2011-10-21

Meek's Cutoff

Plot

The movie is based on the Meek Cutoff trail first journey. A group of families driving three covered wagons hire Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) to guide them through the Oregon high desert. The journey that was supposed to last two weeks keeps growing longer and longer while water and other resources become really scarce.

Information

Directed byKelly Reichardt
Written byJonathan Raymond
GenreWestern
LanguageEnglish

Opinion

Meek's cutoff is an unconventional western and although it depicts really well how harsh and desolate life was at that time, it does it mostly from the women's point of view. Most scenes and sequences keep track of women tasks while showing the rest of the action.
The movie takes advantage of the cutoff story to make reflections about how the paths you choose can completely change your life. The characters are forced to choose directions several times along the movie without more information than chance and luck, with water for no more than a couple of days. In the end the expedition finds a half green, half dried tree, as a symbol of how their lives are let to chance.
...And we're all taking our orders from him, I'd say. We're all just playing our parts now. This was written long before we got here.

Links/References

Official site -  Wikipedia - IMDb - Rotten Tomatoes
Seen timestamp: 2011-10-12 15:30

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