BIt was a bestseller in the squalid settlements of the Northwestern United States in the mid-nineteenth century. In fact, the beaver skin trade here is far from civilization, and people are not used to food. When the well-trained baker Otis Figowitz showed up with his “oil cake”, even the rude guy would scramble to pay a premium for a few bites of candy.
Baked goods have a secret: they contain milk. And there is only one cow in the whole territory. It belongs to the most important person in the area and is called the chief factor. He brought precious animals from San Francisco to the place where the story has not yet begun: “History has not yet arrived.” This sentence in Kelly Reichart’s film “The First Cow” clearly shows the importance of independence-the director tells The story of early human society in the United States. Last summer, when the entire West seemed to be threatened by American fires, Reichart, who lived in New York and Oregon, was like an American filmmaker at the time. Portland is also one of the cities that showed a particularly active counterculture in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and subsequent anti-racism protests. Although Reichardt was born in Florida, he has always had a close relationship with this culture. One of the liaison officers required for these relationships is the writer Jon Raymond, who was born in Lake Grove, Oregon. For Reichart’s career as one of America’s most important independent filmmakers, his importance cannot be overestimated.
“The First Cow” is adapted from his most ambitious novel to date, “Half Life”, and the movie only occupies one episode. For Raymond, two eras and two places are intertwined: the early 19th century and the late 20th century; the western United States and China. This novel is a large-scale parallel montage that examines the trade relations of the pioneering era and the alternative environment after 1968. On the other hand, Reichardt focused on an episode and a conflict: Cookie and his partner King-Lu (early Chinese American) secretly milk the “first cow” every night, so they stole the milk. And their original accumulation is constantly threatened by discovery. They want to go to San Francisco with the money they earned, but for the time being they want to use a little illegal business model. This brings a suspense, and then operates in an interesting way-a “noble” tea party.
Motivational relationship
If you look back at Lethart’s previous career from “The First Cow”, you will see obvious similarities or similarities in motivation in the first film (after the early “Grass River”, Occupying a special position in 1994): “Old Joy” (in 2006, musician Will Oldham played one of the protagonists) tells the story of two men walking from Portland to a mineral spring in the Oregon forest. In fact, not much has happened, but from conversations and radio broadcasts in a good location while driving, a kind of micro-history of the American left can be recognized. Their hopes usually include ties to the pre-colonial, non-economical United States. In this regard, mineral springs are a clear symbol. Oregon is special in this regard, because the state is always too far from the west to play an important role in the country’s Western mythology. The 33rd state is still undeveloped territory to some extent. Ideological allegations of certain concepts of freedom related to the Oregon Nature Reserve became apparent in 2016, when right-wing extremists occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. They withdrew their “liberation” ambitions from the Washington government.
