Cutter's Way (1981)

 Out of the Past....comes Cutter's Way (1981). Thought about it for a while...

Saw this when I bought the DVD 20 years back or so...through the grapevine it came through the Coen bros' Big Lebowski, as it's one of the influences for the film.

Revisited now...

As we stand today probably the best known Ivan Passer film (my tops go to Born to Win -1971, best ever George Segal performance, as in Cutter, John Heard as Alex Cutter is his career best and a unique performance)

Based on the 1976 novel "Cutter and Bone" by Newton Thornburg. Title was changed in order to avoid a confusion on a film comey about two surgeons (!!!)

Passer wasn't the 1st choice to direct as neither Bridges and Heard were to act in it. But the Gods of Cinema found a way...

Uncanny& unsetting music by Jack Nitzsche, in the style of the one he did for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, featuring glass harmonica and zither. 

“The film moves with an easy uncoerced swing: moment by moment, scene by scene, we are unsure what to think or where we are going. It is a fascinating, organically grown drama.”
 – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“[Heard] is one of America's great lost actors.”
 – Antonia Quirke, The Financial Times