We designate Clearcut as *AMOUR*: Films Abandoned, Misunderstood, Overlooked, Underestimated, Revisited
A morally complex tale of ownership, violence, environmentalism, and the failings of pacifism, Clearcut is Ryszard Bugajski’s Canadian folk horror movie, starring Oscar nominee Graham Greene.
I saw Clearcut at the 1991 Toronto Film Fest, after which it played in Canada, and got a very limited release in the U.S. a year later, in 1992, to unfairly indifferent response.
Premise
Greene plays Arthur, an angry Indigenous activist fed up with the white man’s destruction of Indian land.
The tale follows a white lawyer in an unnamed Canadian province who finds his values shaken when he meets the Indigenous activist Arthur, who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company clearcutting on native land.
A young girl named Polly guides Maguire to a scene of police brutalizing protesters as the trees are torn down. An elder member of the Nation and Maguire’s personal contact, Wilf Redwing (Westerman), refuses the accept the decision. Maguire repeatedly states his intention to appeal the court’s decision, though doubting the chances of success.
The ceremony turns dark as Maguire has haunting visions of cave paintings, fallen trees, and blood.
Wilf introduces the attorney to Arthur, the militant Indigenous activist, who wears a distinctive star-shaped pendant. Later that night, Arthur recruits Maguire to kidnap the logging company’s plant manager, Bud (Hogan). The four then take off through the woods, with Arthur claiming that he will “instruct” them in “listening to Mother Earth.”
As they travel deeper into the wilderness, Arthur’s behavior grows erratic and violent. Both Bud and Arthur chastise Maguire for not picking a side as he wavers between loyalty to the natives and faith in white colonialism. Maguire has made his living off a series of lost cause legal battles; even in his attempts to help, he exploits and profits. The next morning, Arthur skins and cauterizes Bud’s leg. Two Mounties, on a manhunt for the kidnapped white men, stumble upon the camp, and Arthur kills them both.
In the ensuing fight, after the sweat ceremony, Maguire stabs Arthur with his own knife. He grabs Arthur’s nearby gun and attempts to shoot him, only to realize that the gun is out of ammo.
In the end, the men return to “civilization” and are detained by police, while nearby, Polly, the same girl that had guided Maguire, wears Arthur’s pendant.
With palpable tension and brutal bloodshed, Clearcut is just as relevant today as it was in 1991. The fight over land, and who can live on it, is determined by colonizers who, for the right price are willing to separate humanity’s connection to Earth.
Filmed in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and based on the 1987 novel “A Dream Like Mine,” written by M. T. Kelly, it deals with such complex and contriversial issues as the land rights of indigenous peoples, pacifism, colonialism, and environmentalism.
Greene, known for his prolific work, including the critically acclaimed Oscar nominated role in the 1990 Western Dances w\With Wolves, considers Clearcut to be his favorite movie.
By forcing the viewer to consider the arguments of the characters alongside their actions, the director said he was hoping to show the complexity of issues where good and evil are not so easily defined.
A compelling nightmare odyssey, with impressive intensity, Clearcut might have failed to make a lasting impact due to its proximity to the Oka Crisis, a land dispute between First Nations and the town of Oka, which resulted in violent clashes between Indigenous protesters and the Quebec police. The brutal portrayal of land claim disputes, along with extreme violence targeted towards police and business owners no doubt contributed to its lack of success.
Clearcut remains important to the portrayal of indigenous peoples in popular culture. The movie offers a sympathetic portrayal of modern indigenous peoples, in which native actors act out their colonially-induced angst. For many, Arthur is seen as a symbolic representation of the response to colonial attitudes of racism and inequity.
Cast
Graham Greene as Arthur
Ron Lea as Peter Maguire
Michael Hogan as Bud Rickets
Floyd Red Crow Westerman as Wilf
Rebecca Jenkins as Louise
Tia Smith as Polly
Tom Jackson as Tom Starblanket
Michael J. Reynolds as Hunter
David A. Sutton as Pilot
Raoul Trujillo as Eugene
