First Cow is a perfect example of my description of the type of movie I prefer: Simple plot. Complex characters. Indeed, it is the simplest of simple plots: Two guys steal milk to make biscuits. The arc of the plot recalls the saga of Icarus who soared high into the sky, only to have his wings melt, then plummet to his death. Two friends, Cookie and King-Liu, fly high (make money) with their biscuit business, but eventually plummet to their demise, once their nightly milk theft is discovered.
The plot is a "slow burn," a term used in Hollywood to describe a story which takes its own sweet time getting to where it eventually wants to go. Cookie meets King-Liu on P8 (M15 in the movie) and spots the cow on P15 (M24), so that seems to be moving the story along at a good pace. Then the plot slows to explore the emerging friendship between the two lead characters and it's not until P33-35 (M52-54) when the guys first steal the cow's milk and quite literally halfway through both the script and movie that the first bring biscuits to market.
The pace picks up when Chief Factor enters the scene, his first taste of one of Cookie's biscuits (P41/M68). In that scene, it is clear that King-Liu is nervous... a portent of things to come.
The tension rises when Chief Factor hires Cookie to make clafoutis for an honored guest. This will put Cookie and King-Liu directly in enemy territory - in the sense that Chief Factor is the owner of the cow and is revealed to have a rather emphatic embrace of punishment as a pedagogical tool when dealing with underlings.
For me, the most gut-wrenching part of the story occurs at P52 (86) when our guys debate the risk involved in this clafoutis venture. I found myself yelling inside, "Go! Leave! Head to San Francisco! Take the money and run!"
In this scene - and in Reichardt's quiet way - we see the insidious influence of greed: Just one more time, one more opportunity to make some money.
We know this will not turn out well. Even if the story didn't begin with the discovery of the two skeletons, we know in our guts this is going to go badly.
And it does. The entire third act is in effect a chase sequence. Granted, Cookie spends much of the time laid out with a significant head injury, but the cross-cuts to King-Liu and people out hunting for the thieves keeps upping the tension.
Then... the ending. We know from the opening, the two guys die together, holding hands. But how? Cookie may well have died from natural causes due to his head injuries. But why did King-Liu die? Since they are followed by Thomas, who bears a grudge due to not getting a biscuit one time, the last in line and just missing out on the tasty treat, and Thomas has a rifle, one assumption is that he tracked the guys to the spot where they are resting, shot and robbed them. But Reichardt being Reichardt, she cuts away BEFORE their deaths.
If I were to guess, I think the director cut before their deaths because of that final image: Cookie and King-Liu side-by-side, holding hands, the bag of money hidden from view, King-Liu using it as a pillow. The final image is of two friends... together.
And so we are reminded of another major theme in the story to accompany greed: Friendship. More on that when we take on the story's themes.
