"Trudging along in creaky covered wagons, mile after spine-jarring mile, day after wind-burned day, through arid alien landscapes, toward an uncertain, hardscrabble future — no wonder our pioneer ancestors were such stoical existentialists.

A three-family wagon train on the Oregon Trail of 1845 in director Kelly Reichardt’s artfully plodding “Meek’s Cutoff” is the embodiment of that pioneer pluck and reticence, of hope against harsh reality, of the forbidding mysteries of the unknown as well as the cruel delusions of Manifest Destiny.

That’s a heavy metaphorical load for any movie to carry, but Reichardt and screenwriter Jonathan Raymond (who also wrote the director’s “Old Joy” and “Wendy and Lucy”) pull it off with admirable grit and moody reflection to create a spare Western that defies the macho conventions of traditional Hollywood horse operas.

The story is drawn from a real-life 1845 incident in which wayward guide Stephen Meek led 200 wagons dangerously astray in the Pacific Northwest, and 23 people died before survivors were escorted to safety by friendly Indians."

Get the Story:
Movie review: ‘Meek’s Cutoff’ presents a cerebral Western (The Oklahoman 5/27)

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