Cutter's Way (1981) on Netflix
Richard Bone's car dies, and he half-sees a man dump something in a garbage can. When a girl is found murdered there, his friend Alex Cutter, a Vietnam veteran, takes an interest.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb6.8/109,113 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Drifter Richard Bone lives with his friends Alex and Mo Cutter in Santa Barbara and sells boats for George Swanson. Alex came back from Vietnam without an eye, an arm and a leg, and drinks. One rainy night Bone's car fails, and he half-sees a man drop something into a garbage can. The next day seventeen-year-old Vicky Duran is found dead there, and Bone is questioned as a suspect. At the Old Spanish Days parade he spots oil tycoon J.J. Cord and is certain Cord is the man. Cutter builds the case into a conspiracy theory, brings in Vicky's sister, Valerie Duran, and plans to expose Cord, with a reluctant Bone as the front man.
Cast
- Geraldine Baronas Susie Swanson
- George Plancoas Toyota Cop
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cutter's Way (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was first set up at EMI with Robert Mulligan directing and Dustin Hoffman as Alex Cutter; a scheduling conflict forced Hoffman out, Mulligan left too, and EMI pulled its money.
- Director Ivan Passer and cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth tried to remove the color blue from the film, giving it a muted, earthy palette one writer called an homage to black-and-white cinematography.
- United Artists agreed to make the film only if the budget fell from $3.3 million to $3 million and a star joined the cast; the studio insisted on Jeff Bridges after liking his dailies for Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate.
- Passer cast John Heard as Alex Cutter after seeing him in a Joseph Papp Shakespeare in the Park production of Othello, over the studio's desire for a star.
