Roadside Picnic Presents Prime Cut

From the stomach churning opening sequence in which a mobster is disposed of in a meat factory to the hyper-real, bullet-strewn, sunflower field climax, Prime Cut announces itself like no other gangster film.

Lee Marvin plays Nick Devlin, a Chicago mob enforcer sent to Kansas to collect a debt from “Mary Ann” (Gene Hackman), an uncompromising hood with a profitable sideline in prostitution.

Played out more like a garish comic book than a brooding noir, the film packs together a startling array of idiosyncratic caricatures; from ‘Weenie’ (Gregory Walcott) the grotesque thug, Clarabelle (Angel Tompkins), Mary Ann's beautiful, calculating femme fatale wife through to Marvin’s relentless, sub machine welding gentleman hero.

Also notable is Sissy Spacek’s acting debut as the young prostitute, Poppy, saved by Devlin from the ‘Cattle Auction’ of young girls, all ‘bred’ for purpose at a local orphanage. Poppy hardly leaves Devlin’s side for most of the film, emphasizing a strong sense of chauvinism at the story’s core. Although Prime Cut doesn’t concern itself too much with social commentary, this is simply a brutal tale told at breakneck speed.

Elsewhere an almost fantastical battle between urban and rural ideals is raging, nowhere more starkly than in the brilliantly surreal chase sequence, shot mostly from the air, in which Devlin and Poppy are chased through a wheat field by a colossal combine harvester.

Still disturbing in parts, even by today’s standard, Prime Cut is unusual, both in structure and content, and a truly unique piece of filmmaking that hits hard and cuts deep.