Cutter's Way (1981)

Director:

Ivan Passer

Writers:

Jeffrey Alan Fiskin (writer)
Newton Thornburg (novel)

Release Date:

28 April 1983 (Australia)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Cutter does everything his way. Fighting. Loving. Working. Tracking down a killer.

Plot:

Richard spots a man dumping a body, and decides to expose the man he thinks is the culprit with his friend Alex Cutter.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Heavy Drinking | Crime Scene | Blackmail | Sunglasses

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Richard Bone
John Heard	...	Alex Cutter
Lisa Eichhorn	...	Maureen Cutter, 'Mo'
Ann Dusenberry	...	Valerie Duran
Stephen Elliott	...	J. J. Cord
Arthur Rosenberg	...	George Swanson
Nina Van Pallandt	...	Woman in the Hotel
Patricia Donahue	...	Mrs. Cord
Geraldine Baron	...	Susie Swanson
Katherine Pass	...	Toyota Woman
Francis X. McCarthy	...	Toyota Man (as Frank McCarthy)
George Planco	...	Toyota Cop
Jay Fletcher	...	Cord Security Guard
George Dickerson	...	Mortician
Jack Murdock	...	Concession Owner

Also Known As:

Cutter and Bone

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:R (Ontario) | Australia:M | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Santa Barbara, California, USA

Company:

Gurian

Trivia:

Producer Paul Gurian gave script-writer Jeffrey Alan Fiskin a list of directors, and asked him who he thought should direct the film. Ivan Passer's name was the only one the screenwriter didn't recognize. To investigate the director, Fiskin and a couple of United Artists executives screened Passer's 1965 Czech film Intimate Lightning and agreed that he was the man to direct the film. Interestingly enough, in 1971, Passer delivered the film Born to Win to United Artists.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Alex Cutter is charging across the estate on a horse, his missing arm changes sides briefly.

Quotes:

George Swanson: [in a parade] Hey guys, how do I look?
Alex Cutter: Hey, you look like a fat man on a horse, Georgie.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Soundtrack:

We're Old Enough to Know

A hauntingly beautiful portrayal of cynicism and the pathetic human condition

I stumbled upon this movie at the Nickelodeon on Cape Cod the year of its release...at a time when VCR's and DVD's weren't a part of our culture...when you had to travel to obscure and far-out theaters to see obscure and far-out films during the fading window of opportunity offered as its limited run at the movie house. What a gem. I was instantly riveted by the story and the classic performances that brought it to life. The pathetic human condition personified in Cutter, Bone, and Mo is so exquisitely rendered as to be tragic...only salvaged by the clear-eyed wit and insight of John Heard's Cutter and the tempered and logical cynicism and indifference offered up by Bone(Jeff Bridges)as the balance that only these begrudging friends could provide each other. Lisa Eichorn's character(Mo) exhibits equal measures of the qualities both her male couterparts have and her subtle performance points up the conflict she feels in simultaneously rejecting and craving their opposing energies. The scene where she chews them both out for their selfish and naive plot and their spirited responses seems to spill from their beings as genuine emotion...not written dialogue...and it still sends chills through me...very powerful...and the scene where she is made painfully aware of Bone's incurable drive to bed women as she falls prey to his momentary sympathies ..when coupled with her husband's(Cutter) inability to give a soft refuge to her is so tragically realistic...tears flow. Everyone's shortcoming's cross-up everyone else's and as the surrealistic climax develops its symbolism and power are Shakespearian. This movie works as a crime thriller, a portrait of the underbelly of American culture most evidenced in its loss of confidence and embrace of cynicism that came to the surface post-Vietnam...but most successfully as a great character-driven love story and tragedy.