The Shooting **** (1966, Warren Oates, Will Hutchins, Jack Nicholson, Millie Perkins) – Classic Movie Review 6212

Director Monte Hellman’s gritty 1966 existential Western stars a grinning Jack Nicholson as a ‘violent, sadistic and merciless’ hired killer called Billy Spear, who comes up against bounty hunters Willett Gashade and Coley (Warren Oates and Will Hutchins).

What is on offer is ‘suspenseful desert pursuit in the High Noon tradition’. A sombre search for who knows what is the bleak centre of this film about man’s futile struggle against mortality.

There is a quietly impressive screenplay by Carole Eastman (the Oscar nominated screen-writer from Five Easy Pieces in 1970, who was credited in both films as Adrien Joyce), while Hellman’s intense direction on a shoestring budget of $75,000 keeps the colour images as opaque as the words. Ten pages were cut from Eastman’s screenplay just before shooting, helping to slash the budget and keeping the running time to only 82 minutes. Look out for the promised ‘unequalled climax’.

Also in the cast are Millie Perkins, B J Merholz, Guy El Tsosie, Brandon Carroll (as the Sheriff), Wally Moon (Deputy) and Charles Eastman.

It is shot by Gregory Sandor, produced by Jack Nicholson and Monte Hellman, and scored by Richard Markowitz.

Premiered at at the Montreal Film Festival, and shown at the San Francisco Film Festival, it was picked up by the Walter Reade Organization in the US  and sold directly to TV. It eventually hit US public cinema screens in 1971 and 1972.

It was made in 1965, before its companion piece Ride in the Whirlwind, reuniting Nicholson with Hellman.

The horse wranglers got $10,000 of the $75,000 budget. Heavy rain and flooding wasted the first two days of filming and $5,000 of the budget. That just left $60,000 for the actors, producers, director, writer, cinematographer, etc, etc!

Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster in Sugarfoot (1958).

Will Hutchins (born 5 May 1930) is fondly remembered as young lawyer Tom Brewster in 69 episodes of the Warner Bros TV Western show Sugarfoot [Tenderfoot] on ABC from 1957 to 1961.

Carole Eastman (1934–2004) was the sister of Charles Eastman. She attended acting class with Nicholson and wrote the scripts of four of his films.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6212

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