much more realistic than most westerns.""Okay, but regardless of that.. nothing much happens in the way of fighting or overcoming obstacles. Hell, there isn't even an proper end to the story," Henry said."Some movies can be interesting without fighting. I think that it is a neat movie. Very small cast. Mostly relying on the story, situation and acting. There isn't a real good person or bad person. Just believable humans in a bad situation who have to make decisions with little to go on.""I would rather see a more action kind of movie next. You can have good movies with action.""Uhm that is true, but sometimes it is nice to see a movie that is different.""Why?""Because maybe we can learn thing or two. Or broaden our horizons. Or feel human.""Perhaps some people find that nice. I rather have an action packed movie. Or a thriller. Or something exciting happening.""I like all kinds..""As far as I know you like all kinds of movies, but not many of them," Henry winked at Kristl.Kristl laughed."How many did you actually like.""Actually I can like a movie and be critical.""Really? How can that be. Like give an example.""Well, this movie I liked, but it is also a very slow movie and I feel like it misses something that would make it pop. Like something that grips you.""It lacks gun-toting kick ass girls with pigtails wearing short skirts," Henry grinned."Hmm.. maybe. Maybe what it lacks is that I never get attached to the characters. Not involved with them. While it is true it has only a very small cast.. the amount of characters is actually too high to get involved.""That is a contradiction…""Not at all. What I mean is this: normally a movie revolves in essence around one or two characters. While all the others are added in. In this movie none of the characters in the story has a leading part. And since everyone gets as much time as any other, there is not much time to get you involved with any one of them. Maybe a little bit with one of the woman. In fact, I can't recall their names, except for Meek's name.""You are right.. I can't recall their names.""So the movie feels like a distant movie observing a group of people traveling through a desert and that distance makes it hard to care," Kristl said, "So I like the movie and I am critical about it.""I am more simple. I don't like the movie. It is boring.""Okay. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions.""I hope so..and just to wash away the taste of this rather boring movie, we have Doom next.""I do not play computer games, Henry.""I meant the movie.""Ah. alright. We can take a look at that one. If you want to.""Yes..And it has an actor in it called The Rock.""That sounds...impressive.""You bet."www.meritcoba.com