Tagline: Suspenseful desert pursuit in the High Noon tradition.
Curiosity: Director Monte Hellman went to make Two-Lane Blacktop, one of the greatest movies of all time.
Plot: A cowboy (the mighty Warren Oates) is hired to help a mystery woman make her way through the desert. NOTHING HAPPENS.
Thoughts: The Shooting is supposed to be a sort of existential Western. Two-Lane Blacktop is like that as well, and while the films are said to be rich in feeling, they also don’t have much going on in terms of plot. They’re sparse, dialogue-driven pictures. I mention these things because Two-Lane Blacktop held me riveted. The Shooting put me to sleep. My theory is simple: Criterion re-released Two-Lane; I bought The Shooting bundled with another of Helman’s Westerns, Ride the Whirlwind, for at a dollar store. Clearly, one of these is going to have crisp visuals and clear audio, and one of them was put out on the cheap with Jack Nicholson’s face on the cover, even though he plays the fourth most prominent character.
I started Saturday Night Crap-o-Rama to celebrate cult films and talk shit on odious crap. I really, really wanted to like The Shooting, but the quality of the DVD I purchased was dreadful. SNC thrives on low budget films, but they still need to be preserved for folks to appreciate them. Criterion needs show Hellman some more love and give The Shooting some much needed remastering.
Based on its reputation, I’m hoping for good things. Last year, I went through a strong Westerns phase. While I didn’t care much for spaghetti Westerns like Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” trilogy, I loved John Ford and John Wayne’s collaboration The Searchers.
Reflection: FUCK YEAH WARREN OATES.
No comments:
Post a Comment