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Plot

After emigrating to the United States in 1969, Czech-born director Ivan Passer finally broke through to American audiences with his fourth film, a unique blend of mystery and social commentary. Cutter's Way is set in Santa Barbara, CA, a community of wealth and power. Its main characters, however, are among the town's have-nots: Richard Bone Jeff Bridges, a beach-boy gigolo starting to go to seed; Bone's best friend Alex Cutter (John Heard), a Vietnam veteran maimed in body and spirit; and Mo (Lisa Eichorn), Cutter's alcoholic wife. When Cutter spots one of the community's most prominent citizens in the act of covering up a murder, Bone insists that the police would never take their word over that of a man of wealth and prestige. Cutter seizes the opportunity to blackmail the killer, as a means of striking back at a system he thinks sent him off to an unjust war and ruined his life. The film was fortunate to fall into the hands of United Artists Classics, a new division of the company crippled by the financial disaster of Heaven's Gate. UA Classics adroitly marketed Cutter's Way, riding a wave of rave reviews and good word-of-mouth among more discriminating filmgoers to modest box-office success.
MPAA Rating:
R
Genre(s):
Crime and Mystery,Thriller
Run Time:
105min.
Theatrical Release Date:
08/30/2002
DVD Release Date:
07/10/2001
Director(s):
Ivan Passer
Starring:
Jeff Bridges , John Heard , Lisa Eichhorn , Anne Dusenberry , Stephen Elliott
Themes:
Home From the War,Class Differences,Unlikely Criminals,Blackmail,Clearing One's Name
Tone:
Angry,Cynical,Forceful,Tense
Keywords:
Vietnam,alcoholism,blackmail,false-accusation,gigolo,handicap,murder,oil-tycoon,veteran [military],wife
Country of Origin:
USA (01-01-1981)
Language:
English