Clearcut (1992)

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Istvan Kolnhofer is quite correct when he says this is "One of the most important "lost" independent films ever".I have little to add to the other reviewers other than this film is right on my top shelf next to _Fight Club_ and _Aguirre_ and there it stays. This can be called a horror flick in its truest form - gnawing dread permeates throughout. But don't expect a splatter-fest - it's not. This is low budget indie at its absolute best. Lack of budget is more than compensated by superb scripting and performance. This is what really sets it head and shoulders above the "stream of consciousness" indie crap that continually oozes out of the film festivals. Despite it's age, it is as pertinent as ever and stands up to regular repeat viewing. If you ever get a chance to see it, do so - but also note, the less you actually know about this film, the greater your experience will be. Definite keeper.

I saw this movie in the early 90's and thought it was a good. The Scene of Graham Greene skinning the strip mine owners' leg was haunting. I'm a fan of Graham in many of his TV and movie appearances from Thunder Heart to Red Green Show. I wish I could buy this on DVD and in July I contacted HTTP://www.northernartsentertainment.com Larry Jackson and he wrote me saying Northern Arts Entertainment was thinking of Releasing the movie on there web site as a download that you can burn to a DVD and print art work and make your own DVD of it. Larry said it would be on the HTTP://www.iarthouse.com/ in August of 2008. Sadly it has not shown up and Larry no longer answers my emails. Maybe if others who want to have this on DVD you can go to the iarthouse site and call the 1800 number 1800-811-4515 and mention that you would like to see the Clear cut on the site or ask to speak to Larry.

This is an incredible film from start to finish. This is one of the rare films that complement the book, M.T. Kelly's "A Dream Like Mine" perfectly. My wife and I have watched the movie several times and read the book as well. We have concluded that Arthur does not exist as a "real" being in the story but a construct of Peter's due to his rage at losing his battle in court (or rage at his cause being lost as a writer in the book). In Ojibwe stories there are spirits that are normally powerless that can be induced to possess a person to give them short lived power. With the spirit the recipient had great powers of vengeance in exchange for their souls. In the stories this would be what happens to a warrior who comes home to find his village destroyed by another tribe. He would be possessed and become an avenging monster. When talking of Arthur, Wilf refers to him as 'coming from the east' and 'not being from us' which seems to imply that it is Peter that brings the avenging spirit. In the book the clincher is that as Peter is being arrested the mill owner denies there ever being an Arthur at all and that Peter was responsible for the kidnapping.

This film was worth a 7 to me because I loved how Arthur threw his weight around with Peter and Bud. Arthur only behaved that way with them because he needed to teach a very valuable lesson on how nature can never be tampered with. Obviously Bud and Peter never saw it that way nor did they see things from the Native perspective the way Arthur did. Since Bud never cared one way or another what happened to the trees because he was the papermill manager. He only cared about profiting from those trees so he needed them to be cut down. Peter's problem was that he was trying to take both sides of the issue to try and please Arthur and Bud. Since Peter was a lawyer it was his intuition to see things from all sides. Although the Natives lost the court case, Peter however did try and smooth things out and ease the tension for everyone involved and for that, I give him credit. But it was from Arthur's viewpoint that makes this film so cool. The important lesson needed to be taught to the other 2 men. Since Arthur rightfully committed those acts of violence towards Bud, Peter and those police officers because that was really the only way the situation was to be handled. If Arthur was just a regular human, he may have put up a fight but I don't think he would have gotten away with the things he did. He just would have been arrested and put away as "just another Indian who's only place is in jail". Ironically enough, Bud and Peter were arrested by police at the end of the film. Wow, what wrong have they done to society?? LOL The 2 men felt like THEY were the victims of the whole ordeal, not Arthur! LOL Well............ anyways............ thanks for allowing me the time to review on this film as well. Take care. ;)