'Meek's Cutoff': Film Making At Its Best

The three women of the wagon party.

Meek's Cutoff


4.5 out of 5 stars

I saw Meek's Cutoff this afternoon at my local artsy theater, and now, hours after the film ended, it is still reverberating in my head. There have been few films that really affected me like this (namely, Watchmen and Let the Right One In). Personally, I consider this type of move a resounding success, if it manages to evoke such strong emotions within the viewer. Meek's Cutoff does this in a unique and striking way.

The audience's attention is first captured when, fifteen minutes in to the movie, no one has uttered a single word. The only sound has been the natural soundtrack of a small wagon party crossing a river, setting up camp, etc. The tension is already beginning to build here while the audience waits for someone to say something! Admittedly, many Americans would watch this and call it quits right away, but I believe that the director is calling on our patience as an audience to immerse us into the scene.

It is the deliberately slowed down pace and the lack of excess stimuli that really make the viewer a part of the story. Hearing the wagons creek, watching the hard physical labor, take away the "glory" of the pioneer days and reveal it to be the demanding, sometimes terrifying, often deadly enterprise that it was. You feel the setbacks along with the characters, the tension mounting as the situation becomes dire.

In the traditionally European style of film making, the movie leaves a lot of unanswered questions, and therefore allows you to fill in the blanks. I left the theater with the story playing out in my head, over and over. That's definitely how I like my movies.

If you prefer billion-dollar transforming robots waging war against vampires, werewolves, and aliens, then alas, you won't be satisfied. BUT, if you believe that minimalist film making can lead to great things, then this is definitely the movie for you.