Clay Pigeons (1998)

Clay (as in the title) is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife. Feeling guilty, Clay now ... See full summary »

Director:

David Dobkin

Writer:

Matthew L. Healy

Stars:

Joaquin Phoenix, Gregory Sporleder, Vince Vaughn

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joaquin Phoenix	...	Clay Bidwell
Gregory Sporleder	...	Earl
Georgina Cates	...	Amanda
Scott Wilson	...	Sheriff Dan Mooney
Vince Vieluf	...	Deputy Barney
Wayne Brennan	...	Minister
Joseph D. Reitman	...	Glen
Vince Vaughn	...	Lester Long
Nicole Arlyn	...	Gloria Collins (as Nikki Arlyn)
Jeff Olson	...	Mark
Monica Moench	...	Kimberly
Kevin Rahm	...	Bystander at Amanda's
Jesse Bennett	...	Dr. Jaffe
Phil Morris	...	Agent Reynard
Janeane Garofalo	...	Agent Dale Shelby

Storyline

Clay (as in the title) is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with their sexual affairs. Into this comes a serial killer who befriends Clay, even to murdering the nagging widow for him... but certainly not at Clay's request. But that doesn't matter for the police, as well as for a savvy female FBI agent who sees Clay as their prime suspect. Yet Clay doesn't tell them of his 'friend' who admits to him of his serial killings, primarily because Clay sees himself as somewhat of an accomplice, in that he seems to have introduced to the killer each young woman that is killed... in fact, the sheriff comments that he wishes Clay would quit finding the murdered victims, which he always seems to do. But at last Clay is able to turn from being the pigeon... to giving the film its very unpredictable conclusion.

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Plot Keywords:

widow | fbi | serial killer | small town | nude woman murdered | 

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Taglines:

Some killers are strange, some are deranged, and some are just plain psycho.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong scenes of sexuality, language and violence

Details

Country:

Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 September 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

In Too Deep

Filming Locations:

Brigham City, Utah, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$167,364 (USA) (25 September 1998)

Gross:

$1,789,892 (USA) (13 November 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fade In Films, IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. Produktions KG, Intermedia Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Black and White (one scene)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was released in Germany under the title "Lebende Ziele", which translates to "Living Purposes." It can also be translated as "Living Targets". Purposes is not often translated as "Ziele". That use of "Ziel" would be more a goal, not a purpose, and that makes not much sense for this movie. Then again German translations often miss any kind of double meanings in original movie names.

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Goofs

The sheriff's badge has 6 points, but his SUV has a 7 point star on the door.

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Quotes

Sheriff Mooney: Clay, do me a favor; don't find anymore dead bodies?
Clay: Okay.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the closing credits Lester Long says "You gotta good sense of humor, I like that" and does his bizarre laugh.

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Connections

References True Romance (1993)

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Soundtracks

"Wanted"
Written by Roger Clyne, Paul Nappah, Brian Bluh and Arthur Edwards
Performed by The Refreshments
Courtesy of Mercury Records

User Reviews

Most Under-rated movie ever?...

Ok I was pretty much on a real bad run with my films after watching big let downs like Underworld, Bad Boys 2, Out Of time etc etc... so when Clay Pigeons came along, I really wasn't expecting much, especially as I hadn't heard anything about it before. So after watching it, I have to say this is without a shadow of a doubt one of the MOST , or possibly the BIGGEST under-rated movie ever!. Honestly I really can't think of any negative to say about it at all, the plot was gripping, funny, intense & the acting...Oooh the acting was OUTSTANDING! I mean Vince Vaughan was brilliant in his role of Lester Long, his character will have to go down as probably the funniest, creepiest & craziest bad guy ever! he definatly should have got an oscar for this performance!. Joaquin Phoenix played his part brilliantly also, this too I think is his best performance ive seen ( And i thought he was superb in Gladiator) The movie does have everything, it's run-time is 104mins, and geez they have managed to fit alot of story in that space of time, it's so fast paced, you can't take your eyes off it! Sadly though there is no region 2 dvd out for it yet, so i had to buy it region 1 which I try not too do, but for a movie of this quality it's worth it. Im sure there's loads out there that have't seen this, but I strongly suggest you do, Its 10x better than most of this garbage that Hollywood are throwing at us right now!

9/10