Director Monte Hellman and actor Jack Nicholson met while making a pair of war movies for Roger Corman and decided to team up to produce a couple of low-budget Westerns, both released in 1966. The Shooting, an almost abstract odyssey through a harsh desert landscape, features Warren Oates as Willett Gashade, a former bounty hunter hired to track a wanted man by a mysterious unnamed woman (Millie Perkins), who toys with Oates's childlike partner, Coley Boyard (Will Hutchins); Jack Nicholson costars as Billy Spear, a sadistic, black-clad killer. Hellman keeps the audience in the dark about the true nature of the trip as the characters warily eye one another. Ride in the Whirlwind, written by Nicholson and only slightly more conventional, is the story of two cowboys, Vern and Wes (Cameron Mitchell and Nicholson), who run from a posse that mistakes them for bank robbers. In contrast to The Shooting's harsh environment and heightening tension, Ride in the Whirlwind is set in pastoral forests and advances at a leisurely pace (the pair's nervous waiting occupies much of the time), employing a naturalistic style. Financed by Corman, both films were well received at European film festivals but got stuck in legal limbo and were eventually sold directly to American TV with no theatrical release. Both were rediscovered in the 1970s—in part thanks to Nicholson's success—and here receive their due in remastered DVD and Blu-ray editions, with extras including audio commentaries on both films (featuring Hellman and film historians Bill Krohn and Blake Lucas), new cast and crew interviews, a visual essay on Oates, and a booklet. Likely to appeal to fans of Westerns and of early American independent filmmaking, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)
The Shooting / Ride in the Whirlwind
Criterion, 163 min., not rated, DVD: 2 discs, $29.95; Blu-ray: $39.95 Volume 30, Issue 1
The Shooting / Ride in the Whirlwind
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