Set in the 1840s, Kelly Reichardt’s film concerns a small party of families led by a hired guide named Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), who has promised to take them on a time-saving “cutoff” to the end of the Oregon Trail. The ending was a big disappointment. But Meek the movie character is vividly realized. We get it. The film ends. Shallow waves wash his feet. But the film isn’t just a grueling survival tale, it’s thought-provoking and dramatic, hinging on quintessentially American issues that still feel relevant. [2] Some 200 wagons and 1,000 people turned off the primary Oregon Trail at Vale and followed Meek into the Oregon desert, where no wagons had traveled before. The three characters swallowed as the screen explodes into light and fire. It's really not ambiguous, though it tries to play as such. With the help of a Native American who guided the group to water in exchange for a blanket, they reached the Deschutes River where Cline Falls is today, and then followed the Deschutes north. you have to know the real history of this event – the ending is perfect if you have the background story… Look it up! Here the emigrants camped in and around what they called the "Lost Hollow". Some of the emigrants crossed from the low banks, using their wagon box as a boat and guided by ropes over the swift current. The impulse that drove the serial re-emerges in new cycles of webisodes and remakes. Some of the emigrants were not doing well, especially those who were already sick when the train took the cutoff. Some of the wagons were damaged during the 1,000-foot climb, but they were soon repaired and the wagons continued over the hill and down to Cottonwood Creek.[5]. These days, the most popular film endings seem to always indicate a way to keep on going with their stories. The film is a brilliant revision of the American Western that uses mumblecore aesthetics (the dialogue, often literally, is mumbled). The increase in the popularity of the contemporary film franchise corresponds with the death of soap operas. The Herrens reported that if they had remained at their campsite they could have filled a blue bucket with gold nuggets. In Meek's Cutoff, the single Indian allows an alternate meaning to emerge. The screen goes black. and that edict that keeps them glued to a screen in the first place: "How does it end?". Her identity is fractured, etc. The road was named for frontiersman Stephen Meek, who was hired to lead the first wagon train along it in 1845. Everyone already knows what will happen. Either they made it or they died along the way (as many did). Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. But now it was a drought year, the lakes were small and everything looked different. Reichardt and Raymond build the suspense to an excruciating level, and then the film just stops, like one those beautifully crafted, unsatisfying New Yorker short stories that seem to regard resolution as vulgar. Has providing firm, unambiguous closure now become the more radical ending? Coherence is irrelevant. This group suffered more for lack of supplies, so they sent a relief party ahead to The Dalles. Indeed, Meek’s Cutoff has just about all the elements one could ask of a classic movie—except an ending. What is actually going on up there on the Other Earth? Surfer Blood's 2010 debut put them on the map, but their critical sizzle soon faded. Sean Durkin’s acclaimed Martha Marcy May Marlene, esteemed for its eerie cuts between present and past, depicts its heroine’s post-traumatic stress due to time spent with a sex cult who dwell on a farm that seems vaguely idyllic until they murder a man and shoot at kittens. Not that Durkin should provide Martha with a happy ending: a boyfriend, a great job in the city, some amazing apartment. When he offered the emigrants an alternate route to avoid the Blue Mountains many decided to follow him. They hurried to the Mission at The Dalles where they convinced Black Harris, a mountain man, to return to the falls with a crew and equipment to help the emigrants cross. The other Rhoda steps forward and the film ends. In Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff (the title seems to reference the abrupt ending) the conclusion may have been dictated by budget. When Bella opens her vampire eyes in the final seconds of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, she looks into the audience’s soul and toward a “closure” that includes midnight showings, product tie-ins, and a guaranteed massive global box office. Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) features one of cinema’s famous ambiguous endings. Attacks by Indians were not the greatest danger; accidents and disease were. That is what happened. In 1845, there were rumors circulating among the emigrants on the Oregon Trail that the Walla Walla and Cayuse Indians might possibly attack the settlers in the Blue Mountains of Oregon or along the Columbia River. The expression on Meek's face "changed to one of complete bewilderment, as if he were seeing the country for the first time. © 1999-2020 PopMatters.com. It didn’t even give us enough information to speculate as to what might happen. "[4] The next day the grieving husband was left behind with a horse as the train continued to journey on. Meanwhile, Rhoda has won a space flight up to the Other Earth—a mirror of this world. At this point, the ambiguous ending is such a staple of the opposition that it has become cliché. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 struck me as a meditation on anorexia—or perhaps the parasitic, unhealthy quality of the franchise itself. One emigrant wrote about moving "ten thousand stones" in order to make a roadbed. It was so hard on the oxen that several died each day.[3]. A Blue Note supergroup happens to be made up of women, exclusively. At last we concluded to take a Northwesterly direction . The starving and exhausted emigrants finally reached The Dalles beginning around the 2nd week of October, having suffered 23 known deaths and probably many more. [7], The train continued to Wagontire Mountain, a name it later received when early settlers found a wagon tire there. The tree in the end meant the Indian led them to water. He well knew that there was a scarcity of grass and water across here and so informed them, but it was nearer and they would have him go it, and now blame him for coming the route they obliged him to. Curtis’s wife, Sam, senses his descent into madness along with the audience. The same stuff from one of Curtis’ dreams. Indeed, Meek’s Cutoff has just about all the elements one could ask of a classic movie—except an ending. On that day Samuel Parker entered in his diary: May codent get to water and water was taken to them, 32 in number. If you’ve ever had any romantic notions of being a covered-wagon pioneer on the American frontier, Meek’s Cutoff will be happy to disabuse you of them. Through it all he was himself, as he continuously refused to "remember his place". The next long take shows Antoine arrive at the ocean he has always longed to see. In stories of all types, throughout the centuries, the end is often signaled by a wedding (hence, a new beginning, a continuation of the story). It took nearly two weeks to cross everyone in the wagon train. Perhaps a trial where her cult tormentors are convicted due to her brave testimony. Yes. [20], Coordinates: 43°58′44″N 117°15′31″W / 43.97886°N 117.25871°W / 43.97886; -117.25871, James Field Jr. Journal. Tuck what is called Meeks cutoff - a bad cutoff for all that tuck it.[15]. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. In comes the real storm. The road was named for frontiersman Stephen Meek, who was hired to lead the first wagon train along it in 1845.The journey was a particularly hard one, and many of the pioneers lost their lives. When they arrived at The Dalles they were in a starving condition and so weak that some of the men needed help dismounting their horses.[14]. He went down to the river and found a native stone that he smoothed, then carved this inscription: "Mrs. S Chambers, Sep 3rd 1845." In the final triumphant shot, Antoine jogs across the sand into the water. They had all traveled a long distance without water, and the whole train stopped to rest on the 27th. In Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, which is about another earth that has floated up alongside our current one, young Rhoda drives drunk and crashes into a family whose car waits at a stoplight, killing a pregnant woman and young child. [10], The search for water ended when Meek climbed Midnight Point and from there he could see Buck Creek 25 miles due north. PopMatters' coverage of the 2000s' best recordings continues with selections spanning Swedish progressive metal to minimalist electrosoul. It also offers a reflection on self-destruction as two sisters, Justine (a mess) and Claire (the healthy one) cope with the effects of depression. Martha presents with strange symptoms once she returns to her family (a sister and brother-in-law) and their calming lake house. In Carl Neville's latest novel, Eminent Domain, he creates complexities and then shatters them into tiny narrative bits arrayed along a non-linear timeline. The two sisters sit with a little boy, Claire’s son. When they emerge, they observe a few downed trees. But we’re not allowed to stay. Jon Raymond’s dialogue is tinged with lyrical formality in the 19th Century manner, but in the hands of this cast it still sounds like real people talking. ‘Meek’s Cutoff’ a beautifully crafted survival tale, but ending falls short. Like Crazy, directed by Drake Doremus, was a Sundance favorite, promising to renew the tired romance genre. The audience identifies with Antoine’s struggles and cheers when he finally escapes juvie and runs away. The white characters become guileless and simple, even unethical and meek, anti-heroic in his presence. The journey was a particularly hard one, and many of the pioneers lost their lives. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Horrors in the Closet: A Closet Full of Monsters, The Power of Restraint in Sophie Yanow, Paco Roca, and Elisa Macellari's New Graphic Novels, Horrors in the Closet: Horrifying Heteronormative Scapegoating, 'The Edge of Democracy' and Parallels of Political Crises, Delightful 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' Is Good Escapism, John Hollenbeck Completes a Trilogy with 'Songs You Like a Lot', The Return of the Rentals After Six Years Away, Matthew Murphy's Post-Wombats Project Sounds a Lot Like the Wombats (And It's a Good Thing), In the Tempest's Eye: An Interview with Surfer Blood, 'Wildflowers & All the Rest' Is Tom Petty's Masterpiece. Yet the refusal to conform to the mainstream happy ending still feels like a cop-out – like a reel automatically cuts out 90 minutes in. The wagons were taken completely apart to facilitate the dangerous crossing. As their desperation mounts, they capture a Cayuse Indian (Rod Rondeaux) who had been keeping them under surveillance. The production ran out of money and completed the controversial ending on a shoestring. Strange cyclones out at sea. PopMatters have been informed by our current technology provider that we have until December to move off their service. Von Trier wraps it up in a way that we can’t go back. There was water and grass but not an ample supply for the emigrants and all their livestock. Rhoda does some jail time and then pursues the husband who survived. This movie was fantastic but the “ending” was horrible. The film suggests that traumatic memory invades the present—effectively ending any promise of peace. The story is also based on real events. The very next day the train experienced its most difficult ascent.
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