Cutter's Way (originally titled Cutter and Bone) is a 1981 American neo noir thriller directed by Ivan Passer. The film stars Jeff Bridges, John Heard, and Lisa Eichhorn. The screenplay was adapted from the 1976 novel Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg.
Plot
One rainy night in Santa Barbara, California, Richard Bone's car breaks down on a side road. He sees a large car draw up a little way behind him. A man throws something into a garbage can. At first, Bone thinks nothing of it and proceeds to meet his friend, Vietnam veteran Alex Cutter. The following day, a young girl who has been brutally murdered is found in the garbage can, and Bone becomes a suspect.
When Bone sees who he thinks is the same man in the Santa Barbara "Founder's Day Parade"local tycoon J.J. CordCutter begins to take an interest in the case. His interest soon becomes a conspiracy theory that develops into an investigation with his skeptical friend and the dead girl's sister, along for the ride. After Cutter attempts to blackmail Cord as a way of making Cord incriminate himself, Cutter's house mysteriously burns down with his wife, Mo, inside.
Convinced that Cord had been trying to silence Bone, Cutter begins researching Cord. He steals an invitation to a party at Cord's house and gets Bone to drive him. When Cutter tells Bone he plans to kill Cord, Bone attempts to leave the party but is blocked by other parked cars and instead goes after Cutter to convince him not to kill Cord. After being chased by security, Bone winds up in Cord's office. After a brief conversation in which Cord assumes that Cutter's war experience has made him paranoid, Cutter suddenly crashes through the window after stealing one of Cord's horses. As Cutter is dying from injuries from the broken glass, Bone asserts that Cord killed the girl. Cord states "What if it were?" Bone steadies Cutter's gun in Cutter's hand and fires the pistol as the film cuts to black.
Cast
Jeff Bridges as Richard Bone
John Heard as Alex Cutter
Lisa Eichhorn as Maureen "Mo" Cutter
Stephen Elliott as J.J. Cord
Arthur Rosenberg as George Swanson
Nina van Pallandt as Woman In The Hotel
Ann Dusenberry as Valerie Duran
Chris Noth as Guard (uncredited)
Production history
A friend of Jeffrey Alan Fiskin had Fiskin send a screenplay to Paul Gurian, a would-be film producer. Gurian eventually informed Fiskin that he had bought the rights to the novel Cutter and Bone, and wanted to meet with Fiskin in Los Angeles. Fiskin, who had little money, stole a copy of the book to read. In a 1981 interview, he said of the novel "The set-up's great, the characters are fine. But the last half of the book is an instant replay of Easy Rider. You cannot make a film out of this." Gurian agreed and hired Fiskin to write the screenplay. Gurian arranged for the studio EMI to back the film financially, with Robert Mulligan to direct and Dustin Hoffman to play Alex Cutter. However, a scheduling conflict forced Hoffman to leave the project. This prompted Mulligan to leave as well, and EMI to pull its money. Gurian took the film to United Artists, where the studio's vice president, David Field, became interested in backing it.
Gurian gave Fiskin a list of directors; Ivan Passer's name was the only one the screenwriter did not recognize. Fiskin and United Artists executives screened Passer's Intimate Lighting and agreed he was the man to direct Cutter and Bone. Passer was involved with another film, but after reading Fiskin's script, chose to do Cutter and Bone instead .
The initial budget was $3.3 million, but Field learned that United Artists would produce the movie only if the budget was $3 million and a star joined the cast. The studio liked Jeff Bridges' work in the dailies for Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate and insisted on him for Cutter and Bone. Passer cast John Heard after seeing him in a Joseph Papp Shakespeare in the Park production of Othello. The studio wanted a star, but the director insisted on Heard. Lisa Eichhorn was cast as Mo after she auditioned with Bridges.