Ivan Passer the director of Cutter's Way, was a Czech film director and screenwriter and friend of eminent Czech director Milos Foreman. His real claim to fame was that he co-wrote some of Forman's earlier Czech films, before both men came to work in America. There the similarities end. Foreman made some classics including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, whilst Passer made a bunch of duds, the best known of which is arguably Cutter's Way.
To read reviewers on these pages comparing this film to 70's classics such as Chinatown, The Parallax View and Night Moves is just breathtakingly laughable. There was a reason United Artists wanted nothing to do with the completed film they received, even changing the title mid-release and that's because they realised they had a giant turkey on their hands.
Passer tries to perhaps best emulate Antonioni's Blow-up in having Cutter, Bone and the infamously disappearing sister Valerie, "investigate" (what ends up being just a clumsy blackmail attempt) the murder of Valerie's sister, which Bone may have witnessed, but, like the characters themselves, there is no compelling reason to care. There's not even an air of mystery surrounding the storyline of this utterly misdescribed as, "thriller". The narrative ends up focusing more on how odious the lead characters are. John Heard's Cutter is just a crippled, embittered, alcoholic Vietnam veteran who beats his long-suffering wife, when not causing mayhem to his neighbours. Bone is just a slacker gigolo, seemingly prepared to bed any woman in his vicinity. Think Seth Rogen trying to be semi-serious in a disinterested manner. And Valerie doesn't seem the least bit perturbed by her sister's demise. She just seems to be along for the ride (until she unexplainably disappears in the third act) and cosying up to Jeff Bridges's Richard Bone.
One of the many problems the script faces as well, is that we are never given any real reason, why the completely mis-matched Cutter and Bone are such supposedly great friends. Throw into this dynamic duo, the oddity represented by Arthur Rosenberg's George Swanson. Again, there is never any reason why this wealthy boat builder/retailer is friends with either of them. He just appears to serve as a functionary to allow certain scenes to occur in the movie.
Don't be fooled. The old truism still applies. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, is completely unloved and disowned by its parent studio, then it probably is a duck of a film. This is the reality of Cutter's Way. It ain't no unfairly overlooked classic!
To read reviewers on these pages comparing this film to 70's classics such as Chinatown, The Parallax View and Night Moves is just breathtakingly laughable. There was a reason United Artists wanted nothing to do with the completed film they received, even changing the title mid-release and that's because they realised they had a giant turkey on their hands.
Passer tries to perhaps best emulate Antonioni's Blow-up in having Cutter, Bone and the infamously disappearing sister Valerie, "investigate" (what ends up being just a clumsy blackmail attempt) the murder of Valerie's sister, which Bone may have witnessed, but, like the characters themselves, there is no compelling reason to care. There's not even an air of mystery surrounding the storyline of this utterly misdescribed as, "thriller". The narrative ends up focusing more on how odious the lead characters are. John Heard's Cutter is just a crippled, embittered, alcoholic Vietnam veteran who beats his long-suffering wife, when not causing mayhem to his neighbours. Bone is just a slacker gigolo, seemingly prepared to bed any woman in his vicinity. Think Seth Rogen trying to be semi-serious in a disinterested manner. And Valerie doesn't seem the least bit perturbed by her sister's demise. She just seems to be along for the ride (until she unexplainably disappears in the third act) and cosying up to Jeff Bridges's Richard Bone.
One of the many problems the script faces as well, is that we are never given any real reason, why the completely mis-matched Cutter and Bone are such supposedly great friends. Throw into this dynamic duo, the oddity represented by Arthur Rosenberg's George Swanson. Again, there is never any reason why this wealthy boat builder/retailer is friends with either of them. He just appears to serve as a functionary to allow certain scenes to occur in the movie.
Don't be fooled. The old truism still applies. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, is completely unloved and disowned by its parent studio, then it probably is a duck of a film. This is the reality of Cutter's Way. It ain't no unfairly overlooked classic!