Cutter's Way
1981 Directed by Ivan Passer
Synopsis
One rainy night, Richard Bone's (Bridges) car breaks down in an alleyway. He spots a large, mysterious car in the distance. A man dumps something into a garbage can. At first, Bone thinks nothing of it and proceeds to meet his friend, Alex Cutter (Heard). The next day, a young girl is found brutally murdered in the same alleyway where Bone abandoned his car. He becomes a suspect. When Bone spots the man he thinks is the murderer in a parade later that day — local tycoon J.J. Cord (Stephen Elliott) — Cutter begins to take an interest in the mystery that unfolds. His interest soon becomes a conspiracy theory that develops into a troublesome investigation with his skeptical friend and the dead girl's sister (Ann Dusenberry) along for the ride.
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I expected a standard Hollywood action picture, so for the first 20 minutes or so I was thrown for a loop. I wasn't too fond of any of the characters, especially Cutter, and I was getting impatient to get to the story. But then something happened. None of the relationships in the film were clearly demarcated. None of the dialogue was typical. I knew it was based on a book, but until that moment I had no idea that this was more of a literary picture, a play of sorts, than a Hollywood action film. I loved the film from that moment on.
I liked Jeff Bridges' Richard Bones, the quiet philanderer who was in love with Mo (or at…
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I didn’t dislike Cutter’s Way, I hated it .. loathed it.
Why? Because I saw what could possibly be a brilliant book ( which I haven’t read ), with brilliantly complex characters and relationships, handled on the screen in such an inept way.
Was it the performances? Generally no. John Heard was great as the titular Cutter, Jeff Bridges was fine as Jeff Bridges, and Lisa Eichhorn had her moments. Ann Dusenberry as Valerie Duran was 1980’s hollow. I was convinced that she saw Nancy Allen in Dressed to Kill and thought, wow, that’s acting! Wow, that’s a look!
It was how the screenplay handled these complex characters, or rather totally failed to handle them, that put me over the…
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A Letterboxd discovery.
I actually think I'd preferred a straight character driven drama, because that's where the action really is to be found. And while Heard is great most of the time as the crippled, alcoholic veteran, what caught my eye was Lisa Eichhorn, the real crime in this film is how she didn't become a star afterwards. Her tortured Mo is way more interesting than the fact that the rich rule the world.
As for the main plot; a sinister, cynical outlook is always my cup of tea, and the main story of a big wig getting away with murder, and how the two friends from the other side of town get drawn to the possibility of aiding justice… -
What an incredible film, and one I do not feel confident in exploring too deeply without another viewing. I've only ever heard vague references to this film by a pocket of fervent supporters, but this strikes me as one of the great Vietnam movies, though Vietnam only ever haunts the movie in the spectre of its mangled title character. A post-Watergate noir in which its characters find a horrid focus in their aimless lives, turning stagnant intellectuals into active loons whose fight against corporate power is futile and insane regardless of whether they are even justified in so doing. Its conclusion shows a spineless playboy finally doing something with his life, even if it's the worst thing he could do.
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I live for movies like this. Or, more to the point, I live for experiences like this, where I go into something with no expectations, no preconceived notions, and no feel for what the popular or critical consensus about it is and just end up connecting with it.
"Cutter's Way" is a film noir, and a buddy movie, and a domestic drama, and a paranoiac thriller, and a political allegory, and a black, black comedy. It features characters so well-rounded and complex that I can only assume that they were born fully-formed out of Zeus' forehead. The turns of the plot are absolutely impossible to predict. The ensemble cast plays off of each other perfectly, with more than one actor…
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Made a friend sit down and see this one before it disappeared from Instant. Heard is still fucking incredible in it.
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Made a friend sit down and see this one before it disappeared from Instant. Heard is still fucking incredible in it.
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Not what I expected it to be. John Heard is insanely good. And Jeff Bridges is insanely handsome.
Setting reminded me out of something from a Sam Shepard play. Goes a little buckwild in the end, but a good ride nonetheless.
Also some terrific dialogue.
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Very un-Dude.
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This is 2 movies in one. And both are only half what they could have been on their own.
It's half a movie about people and the people are boring. They talk about things the audience can relate to and, so, what they're saying means something to people. But that doesn't make these people interesting. It makes what they stand for interesting. The movie still has to do something with it.
It's also half a movie about justice. Which is a very big problem since the great evil in the movie takes the form of a character who - after (I believe) killing 5 people who did absolutely nothing to hurt him - spends the time which he's given to…
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What an incredible film, and one I do not feel confident in exploring too deeply without another viewing. I've only ever heard vague references to this film by a pocket of fervent supporters, but this strikes me as one of the great Vietnam movies, though Vietnam only ever haunts the movie in the spectre of its mangled title character. A post-Watergate noir in which its characters find a horrid focus in their aimless lives, turning stagnant intellectuals into active loons whose fight against corporate power is futile and insane regardless of whether they are even justified in so doing. Its conclusion shows a spineless playboy finally doing something with his life, even if it's the worst thing he could do.
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My idea to cram a bunch of expiring Netflix titles hasn't exactly gone to plan so far, as I have two days and about fifteen titles queued up. Oh well.
I'd heard a number of good things about Cutter's Way recently, and that made me elevate this film to my #1 spot on my queue. John Heard is fantastic as the disabled asshole veteran, yet there's something oddly endearing about him. Lisa Eichhorn is equally good as his depressed wife. And Jeff Bridges is, well, Jeff fuckin' Bridges (that's a good thing).
Cutter's Way didn't play out as I expected. The film is almost entirely a character study rather than a suspense/thriller as the synopsis suggests. While this wasn't a bad thing, it did catch me off guard a bit. Regardless, this was still a fine movie. If you can spare two hours in the next two days and subscribe to Netflix, you should check it out.
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This film boasts some of the most subtle performances from Jeff Bridges that I remember. His friend Alex steals the show from him most of the time but Jeff is so great in it. It is hard to describe this film other than it is kind of a odd film noir movie that is about a guy who witness a body put in a dumpster without really seeing who did it rather a rough description. His friend Alex a veteran of Vietnam who is so mad about what is done to him in the war is willing to go to any way possible to get revenge. Not only was he in the Vietnam war, but he also lost an arm,…
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What did that stuffed animal ever do to deserve that?
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I didn’t dislike Cutter’s Way, I hated it .. loathed it.
Why? Because I saw what could possibly be a brilliant book ( which I haven’t read ), with brilliantly complex characters and relationships, handled on the screen in such an inept way.
Was it the performances? Generally no. John Heard was great as the titular Cutter, Jeff Bridges was fine as Jeff Bridges, and Lisa Eichhorn had her moments. Ann Dusenberry as Valerie Duran was 1980’s hollow. I was convinced that she saw Nancy Allen in Dressed to Kill and thought, wow, that’s acting! Wow, that’s a look!
It was how the screenplay handled these complex characters, or rather totally failed to handle them, that put me over the…