This is a very watchable Western that exhibits a high level of grotesque violence. I attribute the violence to the fact that this movie follows on the heels of “The Wild Bunch” which was a Western and which saw director Sam Peckinpah push the boundaries of on-screen gun play and graphically portrayed violence. “The Hunting Party” follows in the mold and shows a lot of bullet holes being made in some of the characters and there is generally sadistic bent to the character portrayed by Gene Hackman. Hackman is a cattle baron who treats his young wife like so much property. Oh, yes. And Hackman does not treat women well, in general, in this movie. Oliver Reed plays an outlaw who just wants to learn how to read. He mistakes Hackman’s wife, Candice Bergen, as being a schoolteacher who can assist him in his time of need. Bergen resists the kidnapping, at first, but grows fond of Reed and eventually sides with him as Hackman wages a bloody quest to recover his wife and put the outlaws to shame who abducted her. Therein, the violence ensues.
Tag Archives: western
“More Dead Than Alive” (1969) – Worthy Thoughtful Western
I started watching this western and began thinking that it was playing out as another dated take on The Old West that we have seen in countless TV shows and repetitive movies. There was a soundtrack featuring a harmonica, a jailbreak out of a Federal prison, gunplay galore and even some Gatling Gun action. It struck me as being old fashioned in an age where the Western had been electrified and shaken up by a work like Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch”. How could filmmakers fall back on all the old, reliable cliches of The Western genre and expect the audience to even care?
As it turns out, “Alive” and “Bunch” were released in the same year. I don’t know which, in essence, was seen first by the public but “More Dead Than Alive” impressed me as its story unfolded. Clint Walker plays a recently released convict known as Killer Kane who has spent 18 years in prison. As he sheds his shackles, he is left with an even more daunting sentence: What can a man convicted of multiple murders and who has only known life as an outlaw get by in this new world? What job will he be able to find, how will he live, how is it possible to shed the image the public has of him as being a person who has snuffed out others’ lives?
It proves to be a very hard ride for Walker who can’t keep even the most menial of jobs for long and is shunned by society in general as being a dangerous man.
Vincent Price has a nice appearance as a travelling sideshow operator who gladly invites Killer Kane to be his featured performer in Price’s Shooting exhibition. Even in this element of handling guns, Walker is met with strong opposition by the child like psychotic teenager Price was previously using as his featured shooting star.
Another similarity to “Bunch” is the observance of newly emerging technology such as a phone and bicycles. The times have certainly changed since Kane went to jail and the remaining movie chronicles his struggles to survive in his new environment and live down his bad name.
Definitely worth a viewing!
CHATO’S LAND – 1972
“Chato’s Land” was a late entry in the Western film genre that had proliferated at the movie theaters for 50 years but started to fall out of favor by the 1970’s. To draw in viewers who might be lured away by other fare, some of these latter day “oaters” resorted to adding more violence and depravity. That sensibility shows up in this film, a blood soaked tale of a hastily drawn together posse of cruds who go off in pursuit of a wrongly accused Indian who kills a lawman in their town.
As the misbegotten mob gets drawn deeper into his “Land”, a forbidding desert Hell, they become easy prey for the fugitive Chato. He manages to outwit the posse and pick them off one by one, in sometimes gruesome fashion. Charles Bronson is in the title role but his recited dialogue is nearly non existent and composed of one note.
This movie is particularly interesting for the interplay of the cast playing the posse. Jack Palance, Richard Basehart, James Whitmore, Simon Oakland and Ralph Waite are all fine performers and they work well off of each other.
Nicely shot on location by Michael Winner. A memorable music score accompanies too.
THE MISSOURI BREAKS – 1976
Certainly an interesting pairing of acting talent in this oater. Jack Nicholson plays a horse thief, who, along with his fellow gang, are systematically picked off by an eccentric, manic bounty hunter, Marlon Brando, hired by a cattle rancher whose stock has been stolen by the thieving bunch. This film is kind of a combination of genres: western and slasher. This was slasher before it existed! Halloween was still a couple years out. Members of Jack’s gang, including the great talents Harry Dean Stanton, John Ryan, Frederic Forrest, and Randy Quaid, are killed one after the other in some new graphic fashion. Yes. This film is heavy on the violence. Although he is an insufferable ass in this part, Brando is a freaking joy to behold in his weirdness. Very entertaining, enjoyable film.
HOMBRE – 1967
This movie has been playing a lot on cable TV. It is, in fact, a very fine film. Paul Newman is a man who was brought up among Native Americans in the Old West. His attempt to enter into “civilized society” meets with many harrowing encounters with man’s inhumanity to man. There are quite a few characters appearing in this film for whom enough just isn’t good enough. They want more than the what they’ve already got, no matter how sizable, and do not care who or what is forced out of the way on their quest to get the additional largess. To put it simply, there are a ton of dirt bag scoundrels acting out this drama. Some fine performances provided by Richard Boone, Frederic March, and Cameron Mitchell. Newman essentially plays a rather stoic persona here but his “strong, silent type” is loaded with more strength and character than most of the other players. I like him in this role. The various instances of racism, intolerance toward fellow man, greed, avarice and general bad behavior on display here make it, at times, a difficult movie to sit through. Take the time to make this journey and you will feel well rewarded although a bit sad at the end.
THE WILD BUNCH – 1969
Legendary, ultra violent western from director Sam Peckinpah. A group of aging outlaws plan just one more big heist before “peacefully” riding off into the sunset. OK. That was really lame! But it’s a familiar tale of thieves taking down one more score before disappearing with the loot and presumably staying out of any more trouble. The really electrifying action takes place at the end of the film when the four man bunch takes on a Mexican stronghold of soldiers numbering in the hundreds. You will witness tons of graphic blood splattering, grenade tossing, and Peckinpah’s patented usage of slow motion, cross cut edited carnage. Looking past all the extreme violence, this is an incredibly well made film full of fine performances and set pieces. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan are very good.