米克的近路

凯莉莱卡特第一部修正主义西部片，既是罕见高成本且有米雪威廉斯二度挂帅，Jonathan Raymond参考西进运动(Westward Movement)知名向导Stephen Meek开拓俄勒冈小径(Oregon trail)的历史改编，电影忠实描写当年拓荒者和大蓬车队路途的艰困，极简美学与主题相辅相成——比如开枪时间漫长，属莱卡特瑕不掩瑜的上乘之选，越往后揉合的神秘色彩令我想起彼德威尔(Peter Weir)的澳洲荒野经典《悬崖上的野餐》(Picnic at Hanging Rock, 1975)。

不知道说啥了啊，全Brisbane就一家电影院上映啊。 去了发现整个厅就俩人看啊。 欣赏不了啊，太文艺了啊，太独立了啊。 导演就不是拍给俺这种观众看的啊，就没剧情啊。 就是几个人横穿沙漠啊，白天走晚上休息啊。 太冷峻了啊，镜头都静止不带动的啊。 荒漠的摄影是很好，可是晚上就不打光的啊，夜里就靠一篝火，神马都看不见啊。 还有好几个夜晚的戏啊，有木有。。。 各种看不见人啊，只能听声啊，还各种西部口音啊，听不懂很崩溃的啊。。。 还有一印第安人，说土著语啊，神马都听不懂啊，也木有英语字幕啊。 最后到底走没走出沙漠啊，神马都不知道就结束了啊，没有结局啊。 快睡着了啊，跟这比《生命之树》简直太提神了啊。 太小众了啊，奥斯卡应该没戏了啊。 小米虽然演的好，但估计也悲剧了啊。 P.S. 冲着米歇尔威廉姆斯去的，可惜戏份不够多，但表演确实很好。 几乎完全融入角色，灰头土脸的村姑的感觉，很内敛的表演。 感觉是继去年《蓝色情人节》之后又一个“没有表演痕迹的表演”。

世界大概本来的面目吧 1845年 人类还没有被现代自动机械宠爱之前 他们算是精致的人儿吗 现代深邃执着的人儿们 内心大概都与这荒原相似吧 在自然中找到过真正快乐的人大概更容易与这部电影共鸣 。

其实我们内心底里是有追求的 而且大部分人的追求都相似 敢于放逐 是勇敢的 同时 体会到的 定不是一般大多数人在人造有限的环境中可以体会到的 生命自有其自然的固执吧 😁😁😁😁😁

Title: Meek’s Cutoff

Year: 2010

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Western, Drama

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Screenplay: Jonathan Raymond

Music: Jeff Grace

Cinematography: Christopher Blauvelt

Cast:

Michelle Williams

Bruce Greenwood

Rod Rondeaux

Will Patton

Zoe Kazan

Paul Dano

Shirley Henderson

Neal Huff

Tommy Nelson

Rating: 6.6/10

US indie female filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s antebellum western allegory MEEK’S CUTOFF is an odd addition to the hallowed genre, with an entire ensemble cast of 9, traversing through the Oregon High Desert with their wagons. There are three families of settlers, Emily (Williams) and Solomon Tetherow (Patton), Thomas and Mille Gately (Dano and Kazan), William and Glory White (Huff and Henderson) with their teenage son Jimmy (Nelson) plus the titular Stephen Meek (Greenwood), their guide.

But Meek’s cutoff doesn’t pan out as he has promised, their journey is prolonged with no clear improvement in sight, morale begins to pall and water is in shortage, when they capture a solitary Indian (Rondeaux) and foist him to lead them to water, rift will soon divide themselves, but to what end? Reichardt confects something very anti-climatic along the line.

Adhering to the tenet of preserving and reflecting naturalistic pulchritude of its expansive surroundings, the film certainly takes its time to observe human actions under this primordial circumstances and often the camera stays put and lets the narrative take its own course within the frame; similarly during the night scenery, only candlelight and campfire is used against a pitch-black night or the interior of a tent. This minimalism approach makes for an intimate study of those settlers, especially of the women front, upgrades them from an often underrepresented and/or stereotyped fix to the spotlight, it is mostly through Emily Tetherow, the story manages to bring forth its central conflict of trust, (mis)understanding, fortitude and belief. Who can they trust, is it Meek, an supposedly experienced guide who gradually loses other's trust due to his inexplicable incapability? Or the Indian, who could be dangerously duplicitous, and their communication is gravely undermined by their language barrier. Emily makes her choice (with tact too), and the film broaches an abrupt open ending without confirmation of either because there mustn't be any consolation prize, no fight-or-flight finale, let the uncertainty rule, just for once.

Reichardt doesn’t give much dramatic outpourings to her cracking cast butMichelle Williams still holds court and gives a contained but gritty performance head and shoulders above her male co-stars,Bruce Greenwood is remotely next-in-line radiant with his curmudgeonly ambiguity, but ruefully, there is little is on offer. Regardless of its invigorating feminist angle of a less fluid story,Reichardt’s film seems to brandish her“anti” flag too willfully and what is ultimately sacrificed here is a culminating catharsis dissipates even before its tentative luring of actualization.