Review

Review Date: 1-May-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Meek's Cutoff (2011)

Knowing only that Meek's Cutoff takes place on the Oregon Trail, one might assume going in that the title refers to some notable shortcut from lonely outcrop to rugged valley. This seems to be confirmed when the movie begins, since Meek is the name of the guide hired to lead three couples to the Willamette River in 1845. (He is played by Bruce Greenwood, barely discernible beneath matted hair and beard.) But Meek isn't a figure fit for posterity; in fact, he isn't much of a guide. His party is lost and in need of water. In whispered conferences the men who hired him discuss whether he's untrustworthy or merely incompetent as their womenfolk watch from a demure distance. The strongest man, Solomon Tetherow (Will Patton), helps his fellows decide to follow Meek a little while longer. The strongest woman, Tetherow's wife Emily (Michelle Williams), openly expresses her belief that Meek is bad news.

After numerous scenes of the company wandering dolefully under wide-open skies — the incessant creak of a wagon the only soundtrack, creating a powerful sense of lost experience — an event occurs which begins to alter the meaning of the title. Emily runs into a native, which prompts even greater fear than death by dehydration. Meek and Tetherow track and capture the stranger (Rod Rondeaux), who's likely a Cayuse and naturally does not speak English. Meek is for killing him right away, but the men decide they can use him to find water. Thus the company acquires a second guide whom they distrust. The distinction between the two is defined by something which Meek says to Emily in a different context. He describes the relationship between women and men as the struggle between chaos and control-as-destruction. This concept applies to the contrast between the Indian guide and Meek, and between the Indian and white races as relates to their connection to the world. The new guide, an enigmatic presence who fits easily into the landscape, represents the uncertainty of the unknown. Conversely, Meek represents the uncertainty of a liar, his tall tales and questionable advice an attempt at controlling reality and the people around him. In one interchange between the Tetherows, Emily says she doesn't blame Meek for not knowing where they are, only for lying about it. She alone among the party has an inkling of the native's personality and a respect for his right to exist.

Viewed in this light, the cutoff becomes the point of the movie's abrupt ending, after Emily and Meek have taken up arms in a showdown. A defeated Meek announces that everyone's life (or death) is now in the hands of the Tetherows and their preferred leader, the Indian. The audience does not know any more than the party itself what lies ahead. Their fate is uncertain as it was before, only now, adrift among the hugeness of the West, they have embraced the chaos of their situation.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.