Most college students learned about the Oregon Trail via the childhood computer game that provided wisps of knowledge about the trek west interspersed with hunting and the occasional, comically frank diagnosis of dysentery. Meek’s Cutoff depicts a far grimmer slice of history on that trail, but its narrative style bears the mark of filmmakers who construct a story instead of letting it happen naturally. Film majors will love it, and perhaps some theatre ones will too, but the film’s unconventional elements only get it so far.
Set along the desert part of the trail in 1845, three westward-seeking families hire Stephen Meek — a virtuosic performance from Bruce Greenwood, or Captain Pike in the recent Star Trek reboot — as a trail guide to Oregon. This proves to be a questionable decision; Meek fails to satisfy the travelers as a guide, and the men contemplate killing Meek for his incompetence. When the group encounters a Native American following them after straying from the common trail, they trap him. Despite an obvious language barrier and hostile racism from Meek, they force the Native American to lead them in search of water and a better path.
The first scene of the film depicts the group as they ford a river, stock up on water and rest. The river becomes both a barrier and a precious resource because it slows the pace of travel, but also provides a scarce desert necessity. The opening ten minutes have no dialogue, only the sound of the group’s movement to the opposite bank of the river with their wagons and oxen, filmed in tender fashion and showing off a muted color palette. Director Kelly Reichardt is known for a minimalist style, and a period piece set in the middle of the 19th century suits her tendencies perfectly.
The collaborations of Reichardt and screenwriter Jonathan Raymond go back to 2006’s Old Joy and 2008’sWendy and Lucy, the latter of which also starred Michelle Williams, who plays a much smaller role in Meek’s Cutoff. The cast is small — only nine characters — but this limitation means not a single character is superfluous. The film fills out the daily routine of a pioneer’s journey efficiently, identifying just how hard the struggle to the West became. Every member of the wagon train gives a great performance, particularly Paul Dano and Will Patton — better known as Coach Yoast from Remember the Titans — who respectively represent the young and old man who hope that the West can provide new and limitless beginnings.
Meek’s Cutoff is transcendent as a period representation and as an unusually contemplative, focused Western that eschews common plot lines. Still, despite these qualities, there is always the sense that Reichardt and Raymond are pulling the strings. It’s obvious from the outset that the major question of the film is the group’s survival, not how they deal with the captured native, and that the film will deliberately choose not to answer that question. It introduces a group of people and leaves them in a vague conclusion, eventually leaving it up to the audience to decide whether they believe the group survives or perishes. This ends up revealing more about the personality of the viewer than the film itself. Meek’s Cutoff doesn’t have to take a stand; there’s nothing wrong with leaving the fate of its characters up to an audience, or creating a conversation starter. The fact that those intentions are so obvious from the outset of the film and that Reichardt’s sparse style creates sketches of her characters instead of fleshing them out are the disappointing weaknesses of the film.
Final Grade: B+