''The Hunting Party'' is a 1971 American-British
western film directed by
Don Medford
Donald Muller (November 26, 1917 – December 12, 2012), known professionally as Don Medford, was an American television director who directed over 75 TV series between 1951 and 1989, and who also directed three movies.
Medford directed the fina ...
for
Levy-Gardner-Laven and starring
Oliver Reed
Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...
,
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...
,
Candice Bergen,
Simon Oakland and
Ronald Howard.
The film was shot at studios in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, and
on location around Spain including the
Tabernas Desert in
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...
. The film's sets were designed by the
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
Enrique Alarcón
Enrique Alarcón Sánchez-Manjavacas (1917–1995) was a Spanish art director.Faulkner p.106 He worked on over two hundred films.
Selected filmography
* ''Eloisa Is Under an Almond Tree'' (1943)
* ''The Phantom and Dona Juanita'' (1945)
* ''Lad ...
.
Plot
Relations are strained between sexually sadistic cattle baron Brandt Ruger (
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...
) and his wife, Melissa (
Candice Bergen) when he leaves for a two-week hunting trip with some of his wealthy friends.
Mistaking her for a schoolteacher, outlaw Frank Calder (
Oliver Reed
Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...
) and his band of rustlers and thieves kidnap Melissa, not for ransom but because Calder wants to be taught how to read a book.
Traveling by luxurious private train, the hunting party engages in debauchery with women, one of whom Ruger sadistically abuses. While the party dines, Ruger presents them with rifles he describes as the “Sharps-Borchardt Model Creedmoor .54 caliber – finest rifle ever made”. He claims it is “accurate up to 800 yards”. Notified that his wife has been taken captive, he then tells his friends they will pick off the kidnapers from a distance with their new, long-range rifles. They will hunt not for animals but for men.
Calder twice must keep Melissa from being raped by his men. But eventually he overpowers and rapes her himself. Melissa tries to shoot and stab Calder and to flee, each time in vain. She goes on a hunger strike, but cannot resist the temptation of a jar of peaches. She begins to enjoy Calder's company.
Using rifles with telescopic sights that can allow shooting a target at 800 yards, Ruger and his men begin to pick off the outlaws one by one. Melissa also stabs one, Hog Warren (
L. Q. Jones
Justus Ellis McQueen Jr. (August 19, 1927 – July 9, 2022), known professionally as L.Q. Jones, was an American actor and director. He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's films ''Ride the High Country'' (1962), ''Major Dundee'' (1965), ''The Wild Bunc ...
), after he attempts a second time to rape her. Calder charges within close range and is able to shoot one of Ruger's men. Two others quit the hunting party when they see Ruger's lack of concern over their friend's death.
Calder's men become upset to discover that they have kidnapped such a powerful man's wife, placing them in danger for no good reason. The men revolt and Calder kills one. When his own best friend, Doc (
Mitchell Ryan), is gravely wounded, Calder obeys a last request to put Doc out of his misery.
On his death bed, Hog Warren further angers Ruger by telling him Melissa is now Calder's woman. In yet another ambush, Ruger sees for himself that Melissa, rather than trying to escape, leaps onto Calder's horse voluntarily to ride off with him. Ruger's last remaining ally, Matthew (
Simon Oakland), implores him to let her go, but the crazed Ruger pays no mind.
The last of Calder's men are gunned down from long range at a water hole. Alone now, Calder and Melissa are driven out into the desert. Weak from heat and thirst, their horse dead, they stumble toward an inevitable fate. Ruger materializes on foot. He fatally shoots Calder with his rifle. As Calder is dying Ruger kills Melissa. Ruger then collapses beside them. The credits roll over what appears to be a sepia photograph of three bodies in the sand.
Cast
*
Oliver Reed
Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...
as Frank Calder
*
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...
as Brandt Ruger
*
Candice Bergen as Melissa Ruger
*
Simon Oakland as Matthew Gunn
*
L. Q. Jones
Justus Ellis McQueen Jr. (August 19, 1927 – July 9, 2022), known professionally as L.Q. Jones, was an American actor and director. He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's films ''Ride the High Country'' (1962), ''Major Dundee'' (1965), ''The Wild Bunc ...
as "Hog" Warren
*
Mitchell Ryan as Doc Harrison
*
Ronald Howard as Watt Nelson
*
William Watson as Jim Loring
*
G.D. Spradlin as Sam Bayard
*
Rayford Barnes as Crimp
*
Bernard Kay as Buford King
* Richard Adams as "Owney" Clark
* Dean Selmier as Collins
* Sarah Atkinson as Redhead
*
Francesca Tu
Francesca Tu (born 1943) is a Chinese-born German film and television actress.Shelley p.35
Selected filmography Film
* ''The Face of Fu Manchu'' (1965)
* ''The Brides of Fu Manchu'' (1966)
* '' You Only Live Twice'' (1967)
* ''Lotus Flowers for Mi ...
as Chinese Girl
Reception
The reviews for the movie were unrelentingly negative and hostile. Roger Greenspun wrote in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' that it was "a really stupid movie" in which Bergen had "an utterly thankless role" and that the director "hokes up the action to a degree not required by the story and, with a stunning tactlessness, catches scene after scene at its dramatic limit and pushes it over into helpless banality." ''
Variety'' wrote "seldom has so much fake blood been splattered for so little". Tony Mastroianni wrote in ''The Cleveland Press'' that "This movie is no picnic. It is a gory western for audiences with strong stomachs. It also is pretentious. If
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
had written westerns, he might have turned out some of the plot of "''The Hunting Party''"".
Leonard Maltin gave it his lowest rating, writing "Fine cast is wasted in repellently violent western that adds nothing new".
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by
Riz Ortolani. While in Hollywood to score the film he gave interviews criticizing the trend of low budget movies to recut existing music.
[Billboard – 6 Feb 1971 – Page 4 LOS ANGELES— The trend to low-budget pictures is detrimental to the music industry and to the future of soundtrack recordings, according to composer Riz Ortolani." Page 70 "The Italian composer was here last week to score "The Hunting Party", with Candice Burgen. Ortolani, whose "Till Love Touches Your Life", from the motion picture "Madron", is a contender for an Academy Award, feels that producers are turning more towards "pre-writ- ten" music in order to save money. ""They're taking existing tracks and trying to fit them into motion pictures instead of hiring a composer to score a film. It's a simple economic reason "]
References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunting Party, The
1971 films
1970s action films
1970s historical films
1971 independent films
1971 Western (genre) films
1970s action drama films
American historical films
American independent films
British Western (genre) films
Films about kidnapping
British films about revenge
American films about revenge
Films directed by Don Medford
United Artists films
Films shot in Almería
1971 drama films
1970s English-language films
1970s American films
1970s British films