Cutter's Way (1981)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Ivan Passer

Writers:

Jeffrey Alan Fiskin (writer)
Newton Thornburg (novel)

Release Date:

28 April 1983 (Australia)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | 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 | Corpse | Gun | Arson | Southern California

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:

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.

Goofs:

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

Quotes:

Alex Cutter: I don't drink. You know, the routine grind drives me to drink. Tragedy, I take straight.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Soundtrack:

We're Old Enough to Know

Don Quixote At The Country Club

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.