Meek's Cutoff: Movie Review

The West wasn't all cowboys and Indians and shoot-outs at the OK Corral, insists Meek's Cutoff, a realistic slice of pioneer life that offers a disquieting alternative vision of America's most mythic location. In place of violence, director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy) underlines the harshness and monotony of a long journey by covered wagon. The film's refusal to spectacularize the emigrants' hardships, as well as the story's lack of a clear beginning or end, signal major difficulties driving this wagon train beyond the festival circuit, where its pleasing low-key quality that should earn it accolades.