Meek's Cutoff

Saw Meek's Cutoff, a frustrating western. Gone are the days of John Wayne and slouching, strong-jawed ease. This more modern western contains filth, ugliness, overexposed shots of the plains, and the slowness of dehydration. Our heroes are a band of three families heading west, lead by prototypical wild-man, Mr Meek. He keeps reassuring them they're on the right track, that mountains and water are just over the next hill. He scares them with stories of wild Indians and bears. Our heroes begin to suspect that Meek is lost and, although he maintains they're on the right path, they stop following his directions, going north and not south, pressing on and not stopping for the night. It is unclear if he is indeed lost. All signs point that way, but it's also abundantly clear that traveling to the wild west is not an exact science and that he may well be correct after all.

This ambiguity about their course reveals that the film is not, ultimately, interested in declaring winners in this particular game. The film is much more interested in the tempest in the teapot that is slowly brewing as the families turn against Meek and against each other. It begins with friction between Meek and Emily, the wife of the caravan leader, who is a tough woman who feels she is being lied to and dislikes Meek's casual fear-mongering. The caravan's collective arguments take place between long, endless shots of them trudging through the plains. It feels less like people eagerly indulging in power-struggles and more like people finally succumbing to their very real fears.

Early on, they capture an Indian who they try to bribe and threaten into taking them to water. Meek is deeply wary of the Indian and swears that he is of a tribe so evil that even other tribes hate them. Emily defends him however, arguing that if he did not lead them to water eventually, that he would die too. Throughout, the Indian stands, silent and inscrutable, not a noble savage but a dirty, balding old man. The Indian becomes the lightning-rod of their fears. Most of the film is concerned with this claustrophobic feeling of uncertainty. Was Meek correct? Does the Indian mean to help them or to kill them?

The film works best as a depiction of this deep, life-and-death uncertainty. The social aspects of the group crystallize and change as misfortunes befall them. Also interesting is the warts-and-all portrait of the times. These people are not brave, cheerful families going off to a sure future, but scared, lost people who do not know what lies ahead. Our romanticization of the past, along with modern conveniences (like maps) make this difficult to imagine. I think the ending of the film will be deeply frustrating to most people, but it's the only way they could have ended it well. A frustrating film, ultimately, but an interesting one.