Cutter's Way
| Cutter's Way | |
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Ivan Passer |
| Produced by | Paul R. Gurian |
| Screenplay by | Jeffrey Alan Fiskin |
| Based on |
Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg |
| Starring |
Jeff Bridges John Heard Lisa Eichhorn Ann Dusenberry |
| Music by | Jack Nitzsche |
| Cinematography | Jordan Cronenweth |
| Edited by | Caroline Biggerstaff |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Box office | $27.4 million(USA) |
Cutter's Way (also known as Cutter and Bone) is a 1981 thriller directed by Ivan Passer. The film stars Jeff Bridges, John Heard, and Lisa Eichhorn. The screenplay was by Jeffrey Alan Fiskin, based on the novel Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg.
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.
A friend of Jeffrey Alan Fiskin had Fiskin send a screenplay to Paul Gurian, a would-be film producer. Gurian eventually informed Fiskin that he had bought the rights to the novel Cutter and Bone, and wanted to meet with Fiskin in Los Angeles. Fiskin, who had little money, stole a copy of the book to read. In a 1981 interview, he said of the novel, "The set-up's great, the characters are fine. But the last half of the book is an instant replay of Easy Rider. You cannot make a film out of this." Gurian agreed and hired Fiskin to write the screenplay. Gurian arranged for the studio EMI to back the film financially, with Robert Mulligan to direct and Dustin Hoffman to play Alex Cutter. However, a scheduling conflict forced Hoffman to leave the project. This prompted Mulligan to leave as well, and EMI to pull its money. Gurian took the film to United Artists, where the studio's vice president, David Field, became interested in backing it.
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