Opening Cutter’s Way with an on-screen parade, director Ivan Passer takes something which should be celebratory and distorts it to a slow-motion scene, unfolding in monochrome colours to Jack Nitszche’s haunting score. As the camera focuses on a blonde girl dancing in front, there’s an unsettling quality to this celebration of Americana, and how the girl focused on could end the night as a corpse treated with such indignity.
Passing through life as a boat salesman and gigolo, Richard Bone (Jeff Bridges) has no ambitions. He lives with his best friend Alex Cutter (John Heard), a Vietnam war veteran with a sharpened mind and missing body parts, and Cutter’s long-suffering wife Maureen (Lisa Eichhorn). After his car breaks down in an alleyway, Rich’s luck worsens when he sees a shadowy figure dump a young woman’s body in the trash. He believes local oil tycoon J.J. Cord (Stephen Elliot) is the man he saw, driving Cutter on a crusade to bring Cord to justice.
Adapting Newton Thorburg’s 1976 novel Cutter and Bone, screenwriter Jeffrey Alan Fiskin tells a compelling tale of broken people jaded with their lives, only to be thrown into chaos once the body is discovered. As a plan is concocted against the figure that they believe evaded justice, things spiral out of their control.
It’s an exemplary work that’s been largely overlooked, and Radiance releasing it has offered the chance for that wrong to be righted.
Playing the titular role with a Tom Waits-style rasp, Heard is exceptional as the war veteran that has felt alienated since his return. The American Dream has long abandoned him, and all Cutter can do is drink and play on officers’ sympathies to evade drink-driving offences. When he sees a purpose to reignite his lost hope, it becomes an obsession he clings to. As this self-destructive man’s imagination runs loose and his temper grows shorter, viewers are left questioning whether this compelling mystery is Cutter’s paranoia kicking into overdrive.
To contrast the title character’s determination to expose his truth, Rich is reluctant to get involved. The unambitious salesman is known for walking away from tough situations as he drifts through life, looking to either make money or deliver excuses. Bridges wonderfully captures this laid-back man happy to avoid responsibility, yet finds himself unable to escape the situation. In the middle of these friends is Maureen, exceptionally played by Eichhorn. She terrifically captures the character’s dissatisfaction with life, turning to self-medication to cope while playing with fire as she flirts with Rich.
For a film focused on American injustices, Passer’s film faced its own uphill battles upon its release. After an insufficient amount was spent on promotion, the film was released under the source material’s title to negative reviews, before being pulled from screens after a week. It was then renamed and released under the United Artists Classics division before its reputation grew on VHS and the film was largely forgotten about. It’s an exemplary work that’s been largely overlooked, and Radiance releasing it has offered the chance for that wrong to be righted.
Cutter’s Way is out now on Radiance Films Blu-Ray
James’s Archive: Cutter’s Way
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