The Hunting Party tries to out-do The Wild Bunch for graphic violence and mayhem. You almost get the impression that some uninspired movie-makers sat around after seeing the 1969 Peckinpah classic, and said: "Yeah..... all that blood, all that carnage, all in glorious close-up colour. Let's see if we can go even further". However, The Hunting Party is simply a grim stain of a film. It advocates nastiness for the sake of nastiness. Where The Wild Bunch was trying to lay the old west bare, and to explore what happens to men who have outlived their era, this film merely wants to explore what damage bullets can do to human flesh. There's no insight into the period or the characters, just a heck of a lot of killing.
Surprisingly, the cast is full of powerhouse talent. Oliver Reed top bills as Frank Calder, an outlaw with no particular ambition or aim in life other than to stay alive in a violent world. He and his gang kidnap a beautiful teacher Melissa Ruger (Candice Bergen). Her husband Brandt Ruger (Gene Hackman) pursues the gang with a hunting party, aided by the latest and greatest rifles which can blow a man apart from long range. One by one, Reed's gang is reduced in number from a safe distance until only Reed himself remains.
The history of guns seems to have been well researched for this film, but if you want a potted history of how the rifle was used in the wild west then read a good book on the subject. As a serious western with themes about lawlessness, vigilantism and corruption, the film is a loss. It could've explored all these themes, but it just contents itself with close-up killings. As an entertainment it is a loss too. What's entetaining about outlaws having their torso blown open by long range rifles? What's entertaining about one set of unpleasant characters hunting down another set of unpleasant characters? It seems to me that good westerns can go down one of two routes: they can be serious explorations of a fascinating time and place, or they can be entertaining action yarns with a wild west setting. This film is neither... avoid!
Surprisingly, the cast is full of powerhouse talent. Oliver Reed top bills as Frank Calder, an outlaw with no particular ambition or aim in life other than to stay alive in a violent world. He and his gang kidnap a beautiful teacher Melissa Ruger (Candice Bergen). Her husband Brandt Ruger (Gene Hackman) pursues the gang with a hunting party, aided by the latest and greatest rifles which can blow a man apart from long range. One by one, Reed's gang is reduced in number from a safe distance until only Reed himself remains.
The history of guns seems to have been well researched for this film, but if you want a potted history of how the rifle was used in the wild west then read a good book on the subject. As a serious western with themes about lawlessness, vigilantism and corruption, the film is a loss. It could've explored all these themes, but it just contents itself with close-up killings. As an entertainment it is a loss too. What's entetaining about outlaws having their torso blown open by long range rifles? What's entertaining about one set of unpleasant characters hunting down another set of unpleasant characters? It seems to me that good westerns can go down one of two routes: they can be serious explorations of a fascinating time and place, or they can be entertaining action yarns with a wild west setting. This film is neither... avoid!