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Cutter's Way
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Cutter's Way (1981) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.9/10   1,401 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 26% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Ivan Passer
Writers:
Jeffrey Alan Fiskin (writer)
Newton Thornburg (novel)
Contact:
View company contact information for Cutter's Way on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
28 April 1983 (Australia) more
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. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
Top Ten: After Kate Winslet, Who?
 (From FilmExperience. 4 March 2009, 10:48 AM, PST)

User Comments:
Don Quixote At The Country Club more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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
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Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Also Known As:
Cutter and Bone
more
Runtime:
105 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Stereo
Certification:
Iceland:L | Canada:R (Ontario) | Australia:M | UK:15 | USA:R
Company:
Gurian more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The initial budget was supposed to be $3.3 million but then United Artists executive David Field found out that U.A. would only make the movie if the filmmakers were able to reduce the price tag to under three million dollars. Passer and company played along. Then, United Artists said that the film needed a big name star for it to succeed at the box office. The studio liked Jeff Bridges' work in the dailies for Michael Cimino's opus Heaven's Gate and said that they would only further support the film if the filmmakers got the actor to be in their movie. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Alex Cutter is charging across the estate on a horse, his missing arm changes sides briefly. more
Quotes:
Alex Cutter: I don't drink. You know, the routine grind drives me to drink. Tragedy, I take straight. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) more
Soundtrack:
We're Old Enough to Know more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful:-
Don Quixote At The Country Club, 20 June 2003
Author: manuel-pestalozzi from Zurich, Switzerland

Cutter's Way cannot be overpraised. This movie is a masterpiece of the first order. Ivan Passer, a compatriot of Milos Forman, came to the USA as an experienced Czech movie director. Not unlike Alfred Hitchcock or some German directors 30 years before him, he seems to have made a thorough analysis of the American social conditions and general manners. He then transformed his findings into movies. Two of them I know deal with New York. They are appropriately gritty. The setting of Cutter's way is a Californian beach community for the rich and beautiful – and the movie is appropriately glossy. The whole story takes place in those paradisiac locales. They are presented like an enchanted kingdom, a country of its own.

Under the glossy surface, there is a darker side to the place. There is prostitution, drug abuse and murder. Cutter, living on the fringes of the enchanted kingdom, sees that more clearly than everyone else. He has his own code of chivalry by which he wants to live. He develops conspirational theories and strains to convert them into hard facts. The world around him, populated by indifferent, amoral rich and beautiful people, does not understand him, does not even want to listen, laughs at him. So Cutter mounts a white stallion and rides a charge.

Repeatedly the film slips into surrealistic situations, in which the impression made on the viewers is more relevant than the storyline. This technique was well known in the forties (e.g. in film noir), present day audience are less used to it. In the earlier days of film making, surrealism was created on a soundstage, and the change between reality and "dream" became immediately clear. Passer uses real locations for situations removed from reality – a daring experiment that rewards the viewers with hauntingly beautiful pictures but might also confuse many. The director took this risk and we are rewarded with a magnificent picture about a distinguished slice of America. I predict: Cutter‘s way will one day become an honored classic.

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