Still, meeks cutoff, her first period piece, ranks as her most interesting film yet. Reichardts astonishing new film, meeks cutoff, broadens the scope and raises the stakes tenfold, expanding beautifully on the. In kelly reichardts meeks cutoff the title seems to reference the abrupt ending the conclusion may have been dictated by budget. Kelly reichardts last feature, 2008s wendy and lucy, simply and methodically follows a young woman whose life is dangling on a precipice. The acclaimed director has been producing quietly devastating portraits of life on the economic margins of american society for the past 25 years. In a nod to the classic westerns of anthony mann, william wellman and howard hawks, reichardt filmed meeks cutoff using the 1.
The oregon high desert, where it was filmed and which the historic meeks cutoff crossed, is the true subject of the movie. Meek s cutoff is an act of inversion, a western that reverses the genre s traditional forms and dynamics to create something new and startling, yet still familiar. Sep 20, 2011 in kelly reichardt s muchlauded new film meeks cutoff, set in 1845, a small band of pioneers get lost in barren, arid plains on their way to the willamette valley. It is telling that reichardt chose to shoot this film in academy ratio. Reichardt has chosen to shoot the film in the squareish 4. The western revival rolls into brave new territory with kelly reichardt s meek s cutoff. The oregon film museum celebrates film making in the state of oregon, housed in the clatsop county jail in astoria, which was featured in the movie the goonies. Oregon where this was filmed there are wild horses to be photographed in the area as well as lots of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints and was sure glad. Meeks cutoff was filmed in the dry plains of oregons high desert, and another reichardt film wendy and lucy was filmed along the railroad tracks that surround an oregon neighborhood. Right away we know this will not be a romantic image of the old west, with breathtaking. The west wasnt all cowboys and indians and shootouts at the ok corral, insists meeks cutoff, a realistic slice of pioneer life that offers a disquieting alternative vision of americas most.
The story is loosely based on a historical incident on the oregon trail in 1845, in which frontier guide stephen meek led a wagon train on an illfated journey through the oregon desert along the route later known as the meek cutoff in the western united states. Director kelly reichardt on meeks cutoff and making movies. Apr 08, 2011 the cost of feeding the oxen and horses on meek s cutoff was equal to the entire budget of reichardt s second film the melancholy buddy movie old joy, which starred the singersongwriter will. In 1853, the elliott cutoff was established, completing meek s purpose by turning upstream at the deschutes river for 30 miles and then crossing the cascade mountains at willamette pass. Jun 04, 2011 like wendy and lucy, meeks cutoff stars michelle williams, and like that earlier movie, meeks cutoff is set and filmed on location in oregon, but it takes place in 1845 rather than the contemporary oregon of wendy and lucy. Director kelly reichardt freely admits when her cast and crew were done filming meeks cutoff, they were more than ready to see the back of.
Kelly reichardts five favorite films mar 03, 2020 few filmmakers have a stamp as distinct as kelly reichardts. Her nuanced personification of the iconic starlet was rewarded with a golden globe. Meeks cutoff is a slog by design, and demands that viewers adjust accordingly. Oscars best picture winners best picture winners golden globes emmys san diego comiccon new york comiccon sundance film festival toronto intl film festival awards central festival central all events. Apr 07, 2011 a movie out of time and yet distinctly of ours as well, meek s cutoff appears in theaters as if in rebuke to our current cinema. The film was shown in competition at the 67th venice international film festival. May 17, 2019 our 50 favorite stars of oregon filmed movies and tv shows. The narrative of meek s cutoff is very simple, and as the tension gradually builds to an inevitable, presumably climatic, conclusion, i was thinking to myself. Meeks cutoff director kelly reichardt says filming took. Apr 14, 2011 set during the earliest days of the oregon trail in 1845 and based on real events, meeks cutoff is the story of three families who, in their pursuit of a better life, hire a guide, stephen meek bruce greenwood, to steer them over the cascade mountains. The story is loosely based on a historical incident on the oregon trail in 1845, in which frontier guide stephen meek led a wagon train on an illfated journey through the oregon desert along the route later known as the meek cutoff in the.
Before you see the first image of meeks cutoff, you hear the film. Director kelly reichardt, whose other oregon filmed works include old joy, wendy and lucy and meek s cutoff, is at work on a new project, night moves, about environmentalists plotting to. Directed by kelly reichardt 2011 michelle williams family and two others toil across the 1840s west is their guide totally lost. Raymond and reichardts coming film, meeks cutoff, opening in april, is no exception. Its a spare period piece about a band of pioneers lost in the wastelands of the oregon high desert. Meeks cutoff cast and crew cast photos and info fandango. Also sign me up for fanmail to get updates on all things movies. Ruts of meeks and elliotts wagons near westfall, oregon. With michelle williams, bruce greenwood, paul dano, will patton. Director kelly reichardt on meeks cutoff and making. This is meeks cutoff, a brooding western of sorts which trails three. Emigrants marked their path on this juniper limb, found southeast of presentday redmond, oregon. Set in 1845, meeks cutoff is a remarkable, disquieting, thoughtprovoking film. The oregon high desert, where it was filmed and which the historic meek s cutoff crossed, is the true subject of the movie.
Michelle williams in meeks cutoff 2010 paul dano and neal huff in meeks. Its both the scariest and most poetic film of the year. 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. Apr 06, 2011 in meeks cutoffbased on a true storythree families are guided westbound by the crude, mythomaniac con man stephen meek, who seems to have led them astray.
They were grueling, dirty, thirsty, burning and freezing ordeals. This is the sort of film critics love to praise because the filmmaker has done. Were sorry but jwapp doesnt work properly without javascript enabled. Indeed, cash is so tight that the 46yearold, floridaborn filmmaker. Meeks cutoff, shot on the dry plains of oregons high desert, offers a vision of the earliest days of american frontier culture. May 23, 2011 set in 1845, meeks cutoff is a remarkable, disquieting, thoughtprovoking film. The film is a brilliant revision of the american western. Director kelly reichardt, whose other oregon filmed works include old joy, wendy and lucy and meeks cutoff, is at work on a new project, night moves, about environmentalists plotting to. In meeks cutoffbased on a true storythree families are guided westbound by the crude, mythomaniac con man stephen meek, who seems to have led them astray. Like wendy and lucy, meeks cutoff stars michelle williams, and like that earlier movie, meeks cutoff is set and filmed on. Meeks cutoff becomes a powerful metaphor and an insightful reflection of our civilized nation, society and culture.
May 06, 2011 its fitting that the filming of meeks cutoff was an arduous journey because its about an arduous journey. Meeks cutoff oscilloscope features is kelly reichardts fifth feature film, and the third to receive any significant theatrical release. Ive been through the area around burns, oregon where this was filmed there are wild horses to be photographed in the area as well as lots of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints and was sure. A ponderous western, meek s cutoff recreates life on the trail, and mostly reveals how boring it must have been. You may know reichardt from her earlier film wendy and lucy a story of a woman and her dog that gets me all mistyeyed just thinking about it. Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing meeks cutoff near you. Based on a story about a group of emigrants who became lost in the oregon desert, with inspiration taken from the diary records of women who lived.
In a nod to the classic westerns of anthony mann, william wellman and howard hawks, reichardt filmed meek s cutoff using the 1. Reichardts film making palette is determined by the parched, scorched landscape and the grim faces of those travelling across it. The cost of feeding the oxen and horses on meeks cutoff was equal to the entire budget of reichardts second film the melancholy buddy movie old. In kelly reichardt s muchlauded new film meeks cutoff, set in 1845, a small band of pioneers get lost in barren, arid plains on their way to the willamette valley. Director kelly reichardts new film, meeks cutoff, is one of the more interesting westerns to come along in a while. Meeks cutoff could be the most understated, and historically accurate, horror film in history. Meeks cutoff was the recent subject of a think piece in the new york times called in defense of the slow and the. Rent meeks cutoff 2011 starring michelle williams and bruce greenwood on dvd and bluray. Kelly reichardt is an awardwinning filmmaker and screenwriter, and widely hailed as one of our most important contemporary filmmakers. Night moves, filming in southern oregon, tells story of. And, aesthetically, meeks cutoff is often remarkable. Early in the film, three women are walking across the baked desert following the. Meeks cutoff director kelly reichardt says filming took place in. Meeks cutoff is not a film that is going to appeal to wide audiences, as the slow pacing will quickly turn off sections of the population unwilling to be patient.
Michelle williams stars in a bleak, enigmatic and masterful western about families on the oregon trail. The narrative of meeks cutoff is very simple, and as the tension gradually builds to an inevitable, presumably climatic, conclusion, i was thinking to myself. Both williams and reichardt join fresh airs terry gross for a discussion about the film, which. Michelle williams plays settler emily tetherow in kelly reichardts frontier drama meeks cutoff. The director loves oregon, and insisted on shooting the film in the same desert where in 1845 a much larger wagon train 200 wagons. Williams reunited with wendy and lucy director kelly reichardt for meek s cutoff, inspired by a real story about a group. Meeks cutoff is a western deconstruction like no other. As the film opens we are greeted by the rejuvenating sight and heightened sound of. Meeks cutoff stands a little further back a century and a half, give or take. Moving at a contemplative speed unseen in most westerns, meeks cutoff is an.
Ruts of meek s and elliott s wagons near westfall, oregon. Wendy and lucy, filmed along the railroad tracks that surround an oregon suburb, reveals the limits and depths of peoples duty to each other in tough times. This art western portrait of american society in miniature was filmed outside the town of burns in. Meek s cutoff is a 2010 american western film directed by kelly reichardt. Set in 1854, its a quasiwestern, following a small band of pioneers three couples, one with a young son. To set aside its many other accomplishments, meek s cutoff is the first film ive seen that evokes what must have been the reality of wagon trains to the west. Emily tetherow michelle williams at first glance meeks cutoff feels like a western in name only as apart from its time and place the oregon trail in 1845 it doesnt seem to bare many of the other features that define what a western is. Something seemed off from the very earliest scenes of meeks cutoff, the western from the director kelly reichardt that opens friday at film forum and lincoln plaza cinemas and which. The limb is now on display in the deschutes county museum. A small group of travelers, including couples emily and solomon tetherow michelle williams and will patton and thomas and millie gately paul dano and zoe kazan, is crossing hostile, desertlike territory, led by renowned guide stephen meek bruce greenwood. Night moves, filming in southern oregon, tells story of eco. Meeks cutoff is a 2010 american western film directed by kelly reichardt. Our 50 favorite stars of oregonfilmed movies and tv shows.
Rent meeks cutoff 2011 on dvd and bluray dvd netflix. Based on diaries and contemporary accounts, meeks cutoff is the. 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. Simultaneously swelling is the whoosh of rushing water and jeff graces unnerving, anxious score, which sounds like strings on guitar played backwards. Settlers traveling through the oregon desert in 1845. Its fitting that the filming of meeks cutoff was an arduous journey because its about an arduous journey. Under this light, its as plodding as the footfalls of oxen, the soundtrack is the whipping wind and the moan of wagon. In 1845, the earliest days of the oregon trail, a wagon train of three families hires mountain man stephen meek to guide them over the cascade mountains.
An evenstar films, filmscience and harmonyprimitive nerd presentation. In meeks cutoff a thoughtprovoking and suspenseful reworking of the usually macho western a group of such families begin to regret their decision to hire stephen meek as a guide when they end up lost in the middle of nowhere. Meeks cutoff is a historic horror film wild wild west by felicia feaster. Something seemed off from the very earliest scenes of meeks cutoff, the western from the director kelly reichardt that opens friday at film. On the one hand, its the simple tale of a handful of emigrant families whove been lead off the main oregon trail by their braggardly guide and out into the vast, droughty wilderness. Meeks cutoff makes it clear that those earlier movies, in their way, were westerns too. Coming after an awards season in which what passed for indie. The first film ive seen that evokes what must have been the reality of wagon trains to the west. 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. The desert, really an arid, grassy plain, fills every shot all beautifully composed by cinematographer chris blauvelt. A western set on the oregon trail in 1845, the film. The three films form a loose trilogy in which the durable mythology of the west in the american. Like all of reichardts films, meeks cutoff progresses at a deliberate pace and with a minimum of dialogue, the characters revealing themselves in what they do and how they do it rather.
Meeks cutoff, from acclaimed director kelly reichardt wendy and lucy, old joy, is a stark and poetic drama set in 1845, the earliest days of the treacherous oregon trail. Last year, jonathan demme presented her debut feature, river of grass as part of his rarely seen cinema series. Set a decent stretch before meeks cutoff, an austere frontier disaster movie that explored the tragic fate of illprepared pioneers along the oregon trail, first cow restores this. Its this austere filmmakers first period piece and her. To set aside its many other accomplishments, meeks cutoff is the first film ive seen that evokes what must have been the reality of wagon trains to the west. Based upon a historical wagon train excursion that was led by the real stephen meek, meek s cutoff is a grandly filmed examination of the desperate circumstances that many naive pioneers found themselves in when placing their fate in the hands of sometimes dubious frontiersmen. To set aside its many other accomplishments, meeks cutoff is the first film ive seen that evokes what must have been the reality of wagon. Settlers traveling through the oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.
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