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Meek's Cutoff

Meek's Cutoff
Meeks cutoff poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
Produced by Elizabeth Cuthrell
Neil Kopp
Anish Savjani
David Urrutia
Written by Jonathan Raymond
Starring Michelle Williams
Paul Dano
Bruce Greenwood
Shirley Henderson
Neal Huff
Zoe Kazan
Tommy Nelson
Will Patton
Rod Rondeaux
Music by Jeff Grace
Cinematography Chris Blauvelt
Edited by Kelly Reichardt
Production
company
Evenstar Films
Film Science
Harmony Productions
Primitive Nerd
Distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories
Release date
  • September 4, 2010 (2010-09-04) (Venice)
  • April 8, 2011 (2011-04-08) (United States)
Running time
104 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2 million
Box office $1.2 million

Meek's Cutoff is a 2010 American western film directed by Kelly Reichardt. The film was shown in competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. The story is loosely based on a historical incident on the Oregon Trail in 1845, in which frontier guide Stephen Meek led a wagon train on an ill-fated journey through the Oregon desert along the route later known as the Meek Cutoff in the western United States.

In 1845, a small band of settlers traveling across the Oregon High Desert suspect their guide, Stephen Meek, may not actually know where he is going. What was supposed to be a two-week journey stretches into five. With no relief in sight, tensions rise as water becomes increasingly scarce and supplies run low. The wives look on as the husbands discuss what to do, unable to participate in the decision making. The dynamics of power begins to shift when they capture a lone Native and hold him captive so he may lead them to water. Questions plague the settlers as they press on with dwindling resources: They are unsure whether they should trust Meek, if the Native will lead them to water or a trap, whether there are others following them, and how much longer they can survive.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 85% based on reviews from 108 critics and reports a rating average of 7.5 out of 10, a generally positive reception. It reported the consensus, "Moving at a contemplative speed unseen in most westerns, Meek's Cutoff is an effective, intense journey of terror and survival in the untamed frontier." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 85 based on 36 reviews.


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