merklekranz
Admirers of Graham Greene are in for a real shock with "Clearcut". This is not the lovable Indian character that you are used to seeing Greene playing. When the Native Americans lose in court trying to stop a logging company from cutting trees, Greene resorts to kidnapping and murder. This is an ecological revenge story gone terribly wrong. His method of influencing the owner of the logging company turns proactive, with sadistic torture replacing reason. I'm sure the intent of the writers was to send some sort of sympathetic ecological message, but the screenplay misfires badly if that was what they hoped, and any sympathy clearly lies with the captives. Be prepared for an unrelenting trek through the wilderness, with Greene dishing out liberal doses of sadism. Shockingly entertaining. - MERK
FilmSocietyMtl
Like most Canadians, I tend to shy away from viewing Canadian-made movies, especially if they deal with First People's issues. ("Oh no! Not another one of those".) But CLEARCUT came highly recommended by a friend who is really into intensely horrific stories.It starts off looking like something we've all seen before with a band of Native North Americans squaring off against the "cruel white logging company". It then takes a neat turn about twenty minutes in when our main protagonist sits in on a sauna session-ritual with some Native elders in a teepee. It is his bloody fever dream within the dark steamy enclosure that begins to set the tone for the rest of the film. And what a film! Righteous "psycho" Native, Arthur (effectively played by Graham Greene) kidnaps our main hero who is a lawyer representing the protesters along with the nasty head of the logging company. Arthur then forces the two on a grueling journey through the forests with the sole aim of vengefully torturing them into seeing things from the native perspective. Relentlessly paced, full of twists and turns and its share of bloody gore, the film pulls no punches.It is smartly adapted by screenwriter Rob Forsyth, nicely shot by Francois Protat and well acted by Ron Lea with moody music by Shane Harvey. Although purely a dramatic work, it plays out like an old Indian legend and a sick stalker flick. Let me finally state that you don't have to be into Native issues to like this film. It works on many levels and is simply a really excellent entertaining movie!
ftapb1
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.
highwayhavoc
I found the movie hard to follow. At the end, I didn't know what the message was suppose to be; what was the plot? Was anything accomplished during the story? If this was supposed to be about spiritual matters, Graham Green's talents were better put to use in "Dancing with Wolves" and "Thunderheart".
AD
