650:—the same critic who called it Passer's best American feature—also noted that the movie was making a "major statement about post-60s disillusionment." Throughout the movie, Passer provides critiques of American culture, but he does not give any political solutions. When he was asked about this somewhat ambiguous message of the movie, Passer stated that "this film is about pulling a trigger — what it takes." This introspective approach, along with both the violent ending and the complex and winding plot, in
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Cutter to convince him not to kill Cord. After being chased by security, Bone winds up in Cord's office. After a brief conversation in which Cord assumes that Cutter's war experience has made him paranoid, Cutter suddenly crashes through the window after stealing one of Cord's horses. As Cutter is dying from injuries from the broken glass, Bone asserts that Cord killed the girl. Cord states "What if it were?" Bone steadies Cutter's gun in Cutter's hand and fires the pistol as the film cuts to black.
611:(1977)—there was still significant resistance to showing soldiers returning home as anything other than empowered heroes. Despite this, Passer did not refrain from having Cutter voice strong anti-war views. In addition to his general state of bitter indignation throughout the movie, Cutter also explicitly criticizes the United States. In one scene where Cutter and Bone are arguing over blackmailing Cord, Cutter goes on a tirade about the morality of life, explaining:
506:(thinking that the original title would be mistaken by audiences for a comedy about surgeons) and entered it in film festivals. At Houston, Texas's Third International Film Festival, it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor (John Heard). A week later, it received the closing-feature slot at the
594:, and various TV shows, the good guys got wounded and they were even better after that. I felt there was an absolute distortion of what actually goes on when somebody gets maimed internally or physically. It doesn’t usually make them better people. Most of the time, from what I have seen, it makes them dangerous.
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I watched the war on TV like everybody else. Thought the same damn things. You know what you thought when you saw a picture of a young woman with a baby lying face down in a ditch, two gooks. You had three reactions, Rich, same as everybody else. The first one was real easy: “I hate the United States
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wrote "t's the sort of picture that never wants to concede what it's about. It is, however, enchanted by the sound of its own dialogue, which is vivid without being informative or even amusing on any level." The studio was so shocked by the negative reviews that it planned to pull the film after only
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Convinced that Cord had been trying to silence Bone, Cutter begins researching Cord. He steals an invitation to a party at Cord's house and gets Bone to drive him. When Cutter tells Bone he plans to kill Cord, Bone attempts to leave the party but is blocked by other parked cars and instead goes after
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With this darker and more realistic portrayal of veterans, Passer was informing audiences of an aspect of the
American experience which studios were not eager to reveal. In other interviews, Passer even went so far as to heavily insinuate that his depiction of Cutter as a disabled and disillusioned
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became a victim of internal politics. U.A. senior domestic sales and marketing vice president Jerry Esbin saw the film and decided that it did not have any commercial possibilities. Passer did not see his film with a paying audience until the
Houston International Film Festival many weeks later. He
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In many ways, Cutter’s brutal evaluation of violence and humanity reflects a larger attitude of the film that is very clearly anti-war. Though Cutter denies that trauma is what drives him to drink—at one point he even claims “Tragedy, I take straight”—Passer shows the ghastly effects of service in
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reopened in the summer of 1981 in
Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York City. Passer was bitter about the experience, commenting in an interview, "You can assassinate movies as you can assassinate people. I think UA murdered the film. Or at least they tried to murder it."
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deemed the movie to be a neo-noir. He explained that Passer had created “a thriller but also a critique, underscoring its surgical title by performing a deft and mordant postmortem on the remains of the 1960s counterculture.” Similarly, in his review of the movie,
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that develops into an investigation with his skeptical friend and the dead girl's sister, along for the ride. After Cutter attempts to blackmail Cord as a way of making Cord incriminate himself, Cutter's house mysteriously burns down with his wife, Mo, inside.
489:, and New York City's weekly newspapers would write glowing reviews. Ansen wrote, "Under Passer's sensitive direction, Heard gives his best film performance: he's funny and abrasive and mad, but you see the self-awareness eating him up inside." Journalists at
355:, and wanted to meet with Fiskin in Los Angeles. Fiskin, who had little money, stole a copy of the book to read. In a 1981 interview, he said of the novel "The set-up's great, the characters are fine. But the last half of the book is an instant replay of
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When Bone sees who he thinks is the same man in the Santa
Barbara "Founder's Day Parade" – local tycoon J.J. Cord – Cutter begins to take an interest in the case. His interest soon becomes a
268:, Richard Bone's car breaks down on a side road. He sees a large car draw up a little way behind him. A man throws something into a garbage can. At first, Bone thinks nothing of it and proceeds to meet his friend,
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would later write that it was "probably Ivan Passer's best
American feature...with a wonderful performance by Lisa Eichhorn and shimmering, hallucinatory cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth." John Patterson of
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shares with older noir films, the movie also was shot with clear noir influences. For Passer, it was important that viewers understood the gloomy nature of the movie, and with the help of his cinematographer
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were also early champions of the film, with two different critics offering positive reviews of the movie. After its re-release, the paper continued its efforts, posting a glowing profile on Passer.
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of
America.” Yeah. You see the same damn thing the next day and you move up a notch. “There is no God.” But you know what you finally say, what everybody finally says, no matter what? “I’m hungry.”
588:“Cutter” was not your average commercial sure thing. One reason I wanted to do this story was that I was getting sick to my stomach of what I called the cripple mania. Jon Voight in
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United
Artists spent a meager $ 63,000 on promotion for the film's release in New York City in late March 1981. There all three daily papers and the three major network critics gave
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to play Alex Cutter. However, a scheduling conflict forced
Hoffman to leave the project. This prompted Mulligan to leave as well, and EMI to pull its money. Gurian took the film to
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The initial budget was $ 3.3 million, but Field learned that United
Artists would produce the movie only if the budget was $ 3 million and a star joined the cast. The studio liked
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A friend of
Jeffrey Alan Fiskin had Fiskin send a screenplay to Paul Gurian, a would-be film producer. Gurian eventually informed Fiskin that he had bought the rights to the novel
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called it "note-perfect" and a "masterpiece," praising all three of the lead performances while acknowledging the film required multiple viewings to perceive its strengths.
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holds a rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "A suitably cynical neo-noir that echoes the disillusionment of its era,
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veteran was a key reason the UA tanked the budget of the film. Even after the release of popular neo-noir movies featuring troubled Vietnam veterans—see
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said in an interview, "They didn't do any research. I was supposed to have two previews with a paying audience. It was in my contract."
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Alex Cutter. The following day, a young girl who has been brutally murdered is found in the garbage can, and Bone becomes a suspect.
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436:. The studio wanted a star, but the director insisted on Heard. Lisa Eichhorn was cast as Mo after she auditioned with Bridges.
361:. You cannot make a film out of this." Gurian agreed and hired Fiskin to write the screenplay. Gurian arranged for the studio
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948:"Ivan the Bearable [Interview with Ivan Passer about CUTTER'S WAY] | Jonathan Rosenbaum"
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Quartet Records and MGM released the world premiere of the masterful score by Jack Nitzsche.
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1027:"Ivan Passer's 'Cutter's Way' Was Released in 1981 but Might As Well Have Come Out Today"
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movie genre by film critics. In one of the positive reviews posted in The Village Voice,
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relies on character-driven drama further elevated by the work of an outstanding cast".
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to its United Artists Classics division, which changed the film's title to
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for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. In 1983, the film won the prestigious
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847:"Ivan the Bearable (Interview with Ivan Passer about CUTTER'S WAY)"
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United Artists did not like the ambiguity in what was then titled
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Hoberman, Jim (March 25, 1981). "Cutter and Bone/Cutter's Way."
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Jameson, Richard T (July–August 1981). "Passer's Way".
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784:Ansen, David (April 6, 1981). "Odd Men Out".
657:In addition to the similar themes and motifs
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765:"'Cutter and Bone', An Ivan Passer Mystery"
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829:"Cutter's Way is a cinematic masterpiece"
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390:and agreed he was the man to direct
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318:Arthur Rosenberg as George Swanson
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763:Canby, Vincent (March 20, 1981).
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1274:Films based on thriller novels
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654:are typical neo-noir staples.
623:post-traumatic Stress Disorder
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1284:Films scored by Jack Nitzsche
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1025:Boyle, Brendan (2020-01-21).
911:Schruers, Fred (1981-12-13).
637:has often been placed in the
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694:. November 1988. p. 90.
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403:Jeff Bridges
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315:as J.J. Cord
295:Jeff Bridges
283:
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263:
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236:Jeff Bridges
219:
218:
214:Cutter's Way
213:
212:
211:
166:Running time
143:Release date
86:Jeff Bridges
60:
22:Cutter's Way
1131:Born to Win
1119:Ivan Passer
976:www.tcm.com
605:(1976) and
602:Taxi Driver
591:Coming Home
520:Edgar Award
483:David Ansen
425:Joseph Papp
382:Ivan Passer
232:Ivan Passer
206:$ 1,729,274
170:109 minutes
74:Produced by
43:Ivan Passer
39:Directed by
1234:1981 films
1228:Categories
1036:2023-10-29
1031:The Ringer
981:2023-10-29
957:2023-10-29
930:2023-10-29
674:References
668:The Ringer
528:Grand Prix
421:John Heard
398:instead .
358:Easy Rider
340:Chris Noth
301:John Heard
240:John Heard
203:Box office
154:1981-03-20
90:John Heard
1195:Kidnapped
925:0190-8286
522:from the
440:Reception
114:Edited by
1071:AllMovie
787:Newsweek
639:neo-noir
487:Newsweek
228:thriller
225:neo-noir
185:Language
122:Music by
82:Starring
57:Based on
1171:Creator
900:. 2016.
897:discogs
530:of the
433:Othello
189:English
175:Country
152: (
1214:(2006)
1206:(1999)
1198:(1995)
1190:(1992)
1187:Stalin
1182:(1988)
1174:(1985)
1166:(1981)
1158:(1977)
1150:(1976)
1142:(1974)
1134:(1971)
923:
876:14 May
242:, and
195:Budget
1060:IMDb
921:ISSN
878:2022
479:Time
289:Cast
260:Plot
1080:at
1069:at
1058:at
692:Spy
540:of
485:in
477:in
468:in
409:'s
363:EMI
252:by
66:by
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1029:.
974:.
950:.
939:^
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481:,
256:.
238:,
1110:e
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156:)
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