Customer Reviews

Clearcut [VHS]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

You have to dig deep into your vocabulary to find the superlatives this almost unknown, yet brilliantly done motion picture is worthy of. Director Ryszard Bugajski brings to life this haunting yet mesmerizing tale of civilization gone berserk, and spiritual belief invoked to conquer the encroachment of a ruinous white man's culture on the environment. Set in the Canadian wilderness, this excellent movie captures on film a story of rage, and a harrowing action adventure, in which one man tortures another as punishment for his crimes against the environment. Graham Greene (Dances withWolves, Thunderheart) portrays Arthur, an imposing native American tribesman who is outraged by the destruction of his land from the local lumber mill owned by Bud Rickets (Michael Hogan). Into this wilderness steps Peter McGuire (Ron Lea), a city lawyer, trying to protect native American Indian land through the judicial process, until he meets Arthur. Enraged at the sight of his people's land being ruined, Arthur takes the law into his own hands, kidnapping Peter and Bud Rickets, forcing them into an unrelenting northern trek. This terrifying journey compels Peter to confront his naive liberalism, and causes Arthur to be the martyr in a struggle against a civilization out of control. This relatively low budget production features some outstanding cinematography, and a very revealing glimpse into the spiritual world and culture of Native Americans still living in harmony with their environment. If you are one of the many who missed this gem of a movie, make it a point to see it soon. You will be compelled to watch this one more than once, and it will probably find it's way into your personal library of favorite films, as it has mine. Excellent!

As an Indian, i find some of the other reviews here a bit perplexing, so let me see if i can explain why. i do *not* think this is a movie about logging, the environment or silly New Age slogans such as "raping Mother Earth". Yeah, there's a forest, a white logger and an Indian, but i don't think that's the point of the movie. It most certainly is *not* an environmental statement - there's no kind, gentle, Hollywood, New Age "love Mother Earth" stuff here. It's a much more serious, psychological and sociological profile completely lacking in good guys, kind of like an Indian version of "Falling Down" or maybe "Resevoir Dogs"

The Plot: Arthur, who doesn't want *his* forest cut down (i don't think there's any global environmental statement), but, unlike in other movies, he doesn't decide to show the mysteries of the forest to the logging company, call upon the "good" Whites for help, ask the courts to decide, stage a protest, write a newspaper article or talk to young, environmentally-concious kids who "get it". Instead, he kidnaps the president of the logging company and tortures him. It's nasty too (this movie is not for the squeamish). That's pretty much the movie

This ain't Disney. There is no clear good guy, no obvious message, no feel good ending. It's not a movie that's easy to understand, explain or summarize. If you're White, you might feel sickened, insulted, confused or scared (in my interpretation, it's not Indian vs. logging company, it's Indian vs. Whites in general, or at the very least Whites who don't get it, which includes those who think they do). If you're Indian, well, it's a violent movie but it is a little hard not to sympathize with Arthur.

If i had to say what the core themes of the movie were (and i'm completely guessing here), i'd say that they are: 1. How frustrated some (many?) Indians are with how Whites act (as in "let's kidnap and torture them", not "let's protest and talk of peace and love") and 2. How talking doesn't really work (to say "you're raping mother earth" are just words and tremendously fail to express the true depth of feelings of point #1)

So why i'd give it a 5? i guess it's (a little) like Schindler's List, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich and those other movies that are heavy message, character studies more than they are plot-driven or feel good movies. It's a movie that causes a lot of people to stop and think. It's good for starting conversations, pondering, introspection or getting a reality check. It's a powerful movie. But i honestly don't know how to explain it

I didn't "like" this movie, but I respect it for taking a serious problem (corporate destruction of the environment) and using it to tell a story about one man's love-hate relationship to the problem; he both mourns the lost beauty of nature, and profits from it. Does that remind you of anyone?

This is told with great authenticity and integrity to the Native point of view; "Clearcut" is one of the first, best examples of Indian filmmaking, and it's great to see Native attitudes, values, humor, suffering and wisdom depicted after all those decades of Hollywood shoot-'em-ups.

The Indians in this movie are smart, funny, PO'd and in charge. Hee-yah!

Yes, the film is shocking and has some gruesome scenes. Yes, it's sometimes hard to understand; you have to pay close attention, or watch it more than once. The character of Arthur, superbly played by Graham Greene, is a conjuring of the White lawyer's own contradictory impulses; he wants revenge, and Arthur gives it to him, but then the lawyer doesn't like the revenge he's summoned up. The key scene takes place in a sweat lodge; Arthur is a submerged spirit the lawyer sees in a vision, and having once called him up, he cannot keep the tragedy from unfolding, any more than the ancient Greeks could.

Beware of entertaining the Trickster. He's likely to turn around and trick YOU.

Besides the gory scene of the papermill owner being "debarked" (that is, skinned alive), the film's biggest weakness is that it is a melodrama; this is not, as some have said, a character study. Cliches abound here; we learn nothing of the lawyer's history or personality. He's simply a type -- just as the thieving industrialist is. The title of the film works on two levels; not only is the forest clear cut, so is everything else here, the characters, the value systems, the issues. But that makes the story easier to follow. We know whom to root for, the Indians and the trees.

The cinematography is, as advertised, spectacular, but so are the details of the set decoration, especially in the wise old man's shack on the reservation. He's got pipes but no running water, despite the "improvements" the government promised when it appropriated his land and settled him on the res.

I was privileged to watch this movie with a two-spirited Apache who draws great strength from this film. On the day I wrote this, "Clearcut" was Amazon's #6 bestseller in a town in the Canadian Northwest; that says something important. If the Whites don't always get it, the Natives seem to. Maybe the most important message here is that Graham Greene's become a bona fide star in the world's most glamourous medium, decades after Hollywood told us the Indians were all justly annihilated. I guess the Trickster bites Hollywood, too.++

With the aid of the powerful and surprisingly violent presence of Graham Greene as an enraged Native American, Bugajski almost makes a great movie . . . but poor performances by the supporting cast and stilted dialog relegate this film to cult movie status. This is unfortunate because the film does a wonderful job of looking into the resentment and agitation that many Canadian Native Americans experience at the hands of the Canadian Government, and it gives a fair turn to legitimate concerns we all share over the continued exploitation of our environmental resources. Peter McGuire(Ron Lea) is the white city lawyer who becomes frustrated and angered by his failure to protect his clients' reservation lands from a greedy lumber baron. Lea turns in a capable performance, but Greene as Peter McGuire's violent alter-ego, Arthur, is the real treat in this film. We first see Arthur lurking about as McGuire witnesses the results of his failures and the bulldozers roll over tribal lands. During a sweat lodge purification ceremony, McGuire's rage builds as he further appreciates the culture that is being threatened by his own greedy people, and the anger gives birth to his angry, violent, and sometimes funny alter-ego, Arthur (Greene). With time, McGuire's revenge-inspired thoughts become action and Arthur begins to assert his own will over the normally mild-mannered lawyer until McGuire is literally a prisoner of his own rage, and must "kill" it in order to survive. Bugajski succeeds in allowing the viewer to watch McGuire's impotent rage grow, but many viewers fail to see Arthur as a surrogate for the sense of injustice McGuire feels, and so the film and Greene's character take on a decidely negative cast. Seeing the two characters as opposing sides of the same coin makes the film easier and more meaningful to watch. The real message in the film is that anger is never a soulution, and Arthur takes McGuire to the brink of murder until he learns this difficult lesson. Despite its flaws, the film is a useful tool for investigating Native American/white relations, and is a poignant reminder that so many of our diverse Native cultures have so much to teach us.

As an Alaska Native, I have heard all my life about the horrible atrocities that had been committed against American tribes and a pristine land when the "Manifest Destiny" was in full swing. The anglo saxon/european settlers destroyed everything in their path in the name of progress, and their decendants are still destroying the environment today. First, it was the Native Americans/Canadians and the land, and now the forests. In this movie, Mother Earth was symbolically asking the businessman, "How would you like it if I ravaged your body?" while Graham Green represented the Native peoples in exacting cruel punishment on a symbolic cynical, greedy, self-serving businessman. I give Graham Green five stars for having the courage to make such an important movie.

With yet another greed-motivated rape of Native land and culture by white industrialists, this is a tale of frustration, anger, and revenge that is both shattering to watch and mystical as well. This is a showcase for the talents of Graham Greene as Arthur, a Native who takes revenge on the head of a logging company which is cutting down trees on Native land. There are a few scenes of devastating violence not for the faint-hearted but the rage and frustration of Native peoples in trying to preserve their land and culture in the white-dominated world is shown with crystal clarity. The true identity of Arthur remains a mystery, and as I watched this riveting film several times I realized that his presence can be interpreted in different ways..is he just an angry Native man, or was he conjured up by the anger of his people and of the white lawyer who tried to protect them? Either way, this is a film with a powerful statement to make.

A native american indian, upset over the clearcutting of indian land takes the lumber mill owner, and a do-gooder lawyer on a forced and violent (as deemed neccessary) journey so they can find a deep significance to their respective actions as incarnations of spirit. They seem to be quite thick headed about it, but in the end, they finally understand that this is and should be a life or death struggle to maintain the purity and sanctity of the land on our Mother the Earth, as Arthur, the character portrayed passionately by Graham Green, takes it to be.

This film is a shattering experience, and must be seen more than once to appreciate the mystical overtones within it. Graham Greene is fantastic as Arthur, a Native man who has had enough of white greed destroying his peoples' land and who decides to make someone pay. The true identity of Arthur and his origins become clearer after the second viewing. To me he was a deeply spiritual avenging spirit called up by the anger of the white lawyer who tried to defend the Natives against the logging industry. Be warned that there are a few scenes of graphic violence not meant for the faint-hearted, but this film is a must-see for anyone who is outraged at the rape and plundering of the earth by white industry, whether it be in Canada or the States or the equatorial rainforests. It is also an amazing and powerful performance by Graham Greene, who manages to convey both outrage and fierce determination while keeping an ironic sense of humor throughout. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is either an environmentalist or a Graham Greene fan..or both!

Each Time I see this movie I think that is how it should be done as people just dont want to listen, corporate profits and the loss of Our Sacred areas is a very important matter. What will be left for Our children....

Clearcut is an intense movie, and does have a point, although many don't seem to get it. Another reviewer is right- it's not all "feel-good" or New Agey. It has a very strong message.

Lawyer: "Violence never changed anything"

Arthur: "Now, just who are you lying to?"

I suspect this movie disturbed a lot of people, namely greedy executives. They probably don't want anyone getting ideas, like kidnapping them, showing them what they are really doing, and holding them accountable. Some will really relish this confrontation regardless of the violent method Arthur uses to open the eyes of the lawyer, the executive and several others.

Arthur seems to be a flesh-and-blood manifestation of the land itself, who appears first in the form of a little girl. After he feels he has gotten through to the lawyer at the end of a long fight that ends up in a lake, Arthur grins and steps back into the water, allowing himslef to sink down to the bottom. This imagery mirrors the beginning of the film, when the camera rises from the depths of the same lake.

Arthur detaches from the combat when he is certain that the lawyer has lived a little bit of the reality that the land is going through as a result of the greedy executive type. He believes that he has fueled he lawyer enough that he will not compromise and take things sitting down anymore.

This is a thought-provoking, moving film that is definitely worth seeing for its symbolism that cuts to the core of life on Earth today- what's really happening.

Graham Greene pulled off an excellent performance as Arthur in what must be his most extreme role to date. This needs to be available on DVD!