Expectations: Meek’s Cutoff

This chapter focuses on Reichardt’s genre mixing, slow cinematic techniques, minimalism, neorealism and her use of the “female gaze” as well as “the open image” or “crystal image” as defined by Shohini Chaudhuri and Howard Finn. Reichardt subtly shifts the environmental and political issues highlighted in her prior films back to the nineteenth century debate of Manifest Destiny and its effects on the landscape and native peoples. Based on historical events during the 1845 “terrible trail” tragedy, Meek’s Cutoff explores contemporary political issues of leadership and community by loosely linking Meek’s violence with George W. Bush era torture tactics and foreign policy. In her feminist Western, Reichardt used an aspect ratio of 1:37:1 creating a claustrophobic framing aesthetic and while this echoes the pioneer women’s vision during their long march in the dessert, it also created distribution concerns.