A fair candidate for the top-ten most foul major studio releases. This film is utterly worthless. Forget performances, storyline, cinematography... everything, every last element, takes a back seat to truly stomach-turning violence.
I have no particular axe to grind against violence in film. "Miami Blues", which sent the prissy NYC critical sorority into squeamish fits, is one of my favorites, along with "Silence of the Lambs" and "Portrait of a Serial Killer". Violence fits those films, and was handled well -- "Miami Blues" even succeeded in using it as very pointed comedy. Gore films, Hong Kong chopsocky, and their Tarantino/Rodriquez descendants all contain an element of play; they're meant to be taken on some level as cartoons. Not the case here -- this is clinical. Nor is it required by the storyline. There is not a single scene where bloodshed is not taken to the limit and beyond. If not handled with discretion and skill, violence merely numbs. That point is reached in first fifteen minutes of this picture (about the time that Hackman mutilates a hooker with a blazing cigar) and just keeps going.
I saw this film many years ago, high as a kite, in town to see a concert (it might have been Black Sabbath, God forbid), popping into the theater to kill time. I'd like to thank the filmmakers publicly for putting some of those images into my head. A clear indication of its effect lies in the fact that for several years I refused to see any film featuring the three principals. With Reed and Bergen this made no nevermind, but with Hackman I missed some good films. (And I somehow doubt that old Popeye is particularly pleased that this thing's available on video.)
I don't know how the film ended and I don't care. Somebody with no sense of artistry, humanity, or decency sat down convinced he could out-Sam old Peckinpah. And on the lowest possible level, that's what he did. I bet he was real proud, too.
A hunting party
i saw this movie about 34 years ago in a very smokey car at a drive-in. the movie
always stuck out in my mind, so it was great to see it available on dvd. it was even better than i remember..... . still a great western, candice bergen much hotter than murphy brown. gene hackman is meaner than in THE UNFORGIVEN. i am planning a hunting party with some of my old pals that appreciate the ultra violent westerns of the 1970s. now can anybody tell me where i can get an ULZANA'S RAID dvd that does'nt cost no stinkin 70 dollars?
Solid But Darkly Violent Western
The Hunting Party is definitely a western for the Wild Bunch-loving, blood in buckets kind of crowd. It's not a badly made film at all, but it is one that requires a strong stomach.
Gene Hackman, in a tour-de force villainous role, is a sadistic wealthy townowner who treats his young wife, played by Candace Bergen, like any other possession. Our first scene of them shows his violently sadistic side toward women, and as we find out later, he doesn't treat men any better.
Oliver Reed plays a notorious outlaw who kidnaps Bergen from a schoolhouse so she can teach him to reach. Hackman gets word of this while on a hunting retreat with fellow wealthy friends, and enlists their aid in retrieving his wife and taking revenge on the outlaw, Hackman and his group are armed with the newest kind of rifle, long range with telescopic sights. Much mayhem and bloodshed ensues.
Everyone acts superbly in this film. Hackman plays one of the nastiest villains ever to grace motion pictures. Bergen, while a tough cookie, has to endure lost of attacks, and Reed loses his English accent and plays effectively the part of a tough but sympathetic outlaw. This is one of the classic, cynical last sixties, early seventies (1971) westerns that has a lost more sad and melancholy scenes than happy ones. But it is an darkly entertaining film.
I don't know the real history of the gunfight at the OK Corral. I saw the recent movie TOMBSTONE with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer and found it thoroughly enjoyable but I never considered it to be "historical". It was just hysterical.
HOUR OF THE GUN is another, older version of the story. It too is excellent and more believable as a historical drama but I have no conception that it is historical other than the recognition that Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Ike Clanton were real people; Tombstone, Arizona, Colorado, Mexico and the OK Corral are real places; and a gunfight really did take place at the corral. That doesn't matter to me because this too is a fine film and thoroughly entertaining. It has none of the comic element that TOMBSTONE had but it is a high quality western... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Garner - Jason Robards Director(s): John Sturges DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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After being coerced by a roving gang of Kiowas to trade his season's worth of hard-earned furs for a runaway slave, Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) vows to take back what's his. Before he can get them, though, the Kiowas are slaughtered by a gang of `scalphunters' led by Jim Howie (Telly Salavas), who nips Joe Bass's furs in the bargain. With Joseph Winfield Lee (Ossie Davis) in tow, Joe Bass trails the fur and scalp-laden Jim Howie and vows yet again to reclaim his property.
THE SCALPHUNTERS (1968) is a comedy-western that somehow manages to makes palatable some terrible things - specifically, slavery and the harvest and sale of human scalps. It doesn't condone them, of course, but it doesn't dwell on their horrors, either. Lancaster is energetic and perfectly cast as the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Burt Lancaster - Shelley Winters Director(s): Sydney Pollack DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Yul Brynner is a powerful and dynamic actor. He had donned the cowboy hat before in the 'Magnificent Seven' but quite arguably Jules was his greatest role ever.
In the film Brynner plays a mysterious gun fighter hired to kill a rebel who's property was sold in the war. The man demands answers but is shot. Forced to leave he refuses and returns to his farm where a gun is drawn upon him and he has to defend himself. In killing the man he has a bounty placed upon his head and a gunman is hired. But this movie is more than just a simple Western. It is much, much, much more.
In the town the Mexicans are treated as inferiors. The rebel is the only man that treats them decently. And they beg Jules not to kill him. Jules refuses yet Jules has a dark secret of his... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Richard Wilson DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were canceled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee--The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful.
Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Richard Harris Director(s): Sam Peckinpah DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Warlock" is a great classic western with an amazing cast. I am sad to see Dolores Michaels not get billing on the DVD, as she did on the original moive posters. While she retired early from acting, she not only was beautiful, but a very solid actress. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Widmark - Henry Fonda Director(s): Edward Dmytryk DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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