Meek's cutoff

Why does a critically well-rated and attractively-cast Western from a production team with a classy track record fail to get adequate distribution and promotion? Why did Meek's Cutoff only gross one million US dollars during its limited run in North American art-houses?

The history-based tale of three pioneer families lost on their 19th-century Oregon Trail wagon-ride was edited and directed by Kelly Reichardt, a multi-award-winner for Old Joy (2006) and Wendy and Lucy (2008). Neither was mainstream fun; both were based on short stories by Oregon novelist Jon Raymond, a protege of indie director Todd Haynes. In the first, two friends go camping in the mountains; the next film followed a hassled woman (Michelle Williams) and her beloved dog (played by Reichardt's own pet).

Reichardt, Raymond and Williams pooled their talents again for the 2010 Western, adding Bruce Greenwood in the title role of Stephen Meek, a long-haired bearded mountain man employed as a guide. Besides Williams, as one of the group's three submissive wives, the cast also included Will (The Postman) Patton, Paul (There Will Be Blood) Dano and Shirley (Life During Wartime) Henderson. Haynes was an executive producer.

Chris Blauvelt (who worked on Haynes' I'm Still Here) was the cinematographer, and the production designer, David Doernberg, knew Reichardt from her (and his) first feature (River of Grass, 1994). Their work on the arid locations is a joy to watch, in small doses, and might have looked even grander if directed by a Terence Malick. The actors play reserved, tired, dead-panned 19th-century emigrants lost in a wilderness, lost in a tiring cinematic diorama.

Ron Rondeaux, in his first featured movie role, played "The Indian" captured by the ox-wagon train and forced to lead them to water. He's an experienced stuntman who'd also worked on The Postman. In the film industry, jobs arise more often from who you've worked with than from those you just "know": it's commonsense to employ talents that are tested and trusted.

As the DVD's 9-minute "making of" featurette is as self-consciously slow, static and prosaically framed as the movie, it can be assumed that Reichardt deliberately set out to make a docudrama without much drama. The conclusion is probably the least conclusive (or satisfying) of any Western ever made outside Russia. The movie's limited run is clearly explicable.