First Cow
Directed by: Kelly Reichardt
Written by: Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt - Based on the novel "The Half-Life" by Jonathan Raymond
Starring: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Ewen Bremner, Scott Shepherd, Gary Farmer, Lily Gladstone, Alia Shawkat
Drama - 121 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 Mar 2020
Written by: Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt - Based on the novel "The Half-Life" by Jonathan Raymond
Starring: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Ewen Bremner, Scott Shepherd, Gary Farmer, Lily Gladstone, Alia Shawkat
Drama - 121 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 Mar 2020
Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow reflects the melting pot Oregon Country was in the early 1800s. British and French frontiersmen made up the majority of the colonizers attempting to establish dominion over the wild, the natives, and especially the beaver populations whose fur was urgently needed back in Paris for the latest fashions. But there were also Russians, Chinese, and Scots around to help spur the American Dream mythology. Reichardt removes the rose-tinted glasses of the Dream you learned about in elementary school, the belief anyone with an idea and elbow grease can launch an enterprise and watch it bear fruit. Reichardt says even back in 1820, in the most exotic of locales of the future United States, there were already power brokers with their thumbs on the capital…and everyone else cloying for scraps.
There are early resemblances to Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant with trapping parties raping nature, but instead of veering toward man’s more violent tendencies, First Cow opts for friendship. Picture the opposite of the Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett stereotypes and you may come close to understanding Cookie Figowitz (John Magaro, Not Fade Away). Cookie tags along on various westward treks until he winds up unemployed in one of the west’s newest fort towns. The friendship First Cow explores is between Cookie and King Lu (Orion Lee). This unlikely duo, consisting of one of the west’s more sensitive souls and a Chinese entrepreneur on the lookout for angles to game an unfair system, are happy to spend time together and discuss life’s mysteries, but the friendship also has it uses.
There are early resemblances to Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant with trapping parties raping nature, but instead of veering toward man’s more violent tendencies, First Cow opts for friendship. Picture the opposite of the Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett stereotypes and you may come close to understanding Cookie Figowitz (John Magaro, Not Fade Away). Cookie tags along on various westward treks until he winds up unemployed in one of the west’s newest fort towns. The friendship First Cow explores is between Cookie and King Lu (Orion Lee). This unlikely duo, consisting of one of the west’s more sensitive souls and a Chinese entrepreneur on the lookout for angles to game an unfair system, are happy to spend time together and discuss life’s mysteries, but the friendship also has it uses.
King Lu is Chinese; therefore, operates from a societal level beneath even Cookie, a being overtly out of his element. Yet, King Lu has vision. He maintains a knack for escaping dangerous situations, but knows there is money to be made in this land, even for the overlooked, or as he would prefer, the underestimated. Talking about the green, but habitually moist Oregon climate along the Columbia River, King Lu declares, “History isn’t here yet.” Boston and Philadelphia were already Old World by this time, but Oregon is new. Cookie and King Lu believe they have a way to earn money along the young country’s newest trade highway; they will exploit the trappers’ yearnings for even the most basic comforts from back East.
The local power center, acting as a sort of agent for commerce, legislator, judiciary, and social bellwether is Chief Factor (Toby Jones, Captain America: The First Avenger). Factor imports the region's first cow in what must have been a logistical feat just shy of Fitzcarraldo's steamboat over a mountain maneuver. Our intrepid duo creep onto Factor’s land at night, milk the cow, and sell “oily cakes” to homesick hunters. While this sounds like the world’s most low stakes heist film, we have the gut feeling Factor would not take kindly to scoundrels milking what must have set him back plenty in shipping costs. The cow is also a status symbol. Cows may be a meager man’s game back East, but if you have the only one in a strange land, you are a man to be envied. There are also morals to consider, thou shalt not covet thine neighbor's cow.
Based on the novel “The Half-Life” by Jonathan Raymond, who adapted the script with Reichardt, the film begins in the contemporary world. In typical Reichardt fashion, there is a long take where we stare at a barge taking its time to mosey along the Columbia. This is industry in nature. Then she abruptly shifts to the time when capitalism first took root in the area - when the first industrialists greedily imagined what they could do to this unspoiled land. Reichardt uses a 4:3 aspect ratio, which looks like a square up on the movie screen, a different look than the widescreen ratios audiences are comfortable with. This is an old-fashioned touch and “nice for intimate storytelling,” she says. Most of the film are two men integrating with the surrounding landscape, so the ratio is an appropriate touch.
Tapping a local expert, Reichardt asked Janet Weiss, the drummer for indie rock band Sleater-Kinney, to act as location scout. If you’re from the northwest, you know Sleater-Kinney is firmly associated with Olympia, Washington, but Weiss also worked on the show Portlandia. The locations she scouted for the film emit a convincing authenticity. The trees tower, the underbrush is thick, and the fort is 100% mud. Reichardt opines the greatest challenge in filming in these off the beaten path locales was actually the sound design - “there was always a plane overhead.” Industry in nature indeed. Reichardt is an idol in the world of independent film and First Cow will earn her even more acolytes who relish her more sedate and contemplative filmmaking style. These are not codewords for still and slow. Even though the cast is small, is dominated by the landscape, and the plot revolves around what must be one confused bovine, First Cow weaves a compelling tale and will make you wonder at mankind’s transformation of nature in a more somber manner.
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