Product Details

• Actors: Lou Perryman, Sonny Carl Davis
• Directors: Eagle Pennell
• Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Watchmaker Films
• DVD Release Date: February 24, 2009
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001HPP7DW
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,026 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Dave Kehr, The New York Times, Sunday, February 22, 2009

"The beginnings of the American independent film movement can partly be traced to the 1978 Utah/U.S. Film Festival, a small-scale event in Salt Lake City that presented eight features in a regional cinema competition. On the festival's board was a local ski resort owner, Robert Redford, who was so taken with what he saw that he went on to found the Sundance Institute three years later. Among the films in that first Utah/U.S. Film Festival was Eagle Pennell's 16-millimeter, black-and-white feature, "The Whole Shootin' Match," a laconic comedy about a pair of lovable Texas losers who try and fail at a series of get-rich-quick schemes. Mr. Pennell's protagonists are the Mutt-and-Jeff team of Loyd (Lou Perryman, billed here as Lou Perry), a lanky daydreamer who builds goofy labor-saving devices from the junk lying around his front stoop; and Frank (Sonny Carl Davis), a fading high school football hero who can't help cheating on his infinitely patient wife, Paulette (Doris Hargrave). Mr. Pennell, a then 25-year-old University of Texas dropout who had done some movie production work around Austin, directs with a surprisingly sure hand, filming the characters' low-key exchanges in long, single-take shots that underline the distinctively Southwestern tempo of the dialogue. But "Shootin' Match" soon vanished, thanks largely to the faltering fortunes of Mr. Pennell, an alcoholic whose worst instincts were encouraged by the attention the film brought him. It has now appeared on DVD, in a handsome version reconstructed from the only surviving print. The well-designed box set, released by the London company Watchmaker Films, includes a 44-page booklet and a documentary on the self-dramatizing, self-destructive Mr. Pennell (born Glenn Pinnell), directed by his nephew, René Pinnell, and Claire Huie. The documentary, "The King of Texas," tells a much darker story than the feature: the tragedy of a gifted young man devoured by his demons, who made one more interesting film ("Last Night at the Alamo," 1983) before spiraling into drink and drugs, dying an outcast in 2002."

Product Description

A landmark of American independent film from 1978, THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH is a rapturous rediscovery. Eagle Pennell's first feature details the tragi-comic struggles of two small-time schemers, Loyd (Lou Perryman) and Frank (Sonny Carl Davis), desperate to land their big break.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Restoration of Long Lost Regional Cinema Classic, May 7, 2009

By	Trace V. Ordiway "TVO" (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kudos to Watchmaker Films for their better-than-Criterion-quality restoration. They have treated this little picture with the reverence usually reserved for lost classics and, indeed, after watching it again after 30 years, I have to agree that it is a lost classic.

The packaging is great, the doc is great, all the extras are great, everything about the product is great. Can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. Thanks for giving "Shootin' Match" the place in history that it deserves.

"The Whole Shootin' Match" is an affectionate and funny look at two hapless blue collar losers who refuse to give up on their dreams of striking it rich. Pennell and cast worked for free and shot on weekends using short ends b&w film stock and borrowed equipment. The film was a sensation on the festival circuit, and by all accounts was the inspiration for Robert Redford to found The Sundance Institute.

5.0 out of 5 stars RIP Lou Perryman, April 26, 2009

By	Robert Morgan (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Directed by the late Eagle Pennell, THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH is more than a independent film landmark. It's a great, low-key character study featuring wonderfully naturalistic acting from Lou Perryman (best known as LG in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and who was recently murdered in Austin, Texas) and Sonny Carl Davis (the irate customer who gets Judge Reinhold fired from his burger bitch job in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) as a pair of working class stiffs in Texas with big dreams and empty pockets. Pennell would go on to direct one more notable film, LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO, and a few forgettable films before passing away in 2002. THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH is a minor masterwork to be sought out and treasured.