Cutter's Way
Directed by Ivan Passer
Starring Jeff Bridges, John Heard and Lisa Eichhorn
I watched this movie on-demand at a friends house after we'd been out partying all night. My friend was passed out on the couch. I didn't know what to expect from the film. I'd only seen the name listed in a few film director's top ten lists and knew nothing about the plot.
The score by Jack Nitzsche grabbed me immediately. This man has pulled at my heart on several occasions. I can think of two films (Stand By Me, Starman) whose music brought me to tears and haunted me for days afterwards, both scored by Jack Nitzsche of course. It didn't help that that late evening/early morning I was feeling particularly depressed and aimless about my life, the product of too much alcohol and coffee in one day.
The fact that Mr. Nitzsche led a drunken and depressed life wasn't making his music sound any happier to me. I imagined myself laying in the shower at 45, bald, drunk, overweight and alone crying about some faceless person whom I'll miss in the future because I was too insecure or anxious to hold on to them. This was all happening in just the opening credits!
I saw that Jordan Cronenweth (Blade Runner, Rolling Thunder) was the photographer on the film so I knew there'd be lots of beautiful, natural light and indoor scenes only lit by houselamps.
The film's plot is very simple. Richard Bone (Jeff Bridges) lives in a house with Alex Cutter (John Heard), a drunken, disabled Vietnam veteran and his wife Mo, who is also a drunk. The three of them seem to have a dynamic but ultimately good time with each other and despite their bizarre behavior towards one another you can see deep down that they love and trust each other.
One rainy night Ricard Bone's car breaks down in an alleyway where he sees what appears to be a man dumping a body into the garbage. The man gets into a large car and drives away. Richard tries to brush it off as nothing but is forced to face the situation when a young woman's dead body is found the next morning near his abandoned car in the alley.
The Police take Richard in for questioning and name him as a suspect in the murder. He's released that day but told he'll be watched by local police as the investigation continues. He meets up with his friends Alex and Mo to watch a local parade and as they're talking about the case he sees local tycoon J.J. Cord ride by on a horse. Richard realizes that Cord was the man he saw dumping the body in the alley.
This is essentially where the real film begins and as the mystery unfolds what an amazing, drunken ride it takes you on with one of the most unbelievable, hard-hitting endings I have ever seen. It may sound cheezy but it's like the feeling you get at the end of a great, chaotic symphony or hardcore record. It builds and builds toward the final song/scene and you're thinking to yourself "This better fucking pay off!" and then it gives you the best feeling punch in the face you've ever had (which you didn't think was possible) and ends abruptly leaving you dazed and slightly confused about what you just went through.
I drifted off not feeling so bad about getting drunk and seeing that like the characters in the film and Jack Nitzsche, drunks can achieve incredible things and experience wonderful highs that most sober people can't get to! Hah hah!
I stopped drinking for the last three months and then broke it by getting drunk on my 30th birthday, I had a fucking blast.
Then I drank a bunch of Modelo's two nights ago and woke up feeling like that old, overweight, bald man. Shit.
