a review of 米克的近路

MANNVANUARY FOUR: As nontraditional westerns go, I think I got a little bit more out of Reichardt's FIRST COW than this one. But I admire its approach to the material, insofar as it gives us a real sense of the character's desperation, as well as the ambiguity of the trust and power dynamics going with the trio of women, their husbands, the trail guide Meek, and the Cayuse man they capture to lead them to water. It feels like an epic-length haiku about the nature of leadership and the responsibility of one human to another, and I like that the ending doesn't provide any easy answers or happy endings.