734-735 The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind

[swo17]

The Shooting / Ride in the Whirlwind



In the mid-sixties, the maverick American director Monte Hellman conceived of two westerns at the same time. Dreamlike and gritty by turns, the two films would prove their maker's adeptness at brilliantly deconstructing genre. As shot back-to-back for famed producer Roger Corman, they feature overlapping casts and crews, including Jack Nicholson in two of his meatiest early roles. The films—The Shooting, about a motley assortment of loners following a mysterious wanted man through a desolate frontier, and Ride in the Whirlwind, about a group of cowhands pursued by vigilantes for crimes they did not commit—are rigorous, artful, and wholly unconventional journeys into the American West.

The Shooting

In this eerie, existential western directed by Monte Hellman and written by Carole Eastman (Five Easy Pieces), Warren Oates and Will Hutchins play a bounty hunter and his sidekick who are talked by a mysterious woman (Millie Perkins) into leading her into the desert on a murkily motivated revenge mission. Things are further complicated by the addition to their crew of an enigmatic drifter (Jack Nicholson) who seems to delight in sadistically toying with the two men. Hellman's singular odyssey is a vision of the weird old west unlike any other, a spare and challenging work leading to a provocative ending.

Ride in the Whirlwind

Working from a thoughtful script by Jack Nicholson, Monte Hellman fashioned this moody and tense western about a trio of cowhands who are mistaken for robbers and must outrun and hide from a posse of bloodthirsty vigilantes in the wilds of Utah. A grim yet gripping tale of chance and blind frontier justice, Ride in the Whirlwind is brought to life by a compelling cast, including Nicholson, Cameron Mitchell, Millie Perkins, and Harry Dean Stanton.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

• New 4K digital restorations of both films, supervised by director Monte Hellman, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentaries on both films, featuring Hellman and film historians Bill Krohn and Blake Lucas
• New interviews with actors John Hackett, B. J. Merholz, Millie Perkins, and Harry Dean Stanton, assistant director Gary Kurtz, and chief wrangler Calvin Johnson, all in conversation with Hellman
• New conversation between actor Will Hutchins and film programmer Jake Perlin
• New video essay on actor Warren Oates by critic Kim Morgan
• PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Atkinson
• More!

[domino harvey]

Well, regardless of the package it comes in, I'm excited to finally see these: By the time I started getting into film, these had already long disappeared from the home market and going for prices I wasn't willing to pay. So it'll be nice to see them via Criterion's treatment, though based on my experience with other post-classic era westerns, I'm not holding my breath for any revelations (but hope to have one-- or two!)

[Finch]

Ride in the Whirlwind will be new to me too but I loved The Shooting. Anyone who've seen both care to share a bit about what Whirlwind is like?

[turkeysandwich]

I remember trying to track down a vhs copy of Ride in the Whirlwind about 15 years ago, and finally finding it, after about a year of searching, to rent at a store about 50 miles from where I lived, only to find the tape completely unwatchable with unintelligible sound.

I finally saw these two the same day back to back about 5-6 years ago. I remember really enjoying The Shooting, but for the life of me I cannot remember a single thing about seeing Ride in the Whirlwind, which of course was the one I was really excited about seeing.

Sounds like some good extras, and I always get my hopes up when the 'More!' is down there, even though most of the time it seems like it just turns out to be a stills gallery or something.

[Roger Ryan]

Ride in the Whirlwind will be new to me too but I loved The Shooting. Anyone who've seen both care to share a bit about what Whirlwind is like?

I think RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND is every bit as good as THE SHOOTING even if it's a fairly conventional western. Both Nicholson's script and Hellman's direction are lean and to-the-point which works to keep the storyline from feeling too well-worn. Also, the cast works hard to elevate the drama. I'm very pleased that Criterion has saved both of these films from the middling-to-lousy public domain issues of the past.

[Shrew]

Even though The Shooting gets dubbed an Acid Western, I don't think that's a fair or appropriate label (at least until the last few minutes). It's very much a partner to Two-Lane Blacktop. Both films use the iconic imagery of their genres to pick at the mythology of the road movie and the western, while providing compelling (if digressive) narratives and characters that ground the existential rumination. They're very different beasts from the Leone westerns, which blow out the mythology of the old west only to replace it with a new bloodier mythology. In a Leone film, Nicholson's character would a walking myth, but Hellman makes him a man.

Ride the Whirlwind is a much more normal film (really not at all an "Acid Western"), but as Roger Ryan notes, still a lean mean exemplar of a B-western. I wouldn't rate it as a high as The Shooting, as it revolves around moral quandaries typical of the genre (though it goes darker), rather than the existential journal of the other film.

[Koukol]

These are easily my favorite American Westerns along with CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37 (which I hope will follow)

Of the two RIDE is my favorite as it's more straight forward yet very stylistic.

[flyonthewall2983]

El Topo seems more like an Acid Western from what I hear. Really curious about these two films, admittedly more than any other Western currently in the CC.

[Finch]

Thanks for all the responses, folks.

[Minkin]

The More has been revealed

[Koukol]

The movies are enough for me.

[Drucker]

Beaver.

[Rupert Pupkin]

..../...

[Minkin]

Bluray.com

[knives]

Cracked this with The Shooting and I have to admit a tinge of disappointment that it's merely a Corman film given its vaunted reputation and talented crew. There's nothing beyond the quality of performance (though Will Hutchins really makes up for everyone else's talent) and the stark use of colour to separate this beyond the million other dimestore westerns that were popular in the era. Even the much talked about genre play doesn't seem to be that emphasized with much of the film being a straightforward revenge plot though with the benefit of some interesting gender politics as if Eastman and Hellman aimed to make True Grit in the Boetticher model. Which I guess is a good spot to go into what works for the film which with expectations properly adjusted is a good movie. Perkins and Oates relationship is very well done somehow gaining a deep affectation despite the bullet speed approach to characterization the film holds. The performances are pretty clearly modeled on the piss poor sound equipment they had available doing that no budget thing of everyone pausing before the next person speaks as if to ensure what was just said was recorded. It's probably a drawback for most, but I find it charming. The film is not breaking new ground, but it's a positive delight given what the people walking in a desert model typically yields (in short thankfully this is no Beast of Yucca Flats). Also the restoration and transfer here is so intensely beautiful it makes me hope similar no budget films get this level of treatment because it is like seeing a wealthier picture. Could Hellman's own Beast from Haunted Cave for instance look this great?

[knives]

Ride in the Whirlwind was a significantly better experience with Hellman really exploring that Boetticher model really well allowing the closed off spaces to rule the mis-en-scene to the point where it turning into the Heaven's Gate shoot out comes as something of a relief. The film isn't as visually memorable as The Shooting, but it also seems more sure and better paced. The supposed themes of the duo also seem more clear where these guys aren't guilty of any known crime, but carry the weight of being guilty all the same. The movie also almost stars Harry Dean Stanton wearing an eyepatch which instantly makes it better than most movies.

[zedz]

The extras on this set are highly enjoyable and highly personal. Even though Hellman could only extract one measly anecdote from Harry Dean Stanton, it was great to see him there. The commentaries are generally good, but there's a little too much of the interlocutors at the expense of Hellman, who's right there, ready to talk about the actual films! But no, tell me more about Your Fascinating Childhood, Bill Krohn, growing up on a farm surrounded by people with German names!

The films look more magnificent than I'd ever thought I'd see them. The Shooting is one of my all-time favourite westerns: it's just so brutally, single-mindedly Beckettian, relentlessly stripping down its protagonists of every shred on their individuality and humanity and forcing them further and further out into the wilderness. It's a beautifully single-minded piece of writing, and Hellman brings it to life with uncanny precision, given the ultra-low-budget production circumstances. This is actually the first time I've seen it in an unbutchered aspect ratio.

[Koukol]

Ride in the Whirlwind was a significantly better experience with Hellman really exploring that Boetticher model really well allowing the closed off spaces to rule the mis-en-scene to the point where it turning into the Heaven's Gate shoot out comes as something of a relief. The film isn't as visually memorable as The Shooting, but it also seems more sure and better paced. The supposed themes of the duo also seem more clear where these guys aren't guilty of any known crime, but carry the weight of being guilty all the same. The movie also almost stars Harry Dean Stanton wearing an eyepatch which instantly makes it better than most movies.

This may be my favorite American Western (along with McCABE & MRS MILLER) and the reason I bought the BD.
For me THE SHOOTING is just a bonus.(a most welcome one)

I can't quite put my finger on it why I think it's so great.
It's not your typical American Western which is a good thing for me.

[Roger Ryan]

...The commentaries are generally good, but there's a little too much of the interlocutors at the expense of Hellman, who's right there, ready to talk about the actual films!...

I agree this can be frustrating...and it may have been for the filmmaker as well. My favorite moment is when Krohn is going on about Antonioni painting trees and earth for effect in THE RED DESERT and Hellman dryly remarks "Well, I painted the mountains yellow [in THE SHOOTING]"!

[Mr Sausage]

Nothing but spoilers:

The Shooting: I really appreciated this movie for its atmosphere and unconventional narrative (both in terms of what's being told and how). The way exposition is stripped away until all that's left is suggestion generates an uneasy sense of mystery that keeps you watching attentively to what, in retrospect, are basically long stretches of terse people riding and glancing at each other. The ability to fill even the most empty moments with anticipation is commendable. This is one of the rare movies whose story isn't revealed to the audience. You simply have to work it out for yourself. And by the time you do, all you can do is watch helplessly. The fatalism of this movie is its great strength because it's a fatalism that's unallied with everything the western usually stands for: this is not a movie where the hero solves the central drama with death; this is a movie about a hero who spends the whole movie trying to prevent death--and then everyone dies. Leaving his friend behind did not save him (a grand, stirring rescue attempt that ended pointlessly and bathetically). Sparing the gunman was pointless, too, the sun will claim him soon enough. The hero's last ditch run up the hill sees him falling just short of saving either the woman or his brother, ie. the whole reason he even came on the trip. And all he has to look forward to is a slow death. A movie of unhappy people who cannot be saved. It's pretty audacious when you think back on it. But this is never a dreary slog, far from it. It's gripping. That slight and lingering sense of the otherworldly in the atmosphere of the film has a hypnotic pull that's akin to the way the characters are drawn quietly into something that you sense will consume them. This has become one of my favourite westerns.

Ride in the Whirlwind: Neither as action-packed nor as surreal as I was expecting, and much sadder. This is a lonely movie. The moment in the cabin where Vern haltingly admits to the woman that his life probably is as lonely as she says, only to remember what she thinks he is and realize he's inadvertently admitted that his honest life hasn't been any less lonely and desperate than that of a bandit--this moment is truly sad. It's fitting that the only sensible and well-adjusted of the three cowhands is killed right away. Who knows what Wes is riding towards in the end, but I can't imagine it'll be any less lonely than what he left behind. A movie where all the wrong people die, where the stage is set for a conventional romance that never even sparks, where the only real moment of connection comes between Vern and that old lady over their mutual loneliness, and soon one will be dead and the other bereft. And yet this sadness never overwhelms the narrative, which remains quickly paced and absorbing. The sadness waits underneath, for when you think about it later.

[peerpee]

Two lovely write-ups, Mr Sausage. Just saw this BD and loved both films very much. Hadn't seen them before, and I must have wondered to myself – for about 25 years – whether they were quickly made mediocre potboilers or not. How wrong I was! Stunning films.

[krnash]

Making my way through the special features in this set and was pretty disappointed in the Will Hutchins segment. I'll admit I don't know much about Jake Perlin but I found his interview pretty dull and dry, coming off as both disinterested and humorless. It's the only Criterion extra I can recall where the choice of moderator may have actually ruined my enjoyment of an otherwise interesting piece. Anyone else feel this way or did he just rub me the wrong way?

[hearthesilence]

Perlin's a nice guy, but he can be very, very reserved, at least during the few times I've met him, so I'd go easy on him.

Anyway, and I thought Rosenbaum's take from a list he made for DVDBeaver is more specific that most. Key word is "funny" which is the first time I've heard anyone else mention that:

The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966). The only truly avant-garde western on my list (although Johnny Guitar arguably comes close), scripted by Carole Eastman under the pseudonym Adrian Joyce. Hellman shot it over about 18 days, back to back with the somewhat more conventional western Ride in the Whirlwind, and then spent about half a year editing both. Brad Stevens’ excellent Monte Hellman: His Life and Films (Jefferson, NC/London: McFarland & Company, 2003) links this odd movie, which he calls Hellman’s first masterpiece, to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, but I’m more prone to view it as the best western Alain Resnais never made. It’s also the first movie Hellman made with his most quintessential actor, Warren Oates — who went on to play other indelible parts in Hellman’s Two Lane Blacktop (1971), Cockfighter (1974), and his last western to date, China 9, Liberty 37 (1978) —- and Oates’ memorable costars are Jack Nicholson (who coproduced the film with Hellman), Millie Perkins, and Will Hutchins. If it weren’t so funny in its inimitable absurdist way, I suppose one could call it pretentious, but only at the risk of missing all the scary fun.

[hearthesilence]

I'm watching the extras to this, and it's wonderful to see Hellman catching up with his old friends - he even lets a dog interrupt during Kurtz's interview. The warmth they bring to these meetings makes them all the more sad as Stanton (looking and sounding very frail), Kurtz, Hellman and possibly more are all gone now, and it doesn't feel like these were shot that long ago.