AaronCapenBanner Monte Hellman directed this more straight-forward western(compared with "The Shooting", filmed at the same time) about three cowhands named Wes, Vern, & Otis(played by Jack Nicholson, Cameron Mitchell, and Tom Filer) on their way to a cattle drive who accidentally become mixed up with real outlaws who robbed a stagecoach, killing the driver and are hunted by a group of vigilantes who aren't asking questions about innocence. When one is killed, the other two hole up with a family, forcing them to provide shelter, but that doesn't last long as fate soon catches up with them... Millie Perkins plays the daughter named Abigail. Good (if a bit talky) western is morally ambiguous but has a beautifully filmed finale.

dougdoepke Outstanding western. In my book, it's the best of Hellman's films, maybe because the 80- minutes has a distinctive story and little of Hellman's later intellectual posturing. Three itinerant cowpokes, on their way to a drive, are mistaken for outlaws by vengeful vigilantes, and have to ride for their lives after stopping by a homesteader family. All in all, there are faint echoes here of Wellman's vigilante classic The Oxbow Incident (1943).The story's upshot amounts to a series of genuine tragedies brought about by both coincidence and an uncaring posse. I really like the fact that contrary to Hollywood expectations, neither Wes (Nicholson) nor Vern (Mitchell) makes a move on the pretty homesteader girl (Perkins). They are, after all, concerned with surviving, not with a romantic subplot. Besides, her dad (George Mitchell) looks and acts like a really tough old guy. In my book, he delivers the movie's best performance. And catch that homestead where Dad, Mom (Squire), and Abigail live. It's the most convincing primitive shack and corral I've seen in many years of movie watching. Nothing cosmetic here. Instead, a really hard life on the frontier is driven home, though costuming could have made Abigail a little less spiffy looking. Nonetheless, that segment is the real heart of the movie, and produces a genuine tragedy when you think about it.And get a load of the countryside the men have to negotiate in their flight. It's as bleak and inhospitable as a devil's playground. There's no hope of living off the land for the fleeing men. It's like they've suddenly been condemned to the Third Level of Hell in order to get away. Here, Hellman comes across as an anti-John Ford since he does nothing to prettify the West either here or in The Shooting (1965). Neither is there any Fordian style humor. The acting throughout is grim and low-key as it should be. This, of course, is before Nicholson discovered that going over the top was a lot more fun than nuance. All in all, Hellman's minimalist style works well. Wisely, he does nothing to hype the story's tragic core. Instead, the viewer is left to think about the progression of events. In short, neither director Hellman nor writer Nicholson does anything to connect the dots, but they are there. The ending, of course, is unconventional in the extreme and might be taken as posturing on Hellman's part. But I found it-- if not satisfying-- at least appropriate for what had gone before. Too bad Hellman didn't continue to combine his minimalist style with story content, instead of allowing style to replace substance as he unfortunately does in his later work. Had he done so, we might have gotten one of Hollywood's truly outstanding and innovative careers.

Michael_Elliott Ride in the Whirlwind (1967)** (out of 4)Low-budget Western was co-written by Jack Nicholson but I think overall it proves that we're very thankfully he didn't give up acting to concentrate solely on writing. In the film, three men (Cameron Mitchell, Nicholson, Tom Filer) end up spending the night with an outlaw gang and briefly considering riding with them but instead decide to go their separate ways. This doesn't pay off when an angry posse think they're involved with the gang and begin to hunt them down. This film was shot at the same time as Hellman's THE SHOOTING and both films seem to have gained a huge cult following over the years but I can't honestly say I'm one of the fans. There's a lot to admire in both films but in the end I think both fail to live up to their reputations. I think the biggest problem with this film is its screenplay that never really seems to know what it wants to be. The first half of the movie comes off as your typical Western of three men being mistaken for someone they're not. Fair enough. The second half of the film dives a bit deeper and tries to be more psychological but I think this is where things start to get watered down even though an interesting third party (played by Millie Perkins) enters the picture. I think the film tries way too hard to be deep and mysterious and this is where the thing starts to fall apart. I found a lot of the dialogue, which was meant to be deep and serious, to wonder on and never really go anywhere. Thankfully the movie never gets too dull as Mitchell and Nicholson make for an interesting duo and their personalities alone keep the film moving. Perkins is pretty good in her role and we have an early appearance by Harry Dean Stanton as a one-eyed member of the bad gang.

gazineo-1 Little and almost unknown western in which three cowboys (Mitchel, Fiser and Nicholson) are mistaken as bandits by a posse and pursued implacably by them. The movie has simple dialogues but its full of meaning and expressive silent expression between the three poor guys involved in the injust and obnoxious persecution. The movie was written by Jack Nicholson. A story that deals with some conceptual problems as injustice, fate and the importance of freedom. In fact, a western made in 1965, exactly the same time of some social contest as the fight for the Civil Rights in North America. 'Ride in the Whirlwind', for that matter, is not just a western movie but a political and social tale. Good performance by Cameron Mitchell. A young Jack Nicholson, with a distant but correct performance,seems to be comfortable in a western adventure, a genre that he never tries today.