The Haunted Characters of Cutter's Way (1981)

(Some EXPLICIT language)

The opening of Cutter’s Way (1981) captures the simple beauty of movement with a dancer in a white dress suggesting a joyous moment of celebration. Shot in slow motion black-and-white, accompanied by the languid, melancholy sounds of zither and glass harmonica, the scene resembles the haziness of a tattered postcard come to life. A closer look reveals more recognizable images in the form of a parade, banners, other dancers, and American flags. We now feel slightly more comfortable as the images approach modernity with people dancing on a paved street in the middle of a turn lane. A man wearing black hastily passes across the screen, wishing to make his interruption as brief as possible. Soon others cross the path of the dancers as they advance, heedless of their beauty, and we realize the scene has changed from black-and-white to color. Yet the camera focuses on the woman in white as if the purity of this character is not only important but crucial because soon she will be gone.