#ron lea

Saw IV

“Someone has to pay.”  But who, and in what form?  If we’re talking about reality in this sort of affair, those who foot the bill are often First Nations peoples, their land footing the bill as mining and logging companies pillage with abandon.  But in his anger, lawyer Peter Maguire wishes for something bloodier.  Perhaps it’s turn of phrase or frustration, but newcomer Arthur is all too willing to partake in the lawyer’s wish to exact his pound of flesh from the owner of the mill.  Potentially Wisakedjak, a chaotic trickster entity, he is wholly freed from what Peter would consider to be his moral compass.  He brings the two White men through a forested hell, pressing their endurance and choices to the limits.

In many ways, Clearcut shares parallels with Robin Hardy’s Wicker Man.  Arriving at the beginning in the same fashion by seaplane, Maguire is an ineffectual neoliberal lawyer rather than a devout Catholic policeman.  He goes through a discovery process of local customs, enduring a fiery baptism of his ordeals and expressing moral outrage at what he sees.  Clearcut approaches its central issue with more shades of grey than Wicker Man, forcing the viewer to consider moral ambiguity in fighting for large-scale issues such as environmentalism.  Maguire begins as an awkward ally figure, stumbling along the way, but holding what he believes is a campaign for a noble cause.  Yet he is still part of the legal establishment.  As the film goes on, his character becomes darker, from condescending savior to willfully silent bystander.  His lack of action does nothing but further a cycle of suffering.  This film can be contextualized by something like the Oka Crisis, but in more contemporary reading bears in mind the scope of atrocities committed at residence schools finally being brought to light and acknowledged after so many years, which makes it all the more chilling.

Sweat lodge sequences form the majority of the most performative horror in the film, linking the experience to native customs.  Maguire’s first ritual follows the orthodox practices, but leads to a nightmare as he prays with rage and anger.  Arthur/Wisakedjak enacts a dark parallel of this at the characters’ lowest point, substituting heated stones and steam for toxic smoke and libations with the pipe for severing his fingers and cutting his flesh.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says ‘appeal’.

The road is mentioned.

Someone tumbles down a hill.

The beeper goes off.

BIG DRINK

The suitcase appears onscreen.

A hallucination sequence begins.

Family History Mysteries: Buried Past (2023, Jonathan Wright)

Family History Mystery #1

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