The shooting
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The shooting |
| Original title | The shooting |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 82 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Monte Hellman |
| script |
Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce ) |
| production |
Jack Nicholson Monte Hellman |
| music | Richard Markowitz |
| camera | Gregory Sandor |
| cut | Monte Hellman |
| occupation | |
| |
The shooting (original title: The Shooting ) is an American western from 1966 by the director Monte Hellman , which he produced together with Jack Nicholson . In addition to Nicholson, the leading roles are played by Warren Oates , Millie Perkins and Will Hutchins . Based on the screenplay by Carole Eastman , the film is about two men who are commissioned by a woman to accompany them several miles through the desert to a mysterious place. During their journey, they are followed by a black-clad gunslinger who seems to want to kill them all.
The film was shot in the Utah desert in 1965 ; just before Hellman's similar western Ride in the Whirlwind , in which Jack Nicholson was also involved. Both films were shown at several international film festivals , but the film rights were not sold to the Walter Reade Organization until 1968 . This decided not to show the films in the cinema and sold them directly to television.
action
Willet Gashade, a former bounty hunter , returns to a small mountain mine camp after a long absence, where he finds his dubious friend Coley anxious. He explains to him that her colleague, Leland Drum, was shot dead by an unknown person two days ago. This was probably an act of revenge because "a small person" was accidentally trampled to death in the nearby town. Gashade's brother Coin was involved in this incident. For reasons unknown, he had run away from the mine camp shortly before the murder. Gashade and Coley both get scared, whereupon Gashade takes his friend's gun after some discussion, as he doesn't have one himself at the moment.
The following day a young woman gives her horse injured a few hundred meters from the camp the coup de grace . When Coley heard the shot, he was startled and immediately took cover. The woman comes to camp with the two men and offers Gashade $ 1,000 for a horse. He should also escort her to a place called Kingsley. Although he doesn't trust her completely, he reluctantly accepts her offer. Coley, who seems to be in love with the young woman, accompanies them.
During the trip, the woman insulted both men and refused to give them her name. The three of them make a quick stop at a place called the Cross Tree. There they learn that Coin was seen here a day or two ago. After continuing on their way, Gashade notices that they are being followed by a black-clad stranger, Billy Spear, who always keeps a safe distance from the group. He also notices that the woman gives signs to the stranger. Meanwhile, Coley tries to start a conversation with her, but she keeps mocking and insulting him. Gashade's attempts to find out the purpose of her trip also blocked her every time.
The following night the stranger came to their camp. He was hired by the woman as a contract killer for unknown reasons. He is hostile and contemptuous towards Gashade and Coley. He repeatedly threatens to kill them both. So Gashade advises Coley to stay away from Spear.
When the woman's horse dies of fatigue, Coley leaves his horse to her and continues to ride with Gashade himself. A little later, his horse also shows signs of fatigue. To relieve Coley is supposed to ride with the woman, but Spear forbids this. Since the journey without Coley is less arduous, Spear and the woman want to leave him behind. Gashade is reluctant to agree and promises Coley that he will come back soon and get him.
The three continue on their way without Coley and after a while they find a bearded man in the middle of the desert with a broken leg. He tells the woman that the man she is looking for is only a day's ride away. She hands him a canteen with water. In the meantime, Coley has found the bearded man's runaway horse. He sits up and rides back to the group. Once there, he attacks Spear, whereupon the latter shoots him. Gashade has to bury his friend in the middle of the desert.
As the journey continues, all the horses gradually die. The group has also run out of water, but they keep walking. When Gashade sees that Spear is exhausted, he attacks him. After knocking him unconscious, he takes a large rock and breaks Spear's hand with it. Then he runs after the woman who has meanwhile moved on. Meanwhile, she follows a man who is walking alongside them on a rock formation. When he turns around, Gashade notices that the man is his brother Coin. The woman and Coin both draw a gun and shoot each other. Gashade, who had tried to stop the woman, is now mourning his brother. Finally Spear stumbles aimlessly through the desert.
production
In 1964, Monte Hellman and Jack Nicholson had already made two films together: Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury , which were produced by Roger Corman and shot in the Philippines in direct succession . After filming was finished, Hellman and Nicholson worked on a script called Epitaph and presented it to Corman. He didn't find it interesting, but asked the two of them if they would shoot a western for him instead. After they showed interest, Corman suggested they shoot a second western as well. They should both be made in a similar manner to the films made in the Philippines. So the director and the actor agreed. While Nicholson was beginning the script for Ride in the Whirlwind , Hellman asked Carole Eastman to work on the script for The Shooting .
According to Hellman's statements, Eastman's script was implemented almost exactly as it was written in the original version. There was hardly any reason to rewrite scenes. One of the few changes Hellman made was the complete deletion of a scene in which Gashade is on the way to the mine. This seemed too long to him: “Exposition, by its very nature, is artificial. (The exposition is artificial in its whole kind.) "So he discarded this part and only started from page 10 of the script, because he found the story to be quite simple (" perfectly simple ") and therefore the viewer did not need any further information. to be able to follow the action. Nonetheless, Corman insisted that Hellman provide at least some pointers to introduce the viewer a little bit to the story. It should be mentioned three times that Gashade has a brother so that the audience would not be confused at the end of the film. Hellman was reluctant to meet this requirement.
After first discussing Sterling Hayden for the role of Gashade, Hellman finally came up with the actors Perkins, Oates and Hutchins for the lead roles while staying at a bookstore in Los Angeles. Perkins was Hellman's neighbor at the time. She had known him and Jack Nicholson for a number of years because they had all gone to the same drama school together. So Hellman called Nicholson about his casting idea. He agreed with him that the three actors were perfect.
Hellman and Nicholson spent several weeks locating locations together . For example, they checked out Monument Valley before finally settling on Kanab , Utah. This region offered them both a canyon landscape , which they needed for riding in the whirlwind , and the vast deserts for shooting .
Corman co-financed the film himself, but is not named in the credits as executive producer . The budget was $ 75,000. Filming began on April 15, 1965 with a seven-person film crew. During the first two days of shooting, only a few shots were possible as it was raining heavily, which completely flooded some of the planned locations. Hellman estimated that $ 5,000 had been lost just because of the two-day delay. Another $ 10,000 was used to pay the horse attendants, the only union members on the set except for the actors. Corman had agreed with Hellman and Nicholson that they would have to bear all costs that went beyond budget. Except for the initial problems, however, the film stayed at the expected cost.
Due to the low budget, lighting was not used throughout the film. Gregory Sandor shot the entire film in natural light. For the many tracking shots the film crew were only about 2.5 meters Dolly splints available.
After the shooting of Das Schießen was finished , the production of Ritt im Wirbelwind , a similarly mysterious western starring Nicholson and Perkins in the lead roles, began immediately afterwards . Both films were completed within six weeks of continuous shooting.
Before Hellman had the films shown at various film festivals, he spent over a year editing the films. In 1967 both films received very good reviews at the World Film Festival in Montreal and were shown out of competition at the Cannes International Film Festival .
The US film distributors showed no interest in either film. Nicholson sold the international rights to a French film producer. However, this went bankrupt and the film copies of both films remained under bondage at Paris airport for almost two years. After a legal battle, Hellman and Nicholson were able to regain the rights. In 1968 both films were shown in Paris cinemas without film distribution. According to Hellman, Das Schießen became a considerable art-house success and was shown in Paris for over a year. Also in 1968, the US rights to both films were sold to the Walter Read Organization, a New York theater chain that occasionally sold films (it was also the first to release the film Night of the Living Dead ). But this decided to go back to theatrical performances. Instead, both films were sold direct to television. In 1971, the rights were transferred to Jack H. Harris Enterprises Inc., who bought it because of Jack Nicholson's newfound fame. Although advertised, there are no sources of subsequent performances under the Harris distribution.
occupation
- Warren Oates as Willett Gashade: When Oates was in front of the camera for The Shooting , he was already an established character actor in westerns. Since 1957 he has played in dozens of films and television series of the genre. Nicholson immediately agreed when Hellman suggested Oates as the star of the film. But while filming, Nicholson and Oates clashed and shouted at each other more and more. According to Hellman, production had to be interrupted for half a day when Oates refused to speak any longer dialogue than Hellman imagined. Instead he wanted to whisper his text incomprehensibly. When the director refused to accept the suggestion, Oates stormed off the set. After he returned in the late afternoon, Hellman finally allowed him to whisper the lines as he had suggested, as long as he played the scene in the way Hellman preferred. Hellman later rejected Oates' version while editing.
- Will Hutchins as Coley: Hutchins was cast as Gashade's goofy friend in the same instant of inspiration that Hellman found in the bookstore. Just like Oates, Hutchins had some experience in the western genre: He played for a few years in the ABC TV series Sugarfoot , which was filmed from 1957 to 1961. Perkins and Hellman referred to Hutchins as a fun, charming man who never complained about the conditions on the set.
- Millie Perkins as the Woman: Former model Perkins was director Hellman's neighbor at the time she was cast in the role of the enigmatic, nameless woman. The shooting was her fifth film. This was followed by another role in Hellman's subsequent film Ritt im Wirbelwind . Although she enjoyed working on the two films and subsequently became a good friend of Warren Oates, she disliked the fact that Hellman insisted that she use minimal makeup. She felt constantly filmed in an unfavorable manner.
- Jack Nicholson as Billy Spear: The Shooting was Nicholson's thirteenth film appearance and his fourth directed by Hellman. Not only did he play the hated crook here, but he also co-produced it after Hellman encouraged him to do so. In retrospect, the director described this as the biggest mistake of his life. Nicholson was constantly worried about the budget and constantly debating insignificant side expenses with Hellman.
Reviews
“Allegorical late Western who consistently dismantles the traditional values of the genre: The focus is not on heroism, individualism and cooperation, but on despair, loss of identity and self-tearing. A pessimistic commentary on the US national crisis in the 1960s. "
Because The Shooting was never shown in theaters and rarely shown on television, the film only had a small number of fans. The critics who saw the film were delighted and usually found it better than Ritt im Whirlwind . Danny Peary wrote in Cult Movies that while he struggled with the film's confusing climax, while the ending raised more questions than answered, the thrilling journey that led to this end would be one of the most interesting sequences in western history . Leonard Maltin said it was an immensely energetic film with an unconventional appearance by Jack Nicholson as a hit man and an incredible, unexpected ending. David Pirie wrote in Time Out that it was probably the first western that really deserved the title “ existential ”. Hellman mercilessly created the atmosphere and side effects of this trip until they themselves acquired a terrifying meaning. Hellman would have taken the basic components of a western and, without destroying them, used them as the foundation for a Kafkaesque drama. Phil Hardy's The Aurum Film Encyclopedia notes that Hellman's calculating style, crammed with disorienting close-ups and strange moments, confirms the fatalism of the story. This is a fabulous film. James Monaco's The Movie Guide says the film is highly effective by playing with the different levels of characters and ideas. It is a beautiful Western stylization that should not be missed. Jonathan Rosenbaum called the film the first " acid western " and cited it as an example of Jim Jarmusch's inspiration for Dead Man . The shooting has a 100% Critical Rating on Rotten Tomatoes .
In 2000, Das Schießen was released on DVD. This includes an audio commentary from director Hellman and actress Perkins. Only the DVD made the film known to a larger audience.
Web links
- The shooting in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The shooting at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Monte Hellman: The Shooting . DVD , VCI Video, 2000, ISBN 1-55739-147-5 ; Audio commentary.
- ↑ a b c d Millie Perkins: The Shooting . DVD , VCI Video, 2000, ISBN 1-55739-147-5 ; Audio commentary.
- ↑ a b c James Monaco: The Movie Guide . Perigee Books, 1992, ISBN 0-399-51780-4 .
- ↑ a b c d Danny Peary: Cult Movies . Delta Books, 1981. ISBN 0-517-20185-2
- ↑ Ralph Blasi: Vanishing Films . In: Show Magazine, February 1970, quoted in Cult Movies . Delta Books, 1981, ISBN 0-517-20185-2
- ↑ Mike White: Monte Hellman: In His Own Words . Cashiers Du Cinemart. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ a b The Shooting . Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ^ Brad Stevens: Monte Hellman: His Life and Films . McFarland, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7864-1434-5 .
- ^ Poster Art for The Shooting in the English language Wikipedia
- ↑ The shooting. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 19, 2018 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin: Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2007 . Plume Paperbacks, 2006, ISBN 0-452-28756-1 .
- ↑ David Pirie: The Shooting . Time out. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ^ Phil Hardy: The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: The Western . Aurum Press, 1983, ISBN 0-906053-57-9
- ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum: Acid Western: Dead Man . Chicago Reader. June 27, 1996. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
- ^ The Shooting (1967). Rotten Tomatoes , accessed June 9, 2015 .
