The Shooting **** (1966, Warren Oates, Will Hutchins, Jack Nicholson, Millie Perkins) – Classic Movie Review 6,212

Monte Hellman’s gritty 1966 existential Western film The Shooting stars a grinning Jack Nicholson as a merciless hired killer who comes up against bounty hunters Willett Gashade and Coley (Warren Oates and Will Hutchins).

Director Monte Hellman’s gritty 1966 existential Western film The Shooting stars a grinning Jack Nicholson as a ‘violent, sadistic and merciless’ hired killer called Billy Spear, who comes up against bounty hunters Willett Gashade and dim-witted Coley (Warren Oates and Will Hutchins).

What is on offer is ‘suspenseful desert pursuit in the High Noon tradition’. A sombre search for who knows what is the bleak centre of this film about man’s futile struggle against mortality.

There is a quietly impressive screenplay by Carole Eastman (the Oscar nominated screen-writer from Five Easy Pieces in 1970, who was credited in both films as Adrien Joyce), while Hellman’s intense direction on a shoestring budget of $75,000 keeps the colour images as opaque as the words. Ten pages were cut from Eastman’s screenplay just before shooting, helping to slash the budget and keeping the running time to only 82 minutes. Look out for the promised ‘unequalled climax’.

Also in the cast are Millie Perkins as the Woman, B J Merholz as Leland Drum, Guy El Tsosie as Indian at Cross Tree, Brandon Carroll (as the Sheriff), Wally Moon (as the Deputy), Charles Eastman as Bearded Man, William Mackleprang as Cross Tree Townsman, and James Campbell as Cross Tree Townsman.

The Shooting is directed by Monte Hellman, runs 82 minutes, is made by Proteus Films and Santa Clara Productions, is released by Jack H Harris Enterprises and Favorite Films, is written by Carole Eastman (credited as Adrien Joyce), is shot by Gregory Sandor, produced by Jack Nicholson and Monte Hellman, and scored by Richard Markowitz.

Premiered at the Montreal Film Festival, and then shown at the San Francisco Film Festival on October 23, 1966, it was picked up by the Walter Reade Organization in the US  and sold directly to TV. It eventually hit US public cinema screens in 1971 and 1972 after Jack H Harris Enterprises bought the theatrical rights based on Jack Nicholson’s new fame.

It was made in Kanab, Utah, in April 1965, immediately before its companion piece Ride in the Whirlwind, reuniting Nicholson with Hellman. Both films were made in a total of six weeks of continuous shooting. Both films were screened at the Montreal Film Festival, and then shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

The horse wranglers got $10,000 of the $75,000 budget. Heavy rain and flooding wasted the first two days of filming and $5,000 of the budget. That just left $60,000 for the actors, producers, director, writer, cinematographer, etc, etc!

Hellman and Nicholson had made two films together, Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury, They contacted Roger Corman with a script he disliked, but asked them to do a Western instead, actually two Westerns back to back. Nicholson worked on the script for Ride in the Whirlwind and Hellman asked their mutual friend Carole Eastman to write The Shooting, filming it largely as written after Corman agreed to finance it. However, Hellman deleted the exposition-heavy first part of the script and began shooting around page 10 of the screenplay.

Perkins was Hellman’s next-door neighbour at the time, and had first met Hellman and Nicholson in the same acting class.

Nicholson and Oates repeatedly clashed, frequently ending up in screaming matches. Production shut down for half a day when Oates refused to speak a lengthy dialogue the way Hellman wanted.

Hellman said asking Nicholson to co-produce the film was ‘the biggest mistake of my life’, with Nicholson constantly worried about the budget and arguing repeatedly with Hellman over tiny budgetary concerns.

Will Hutchins (born Marshall Lowell Hutchason; May 5, 1930 – April 21, 2025)

Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster in Sugarfoot (1958).

Will Hutchins (born 5 May 1930) is fondly remembered as young lawyer Tom Brewster in 69 episodes of the Warner Bros TV Western show Sugarfoot [Tenderfoot] on ABC from 1957 to 1961.

Carole Eastman (1934–2004) was the sister of Charles Eastman. She attended acting class with Nicholson and wrote the scripts of four of his films: The Shooting (1967), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Fortune (1975) and Man Trouble (1992).

Monte Hellman (born Monte Jay Himmelbaum; July 12, 1929 – April 20, 2021)

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,212

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