Purely Joyful Movie!

One of my all time favorites.

Admirable film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This is a powerful little film about faith and the lack of it. It is somewhat thinly disguised as a historical western. Although quite poetic in it's expression it is firmly anchored in true historical events. As far as westerns are concerned, director Reichardt certainly breaks all the rules. John Ford and Howard Hawks wouldn't like Meek 's Cutoff, but Ford would understand from the opening scene what it 's all about. It's about people of faith, the pilgrims traveling to the west with no clue about their surroundings, destination let alone destiny, pressing on against the odds pretty much on faith alone.It is a film about leadership crisis. The hired guide of the small wagon train he leads, Stephen Meek, is unsure in a landscape which has dried up since his last visit. He tries to hide his self-doubts by bragging about his past exploits but only makes things worse. The pilgrims begin to see him as a liar and a cheat. Is it a good idea to follow him deeper into the desert or should they turn back to the regular Oregon trail? As water supplies diminish the question becomes one of life and death and inevitably starts to divide the settlers.Here is a film where the characters pray a lot, read the Bible all the time and face temptations and doubts in the desert. Yet none of the reviews here I have read mention religion at all. Really no bells ringing? When the settlers capture a native American who has tracked them, they face the question of what to do with their fellow man. Will they succumb to prejudice or do the Christian thing? Yes it is a film about Christian values as well.Some reviewers complain about lack of character development. Maybe they saw a different film. Michelle Williams convinces as Mrs. Tetherow, a young wife who begins to find her voice to openly challenge Mr. Meek and his set of values. When Meek loses it and intends to kill the Indian prisoner, the viewer will be surprised to see her counter move. "I'd be careful" is a line of hers from that powerful scene that stays in my mind at least. In a film of very sparse dialogue Michelle Williams manages to communicate her thoughts with looks and expressions, great directing and acting here and I would say a lot of character development.The films changes after the capture of the Indian with even more Christian motifs and leadership challenges. Should the settlers follow the unreliable and unsympathetic Mr. Meek or the unknown Indian who doesn't speak their language but knows the land, and should they listen to a woman? Everyone, the native included, now has a lot more to fear in this alien wilderness. Oh yes, this is a film about fear, real fear of unpleasant death hanging very close.I find it very difficult to understand why so many reviewers complain so much about the abrupt ending of the film. Well I was surprised, too. Having never heard of the Meek cutoff I too expected to see what finally happened to the lost wagon train. After all, for once I was watching a western that could end in disaster, death by starvation or native attack, settlers killing the guide, guide killing the settlers, a happy end... anything. Instead you got the end credits all of a sudden! The hints in the final scenes gave some clues. The settlers seemed to have found at least the beginning of the end of the trail. But to make sure I simply looked it up after the film (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meek_Cutoff). After all, I can read. Hey, it is not a secret what happened to the wagon train, to Meek and even to the Indian after the events of the film. Yes, in real life! The film follows, limitations of a small budget withstanding, those historical events fairly faithfully after all. However, I would not look the events up before seeing the film, as history contains spoilers in this case. Some people have seen all this and yet they feel nothing happened in the film. I am sorry but I have to disagree. I was on the edge of my seat a lot and enjoyed it a lot. Few films have a sense of time and place like this. So it's slow, but if a film tells the story of folks walking with their wagons through a highland desert and the timing is realistically right the film just has to be slow. Just adapt to it, after all you are sitting comfortably and have nothing to complain about compared to the people in the desert.

It's not the traditional western with the usual villains and good cowboys, with the shooting, the saloons etc. But it's a story about the first settlers on their way to Oregon. It's nice to see the rough life they had like 150 years ago. It was for sure not a trip for the weak with the constant struggle and searching for water. The movie is nicely shot and along with the good actors it makes the movie enjoyable and realistic. If you are looking for a western with the traditional shootings then this one is not for you. There is not a lot of meaningful conversations but it all adds up to the story. I only gave it a six just because of the ending that I didn't like that much. For the rest I enjoyed the movie.

It's 1845 Oregon. Three families Tetherows (Michelle Williams, Will Patton), Gatelys (Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano), and Whites (Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Tommy Nelson) are led by the mountain man Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) who claims to know a short cut across a high plain desert. They struggle as their water supplies dwindle. When the group captures an Indian, the group is torn about what to do with him.This is a slow pace movie with long uncut scenes. The style is minimalist. Kelly Reichardt is usually an indie director. That's what this is. It's nine actors and a crew out in the wilderness making a western indie. This is like a waking dream where we are waiting for something dire to happen. The acting is mostly reserved with a steady quiet tone. However I must object to the ending, and rate the movie lower because of it. It is not a proper ending.

My! If all movies were like that, I would spend my time sitting on the sofa and watch them. Fortunately there are only a few such gems which makes me walk, bike, work and do other things with my life. What an excellent portrayal of the pioneer experience as it probably really was unlike saccharine Technicolor productions with actors in clean clothes, with full makeup, high ethics, civilized, never tired and always with superb leader of John Wayne type who get them precisely to green pastures against all the odds such as lack of directions and maps, heat, Indians with unknown motives, conflicts among pioneers and diminishing slowly amount of water and food. Our movie is nothing like that. It is about a few confused people led by even more clueless pseudo leader who all got lost somewhere in the plains of Dakota. And unlike in a typical Western it is not men with their guns who may save them from death but one woman who takes upon herself the role of a leader in the face of a total failure of others pioneers. In her new role as reluctant guide she is inspired by an Indian - another delicious exception from your Western genre. The fact that we don't quite know what he says and what would come from this strange connection between him and heroine played by excellent Michelle Williams - sounds truthful compared with other movies where everybody illogically speak English and communicates in a few seconds. Please do more of this kind of movies. We are sophisticated viewers and want to know how things really are and were. We don't need to be fed with honey. Let us see the truth.