Plot
Settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.
Release Year: 2010
Rating: 6.7/10 (3,554 voted)
Critic's Score: 85/100
Director:
Kelly Reichardt
Stars: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano
Storyline The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy.
Cast: 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
Opening Weekend: $20,042
(USA)
(10 April 2011)
(2 Screens)
Gross: $977,600
(USA)
(21 August 2011)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Goofs:
Continuity:
When Meek and Solomon ride off in pursuit of the Indian, Meek's hat blows off and he continues on without stopping. When the two men return some time later, with the bound Indian in tow, Meek is wearing his hat.
User Review
The least you need to know
Rating: 7/10
This movie is much loved by the critics, but you know there is some
kind of problem when the critics meter on RottenTomatoes.com stands at
87 while the audience meter is at 65. Personally, I don't think it's a
bad movie, but before you decide to see it, you at least need to know
that:
--It is a very minimalist movie, even more so than Somewhere (which I
loved). You don't even get a good look at the actors' faces until 15
minutes or so into the movie. The dialog is so sparse that the actors
probably didn't need to start studying the script until the night
before shooting began. (Don't be fooled by the trailer--it contains
most of the dialog in the movie.) The screen is almost completely black
in the many barely illuminated night scenes. You can hear the dialog,
but you can't see much of their faces or see what they are doing.
Although these scenes are highly realistic, the director seems to have
forgotten that film is a visual medium. And too much of the dialog is
unintelligible. I couldn't decide whether the problem was poor
enunciation by the actors, poor placement of the microphones, or both.
--This is one of those "make up your own ending" movies. After you
spend 104 minutes watching these people trek through a parched
landscape looking for water, you long for answers. The dramatic tension
in the movie arises primarily from not knowing whether the Indian they
have captured will lead them to water or into a fatal ambush. But don't
expect any clear-cut resolution. Yes, there are clues at the end. But
some viewers will be unhappy to discover that there is no unambiguous
answer to the central question of the movie.
With that said, I still think Meek's Cutoff is worth seeing because it
gives you a good feel for what life was like in a wagon train. The film
is not so much a drama as a reenactment of life on the trail. No matter
that the dialog is sparse. No matter that there is no real ending. The
director isn't much interested in character development or storyline
anyway. She just wants to put you in the shoes of these pioneers for a
few days. And on this level, the movie works very well. Although it may
not be entertaining (after all, life on the trail was boring most of
the time), it is informative.
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