In Western "Meek's Cutoff" the independent American director Kelly
Reichardt reinvents the genre
It was a surprise when, rumored U.S. indie icon Kelly Reichardt will
turn next one Western. Finally, the filmmaker in recent years has
become acquainted with its consistent Cinema of minimalism. Her films
"Wendy and Lucy" and "Old Boy" were not a blockbuster, but critics and
fans responded enthusiastically. And now, a Western?
Well yes, there are also the Western poetic sub-genre of films of the
slowness and silence, which is traded higher among connoisseurs. This
is exactly where Reichardt, when she tells an episode from the Oregon
Trail in 1845. Countless Westerns have told their stories along a
trek, Reichardt says the trek proves that style and will.
"Meek's Cutoff" is a minimalist, meditative western that Antonioni
with Malick, Monte Hellman, with Werner Herzog crosses. A film that is
filled with the screech of the wagons, with which torment the three
families by high-desert plateau of Oregon. One trapper Stephen Meek
(Bruce Greenwood) has
committed, has chosen the eponymous acronym. Now
is the trek from the water.
The genre is full of strange trappers, for whom life between
civilization and wilderness is not getting well. Meek, who was going
through as a scout-actor in a Wild West show and enjoy yourself as
Cassandra of the steppe, once joked, he sometimes speaks in riddles.
Even in a hopeless situation, his optimism remains undiminished.
Then, when an Indian (Rod Rondeaux) is captured, tilts the film. While
Meek proposes to kill the Indians so as not to risk going to approach
Emily (Michelle Williams) carefully. If the Indians lead to a water
source? Or directly into the arms of the warriors of his tribe? In
all, the film is never dramatic: the camera always observed from a
distance, in the images dominate brown and ocher tones, not even the
sky is blue. The masterful film casts a strange look at the strange
goings of people who take all this trouble on themselves, not knowing
what to expect. Rarely was the conquest of the useless shown concise.
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