Director Monte Hellman has been lauded for shooting two movies at the same time for the rumored price of $150,000. An impressive feat, but a duplicatable one, as long as one isn't concerned about sound. Or plot. Or character development. As Hellman apparently wasn't when he made this film. The dialogue is often incomprehensible, especially unfortunate since this leaves us with a movie depending heavily on shots of people riding to carry it. The Shooting isn't even able to resolve the meagre elements of a plot it has. It sets up a reasonable premise, albeit excrutiatingly slowly, wherein this one guy somehow related to our heroes has been shot for inscrutiable reasons by persons unknown. And this mysterious girl comes along and hires our heroes to escort her to her destination. So they ride. And they ride. They ride for a long time. Boy howdy, do they ride! And then Jack Nicholson shows up and, wouldn't you know it, they ride some more! So we have a bunch of people that we don't really know anything about riding. And eventually, there's some fairly undramatic shooting, thinly living up to the promise of the title, an inexplicable slow motion sequence, and then, while resolving nothing in the process, the movie, mercifully, ends. At this stage, bafflement, followed by a slow sensation that one's better off not thinking about it, is normal.
Review of The Shooting
