The Shooting (1966)

A mysterious woman persuades two cowboys to help her in a revenge scheme.

Director:

Monte Hellman

Writer:

Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce)

Stars:

Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, Will Hutchins

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Will Hutchins	...	Coley
Millie Perkins	...	Woman
Jack Nicholson	...	Billy Spear
Warren Oates	...	Willett Gashade
Charles Eastman	...	Bearded Man
Guy El Tsosie	...	Indian
Brandon Carroll	...	Sheriff
B.J. Merholz	...	Leland Drum
Wally Moon	...	Deputy
William Mackleprang	...	Cross Tree Townsman
James Campbell	...	Cross Tree Townsman

Storyline

An ex- bounty hunter turned miner returns to his mine dig to find one of his partners dead, how brother has run away and the remaining partner is slightly simple and unclear as to what happened. warren is enlisted by a mysterious women to take her across the desert. The woman is strange and keeps changing her story about what she wants and why. On the journey they pick up a gunslinger the woman has hired. The party ends up tracking a rider who is ahead of them. Warren figures out that the trip is really to track down the rider. It's along hot trip across the desert with a purposeful woman,a homicidal gunslinger, the former bounty hunter and his simple sidekick and the unknown quarry.

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Plot Keywords:

murdered with a gun | murderer | murder victim | acid western | partner | 

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Taglines:

Suspensful desert pursuit in the 'High Noon' tradition.

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 June 1968 (France)

Also Known As:

The Epitaph

Filming Locations:

Kanab, Utah, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Proteus Films,Santa Clara Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Mono (Producers Sound Service)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ten pages were eliminated from the script right before the filming of this movie.

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Goofs

During the fight between Willett Gashade and Billy Spear a hat on the ground behind them alternates between being upside down and right side up from shot to shot.

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Quotes

Billy Spear: [Repeated line] You talkin' to me?

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Connections

Featured in Warren Oates: Across the Border (1993)

User Reviews

Maddeningly Evasive

Across a desert, two men and a mysterious woman make a mysterious journey. I'm not sure why. Explanations in this film are hard to come by. And the dialogue doesn't help. In one sequence one of the men inquires about a man whom the travelers come across just sitting on the ground in the desert: "Who is he?" Response: "Ask her". "You know him?" No response. "What does she mean to you?" Response: "She likes me". "You know anything about her?" Response: "Ask her".

I don't recall a film wherein the dialogue was so ... evasive. It's not like the film contains some profound message that requires great insight to dig up. Rather, the story comes across as simply having no point. The two men and the woman have no real back-story. Characters are not well developed. From the film's start to its finish, I kept wondering: who are these people, what are their motivations, what do they hope to accomplish? I never arrived at a satisfactory answer to any of these questions.

If the story is pointless, the desert scenery is hauntingly beautiful, especially toward the end. And the film's cinematography does a nice job of showing visual perspective, with tiny human figures set against huge, barren mountains.

The film's acting is acceptable, although Will Hutchins does a really fine job in his performance. Millie Perkins is miscast. With her little girl face, she is totally not convincing as a hardened female gunslinger.

"The Shooting" is a slow moving, low-key Western with some great visuals and a fine performance by Will Hutchins. But the story is pointless. It's the cinematic equivalent of a book wherein every other page is missing.