The Shooting

(1967) dir. Monte Hellman
viewed: 06/27/2005

Director Monte Hellman’s films, Cockfighter (1974) and Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) have earned him a strong and well-deserved cult following and were certainly my impetus to see The Shooting. It all especially fit together since I have been watching a number of Westerns lately. I have to also say that I am a fan of Warren Oates, who appeared in all three of these films.

The Shooting is a shoestring budget film executive produced by the king of the shoestring budgets, Roger Corman, and it bears a lot of the qualities and shortcomings of some of Corman’s best films of the time.

A very effective Western, the film stars Warren Oates as a man trying to track down his brother, Coin, who has run off, while under the gun of a woman who also seeks Coin for revenge. A Young Jack Nicholson is good as a mean-spirited hired gun. The film is tight, running at 82 minutes, but the pacing is slow.

The more I think about this film, the more I like it, frankly.