Cutter's Way
Director: Ivan Passer
Year Released: 1981
Rating: 2.0
Vietnam vet tries to convince his friend to help him solve a teenage girl's murder, and the murderer may or may not be a wealthy businessman. Plot aside, the cast of characters is pretty hard to take to: the Vietnam vet (John Heard) is a one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged, snarling Tom Waits impersonator who is neither funny nor appealing, his friend (Jeff Bridges) is a selfish womanizer, the vet's wife is a non-emotive alcoholic and the woman who comes along to help them - the murdered girl's sister - is out to make money off her sister's death by using blackmail. The entire picture stubbornly refuses to use traditional story gimmicks - the ending is purposely 'incomplete' and the aforementioned crew of misfits are the 'heroes' - but in doing so it loses a good deal of power, and I never found the time to care.
