Customer Reviews

The Hunting Party

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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 late sixties, early seventies (1971) westerns that has more sad and melancholy scenes than happy ones. But it is an darkly entertaining film.

Candice Bergen (Melissa Ruger) is a school teacher married to Brandt Ruger (Hackman). Brandt, a wealthy, powerful cattle man is incensed when he gets word of his wife's abduction at the hands of Frank Calder (Reed) and his outlaw gang. Frank intends her no harm though, he just wants her to tutor him so he can learn to read and write. Meanwhile, Hackman hears of the kidnapping while on a train to a hunting trip with 5 of his cohorts (two of them being G.D. Spradlin and Simon Oakland). He decides to change it to a manhunt. With powerful, long range rifles that can shoot accurately past 700 yards he and his buddies will pick off these outlaws. They leave the train on horseback and track the gang down. With scopes in place they start shooting from so far away the gang can't even see them. Spradlin is having a great time shooting men in cold blood until they sneak up on the snipers and shoot back. One of Hackman's party is killed and Spradlin decides he doesn't want to shoot at someone who's shooting back and leaves. Hackman won't quit though. He's had Frank in his sights more than once but wants to save him for last. Melissa falls for Frank. Hackman was worthless as a husband anyway. From the beginning it's hard to understand why she ever married the louse. Hackman and his fellow snipers are more like the bad guys than the outlaw gang. Lots of blood and violence, sadistic at times.

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?

Directed by Don Medford, "The Hunting Party" is a great Spaghetti Western. In fact, everything about this Western is great. It has a superb cast headlined by Oliver Reed whose career spans from Hammer Production's classic "Curse of the Werewolf" to Dan Curtis' "Burnt Offerings" to the modern "Gladiator." Reed is an illiterate thief, Frank Calder, who kidnaps the gorgeous blonde schoolteacher Melissa (Candice Bergen of "Murphy Brown) and orders her to teach him to read. She is smitten by his rough, rugged exterior and tender, caring heart. Soon the two are falling in love.

Unfortunately for Calder and his gang of outlaws, Melissa is the wife of wealthy cattle baron, Brandt Ruger (Gene Hackman). He is a perverse man who views all women, including Melissa, as pieces of property to use and abuse at will. (It is difficult to believe that, one year later, Hackman portrayed the self sacrificing Reverend Scott of "The Poseidon Adventure.") Using new, technologically advanced rifles, Brandt and his wealthy cohorts relentlessly and sadistically hunt Calder and his buddies.

"The Hunting Party" is an ultra-violent, realistically gory Western with lush photography and a beautiful soundtrack provided by the legendary Riz Ortolani. Ortolani scored many of my beloved Italian gialli such as Lucio Fulci's "Perversion Story," Armando Crispino's "The Dead Are Alive" and Flavio Mogherini's "The Pyjama Girl Case." There is also a great supporting cast that includes Simon Oakland of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and Mitchell Ryan of "Dark Shadows." Both series were directed by the legendary Dan Curtis.

The ending of "The Hunting Party" is very tragic and depressing. The entire film, with its extreme pathos, reminded me of a Shakespearean tragedy. The characters are expertly drawn and believable. If you are a fan of violent, gritty Western classics (especially Spaghetti Westerns), then I strongly recommend that you go hunting for "The Hunting Party." Sadly, at the time of this review, it was listed as being out of print.

I saw this movie just the other day. I actually thought the acting and premise was pretty darn good. The problem I had with the whole movie was just the irrational and stupid behavior of the "bandits". You just have to keep on running? Why? Run where? At first it is understandable, but after a while this HUGE gang would have realized (like they did) that it only consisted of 5 pursuers. Even though these rifles had long reach (by the way, nothing existed then that could do what they did - specially at 1/2 mile) these guys would have known how to ambush. Where was running getting them anyway? Again, most outlaws run because they are pursued by a group bigger than they are - that was not the case here. At one point a shoot out occured in the city within 40 yards of each other - hardly an advantage that a singly loaded rifle would give you.

Lastly, the shot came from SOMEWHERE and the guy is laying there with his head shot through. What no cover? If he got hit YOU can get hit, most of these guys never sought cover and concealment they just ran around like chickens with heads cut off. That was my only real compaint with the movie, otherwise it seemed like fine acting and like I said a good premise for a story.

When you go hunting with Brandt Ruger, you go first-class all the way. But when you steal his "property", you sign your own death warrant.

That is something that a notorious outlaw (Oliver Reed) and his gang have to learn in the worst way possible in THE HUNTING PARTY, a 1971 British/American western that, even by 21st century standards, is still incredibly violent. Reed kidnaps a local schoolteacher (Candice Bergen) in the (now faint) hope that he'll be taught how to read. When Bergen warns him about her husband, he tells her "It don't matter whose wife you are." A fatal misjudgment on his part, for her husband Brandt Ruger (Gene Hackman) is not one to fool around with. While out on a hunting party with a few of his friends, the dictatorial and very abusive land baron learns of Bergen's kidnapping and promptly gets blood in his eyes. And rather than going after game, he and his boys instead go after Reed and his gang, picking them off one at a time with high-power rifles that can hit from a distance of 800 yards. The result is a sagebrush variation of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, done with some of the most brutally violent shootouts this side of THE WILD BUNCH or SOLDIER BLUE. And as he is a man driven by extreme jealousy (Bergen is his personal "property", whom he physically abuses on more than one occasion), the fact that Bergen is beginning to develop a rapport with Reed now gives him whatever license he feels he needs to kill her as well, though he drags it out for the sheer sadistic fun of it to a very cynical and blood-splattered conclusion.

Almost certainly THE HUNTING PARTY was made to take advantage of the "market" opened up by THE WILD BUNCH and its director Sam Peckinpah's choreography of violent action, as well the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. The shootouts are extremely bloody, and they clearly mirror those of THE WILD BUNCH in the use of slow motion and quick cutting. As Peckinpah had so ably demonstrated in his masterpiece, however, any film where there is an arguably extreme level of violence must be character-driven as well as plot-driven. This is where THE HUNTING PARTY falls short. Neither veteran TV director Don Medford (who, among other things, directed the classic 1961 Twilight Zone episode "Death's Head Revisited") nor screenwriters Gilbert Ralston, William Norton, and Lou Morheim took much time to really delineate any complexities in the three main characters. Bergen is merely a damsel in distress, caught between two men who are basically bastards, one merely semi-controlling (Reed), the other a sadistic control freak of the highest order (Hackman). Absent the complex psychological and character-driven narrative that propelled THE WILD BUNCH to a controversial but well-deserved glory, THE HUNTING PARTY can easily be tagged, as more than a few critics have done (albeit a bit too zealously), as an extremely bloody sagebrush shooting gallery in which violence is staged for the sake of violence.

The film does succeed in giving us good performances from the three leads (notably Hackman, whose role is credibly sadistic to the utmost); good cinematography done on location in Spain (as a stand-in for Texas); and supporting roles for L.Q. Jones (a member of Peckinpah's stock company); Simon Oakland; Mitchell Ryan; and William C. Watson. And one can't fault the long-distance shooting that occurs, or the way it so ingeniously borrows a great old-world story and puts it into a western format. Had the filmmakers only paid a bit more attention to complex characters and motives here as Peckinpah had in his, however, THE HUNTING PARTY might have been a bit more than a good, if incredibly and graphically violent, post-Peckinpah/Leone addition to a Western genre that was rapidly changing during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

I have read all the listed reviews, and what is clearly evident with 99% of the negative criticism, is that it seems to be entirely directed towards the violence contained in the movie. Hardly any mention of the Oscar winning stars and their performances or the dynamic cinematography that takes place throughout the film. I viewed this movie over 35 years ago and it made such an impact on me, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I purchased a VHS copy (probably a bootleg) a couple of years ago, and it was as great a western as I had always remembered it to be. Much to my joy, I just found a new copy on DVD, and can't wait for it to arrive. I am a huge fan of many old westerns, too many to list here, and consider "The Wild Bunch" as possibly the greatest of all the violent, shoot-em-up westerns ever made. I'm a huge fan of western giants like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, but have also come to appreciate some of the newer westerns. What western movie fan, in their right mind, could not truthfully list "Tombstone" as one of the best, not to mention, "Open Range", or possibly "Quigly Down Under"???? Bottom line, The Hunting Party is indeed a bloodbath, but not much more than many critically acclaimed films of today. Ultra violent?...yes, but probably a more accurate version of the times. Meaningless?...hardly, it is pure man at his best and worst. Happy ending?...probably not...but do all things in life end on a happy note?...I doub't it. Seems to me that the wimps that criticised and tore this movie apart, based their opinions solely on the violent aspects of the movie. If the movie disturbed you so badly, then I highly recommend that you stick with the feel good chick flicks and leave the REAL shoot-em-up westerns to us VIOLENT folks!!! For those of you who love non-stop action, lots of gun fights, blood, guts and just plain macho madness, then this is the western for you. Some of the finest actors of our time are in this GREAT western. It is a shame that a few, only concerned themselves with the so called meaningless violence, and sadly failed to recognize and mention the stellar performances given by such legends as Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, Oliver Reed and several other great character actors. If you like true to life, tougher than dirt westerns, then do yourself a favor and give it a try, you won't be disappointed!!! 5 STAR RATING!!!!!!!!!

This film is a product from an era when films depicting violent and bloody deaths as some cathartic ritual of a doomed lifestyle seemed to be in vogue. This trend triggered primarily from Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE and reaching an artistic zenith with Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH could never be successfully imitated or replicated (Michael Winner's LAWMAN is one exception) The Hunting Part truly lacks meaning of purpose in its story and importantly in most of its characters' motivations. The trailer is actually much more interesting than the film as it sets the stage showing an affluent group of business men pursuing, via private railway car, a band of outlaws, hunting them down and killing them one by one something akin to the most dangerous game. In the film these men initially are given gifts of long range hunting rifles from entrepreneur Gene Hackman to hunt big game in open Western territory traveling on his private train laden with prostitutes and whiskey. Soon that big game evolves from animal to man when a group of violent men led by Oliver Reed kidnap Hackman's wife, Candice Bergen. Eventually Bergen, starved of affection and charmed by Reed's childlike simplicity, falls in love with her captor who exhibits more sensitivity than her sadistically natured husband. The film strives to be more than the sum of its parts. Director Don Medford, perhaps trying to emulate Sam Fuller with images of raw and unbridled emotion over plot or perhaps Sam Peckinpah's stylized images of intimate violence, soon falls into a quagmire of one gratuitously and overly bloody death after another. Metaphorically the hunted in this film never truly turn wholeheartedly on their hunters but instead turn on each other. The existential ending seems contrived and is ultimately annoying. In a film so abundant with plot and character possibilities of substance this film is void and empty of any sense of morality. It makes no statement and never examines what allegorical symbolism the hunting party may represent. Simon Oakland is the one single character in this film that seems to personify intellect over emotion, reason over passion and an ultimate knowledge of right and wrong yet he remains impotent to change the course of events.

A good western which starts with a slap of rejection, twists to the kidnapping and then the hunting trip begins. As for the twist, well watch the movie!!

A nontypical western, this moves from the classic Hollywood western concept of two idiots standing up against one another in "duel mode" to the more realistic human mode "kill them where they stand by whatever means necessary" and does it quite well.

People who want escape from gritty reality will hate this film. For those who want to explore the metamorphosis of depictions of the darkest of human emotions from the 1960's on through the rest of the century, it is a reflection of life and reality at any time in history and an example of an attempt at portraying the realities of human nature by a midcentury filmmaker. Although this may not be as pleasing as films like "Oklahoma" or "Casablanca", it performed the mission I have attributed to it as well as, or better than, movies such as "Full Metal Jacket" or "The Green Berets".