According to the DVD's synopsis, the Jack Nicholson character is supposed to be the villain, but I found this statement far from convincing in the movie itself, particularly as the movie makes no mention as to why he is being sought out. Once again, we have to depend upon the DVD's synopsis rather than on what we are told by the characters in the film. Fortunately, the story's four principal players are stunningly photographed against a series of awesome natural settings, but even these begin to pall before the movie has run its course. All told, this is a somewhat pretentious western that tends to out-stay its welcome. Worst of all, it comes to a rather abrupt and most unsatisfying conclusion. Oddly, although as stated above, the motivation of the central character played by Millie Perkins remained a complete mystery to me from first to last, I see that it is actually spelled out on the liner notes to the excellent El Paso DVD, but I'm still not convinced. My feeling is that the producer simply ran out of money, and that's why the movie ends rather abruptly, literally in mid-flight.
Review of The Shooting
