SnoopyStyle Willett Gashade (Warren Oates) returns to his mining camp to find Coley (Will Hutchins) in a fright. Coley tells him that his brother Coin had walked away and their other partner Leland Drum got killed a couple of days earlier. A mysterious woman (Millie Perkins) finds herself at the camp after shooting her lame horse. Willett finds the dead horse not injured. She offers them $1000 to take her to Kingsley. Willett accepts despite not trusting her. They are followed by gunman Billy Spear (Jack Nicholson) who seems to be communicating with the nameless woman.This has an intriguing premise. It's one that seems foreseeable. Some version of that ending was always expected. The movie brings out the mystery but the intensity could be higher. Oates is solid. On the other hand, Perkins' acting is a little flat. Her role could have been really juicy but she doesn't bring it. It's an intriguing indie western.

zardoz-13 This enigmatic western about a quartet of strangers riding through a rugged, sun-bleached wasteland may seem exasperating, but "The Shooting" pays itself off in the end. Willett Gashade (Warren Oates of "Return of the Seven") is a former bounty hunter who has forsaken hunting downmen for hunting for gold. He has several partners. Amiable but loquacious Coley Boyard (Will Hutchins of TV's "Sugarfoot") is one of them. Will hasn't been at their mining camp for a couple of days, but all hell has broken loose during the interval. Coley saw Willett's brother Coin leave the camp and one of their other partners, Leland Drum (B.J. Merholz of "Drive, He Said"), die from a bullet in the head while he sat crouched over a campfire slurping coffee. Coley is predictably distraught later when Will shows up at camp. Will disarms Coley and goes to sleep in their tent with Coley's gun on his belly. The following day a mysterious rider shoots the horse that she was riding and traipses into Will's camp. This anonymous dame (Millie Perkins of "The Diary of Anne Frank") has money to blow and hires Will to guide her through the desert. Not only do we never learn her name, but also she displays about as much compassion as a rattlesnake. She never smiles. Coley rides along with them and they ride into a town and then set off into the desert. Director Monte Hellman's low-budget oater was co-produced by Jack Nicholson, who arrives about thirty minutes into the action as an intimating but taciturn gunslinger in fancy clothes with arm garters and gloves. The lady identifies him as Billy Spear and welcomes his eerie presence. Ultimately, he winds up shooting poor Coley when the charismatic but simple-minded oaf tries to shoot him. The remaining three stumble through the desert until they exhaust their horses with the woman shooting up the landscape as they go. Initially, Will believes that she is firing her six-gun to give Billy a way to catch up with her. The last few minutes with a brief but bloodless shoot-out offers little in the way of narrative closure. Presumably, the individual that the lady guns down is Will's look-alike brother. Mind you, Oates doesn't receive dual credit for this role. Coley mentioned early on in this minimalist, 82-minute western that Coin was responsible for the death of somebody in town. The only explanation is that the dead person in town that Coin killed is related to the lady, possibly her child. Whatever the case, the lady's inexorable tenacity to track him through the desert despite dying in the process is that she has to exact vengeance. This lean and mean horse opera keeps everything under wraps even its surprise ending. Will Hutchins steals the film with his broad comic performance. The scene where he scrambles desperately up a hill to take refuge in a shack while spilling flour along the way is hilarious. Hutchins is the only traditional western character on hand; furthermore, he is the most sympathetic. Hutchins delivers twice as much dialogue as anybody else. At the same time, Oater remains reserved, philosophical, and questioning, while Perkins emerges as both thoroughly inscrutable and totally obnoxious. She defies the standard stereotypical woman in western and propels the action to its conclusion.Some critics have labeled "The Shooting" an existential western, and the description seems appropriate. We learn precious little about these sketchy characters. They don't break down around the campfire and talk about themselves like they would in a "Budd" Boetticher western. Reportedly, Hellman tore up the first nine pages of Carole Eastman's screenplay to keep us puzzling over the succession of perplexing events that ensue. Incidentally, she penned the screenplay for another legendary Nicholson film "Five Easy Pieces." Nicholson is striking as a natty trigger-happy gunslinger, and Perkins epitomizes revenge in her quest to kill Will's brother. A hypnotic sagebrusher that relies on straightforward action to propel it headlong to its shocking finale, "The Shooting" qualifies as an art-house saga. If Italian movie director Michelangelo Antonioni had ever helmed a western, he would have done something like "The Shooting" because it seems so random and pointless.

AaronCapenBanner Monte Hellman directed this strikingly unique, original, yet experimental western that stars Millie Perkins as a mysterious woman with no revealed name who hires two cowboys named Willit & Coley(played by Warren Oates & Will Hutchins) to track down a man for mysterious reasons, though it appears to be Willit's brother who may have been involved in an accidental death with another cowboy who is later shot dead. Jack Nicholson costars as a cold-blooded gunfighter assisting the woman in the hunt, which leads them to the barren hot desert and a surprise ending, which will no doubt either intrigue or infuriate the viewer, but fine acting and direction keep it on track, especially by Perkins.

funkyfry A reluctant bounty hunter (Warren Oates) and his naive hireling (Will Hutchins) are hired by a mysterious woman (Millie Perkins) to help her track down an unknown man. Along the way they're joined by the sadistic gunman (Jack Nicholson) she's hired to finish the job. Rancor and jealousy undermine the group as they pursue a quarry that may well mean death for them all.It's an interesting attempt at a psychological western that I think doesn't completely work. What really undermines the movie isn't so much Hellman's slow pace, which I had no problem with, but rather some poor casting of the leads. Perkins can barely speak her dialog without looking like she's reading off a queue card, and Hutchins is just one of the actors on this film who seems to be hopped up on amphetamines or something. On the other hand, there's absolutely no problem with Oates or Nicholson, two excellent actors having a good time playing off each other. In Oates' and Hellman's masterpiece, "Two-Lane Blacktop", the contrast between the good and the amateur actors in the film actually enhanced the cinema experience because it was a good parallel to the characters. But in this one it just feels like Hellman's odd fascination with Perkins (who starred in quite a few of his more serious films) is undermining things.Right up to the rather rushed existential ending, which anybody with half a brain can see coming a mile away, and the whole scene with Perkins rushing up the hill after this man (reminiscent of Jennifer Jones in "Duel in the Sun"), the film kept me glued to the set. It's an interesting film because it's so much more low-key than most American westerns of the time period. It's a departure from the big epics of the time and it's not as gimmicky and busy as the Italian westerns (although the music is reminiscent of the spaghetti style). For those seeking a more character-oriented western, this is a very god bet. I only wish they had enough money to hire a couple better actors to compliment Nicholson and Oates.