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 | f rated | 

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Taglines:

Jack Nicholson - Violent, Sadistic, Merciless.

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Genres:

Western

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Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #734.

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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

Referenced in Vintage Video: Forbidden Zone (2020)

User Reviews

Perkins has got to go

One of Hellman's 'existential' genre flicks from the 60s-70s cusp. Warren Oates and his skittish cohort Will Hutchins are hired by Millie Perkins (the star of "The Diary of Anne Frank") to help her navigate the desert to the next urban centre, or so she says. Soon she is joined by sharpshooter Jack Nicholson, who keeps the boys in line until the surprise ending. There are a lot of neat twists on western convention here - the woman is urbane and sickly, Hutchins is completely incompetent, and as they battle each other everyone is battling the desert as it grinds em down. Unfortunately, several rock solid performances are arrayed around the stilted and extremely irritating Perkins, who is so unappealing that you don't know what everybody sees in her. It's quite majestic for such a tiny-scaled movie, with some truly memorable images, but I also found it more portentous than the content justified, ultimately. The ending is pretty abrupt. Admittedly the sound on my VHS is atrocious which didn't help. Still pretty far out for a low budget western, and enough rewards to at least mitigate the drags.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 June 1968 (France)

Also Known As:

A vadászat

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