This film is not entertaining in a way that will appeal to mass audiences or, perhaps, in any conventional way we think about entertainment.  But, it may be brilliant.  Meek’s Cutoff is not the first revisionist Western – those have been the most engaging films in the genre for about two generations — but more than any other I’ve seen, this one pushes the generic envelope.

Plot does not matter because Meek’s Cutoff is all about perspective, and we learn all we need to know about time and place and gender and race from the way director Kelly Reichardt tells the simple story – who says what to whom, when and how it is said, and how the camera records the actions and interactions of daily life on the Oregon Trail in 1845.

The image dominates the narrative, but framing and mise-en-scene work to evoke a slow sort of tension that is breathtaking.  I felt the same way about Reichardt’s film Wendy and Lucy, another film I find remarkable.

I love Meek’s Cutoff in ways that have touched me deeply, but I don’t expect most of you to like it very much.  That’s okay.

(Available on DVD.)