Meek's Cutoff (2010)
While I wasn’t totally raved about First Cow, I liked Kelly Reichardt’s slower and less “masculine energy” take on the western. That’s also true here, maybe even more so. Meek’s Cutoff is a quiet and distant film in how it tells its story. It follows a group of settlers as their initial confidence slowly deteriorates, losing faith in both their guide and their own direction.
Unlike the John Wayne kind of western, the danger isn’t from natives or shootouts but the long slow march towards lack of food and water. Probably closer to reality also. Most scenes are shot with a long distance, with characters’ dialogue being barely audible. It is also shot in 4:3 which makes for an interesting effect that gives a sense of isolation, in contrast to westerns usual wide open landscape full of opportunity.
I won’t spoil the ending, but I am sure it will piss some people off by not giving the resolution the film otherwise builds up to. I just love films that are bold enough to subvert expectations like that.
Rating: 4