The Shooting The Cult of Warren Oates by Bruce Cantwell Warren Oates had two careers, only one of which I knew about at the time of his death in 1982. I remember him in THE WILD BUNCH and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT in the sixties and later in STRIPES and BLUE THUNDER in the early eighties. But these were the films in which he played supporing roles. Some of the films in which he starred were much wackier. In BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, a leisure suit wearing, beater driving Oates slogs across Mexican dirt roads with flies buzzing around a head in a burlap bag riding shotgun. In THE SHOOTING, he's following a trail for a woman with no name (Millie Perkins) accompanied by the foppish Coley Boyard (Will Hutchins) who would probably fall down a mine shaft if left behind. This ain't your John Wayne western. Ain't no bar room brawls or saloon girls, ain't no showdowns, ain't no cattle, ain't no sheriff, ain't no bad guys. What's left? That's what Willett Cashade (Oates) is wondering. The woman with no name is mighty interested in finding the gal or feller at the other end of this trail, otherwise why would she be willing to pay Caashade $1000 bucks to get her across this god forsaken terrain? And why is she so interested in shooting off that gun of hers every few miles? Monte Hellman, who shot this movie on as a two-fer with RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND on Roger Corman's skin flint budget, managed to direct a lean, authentic western with sharp dialogue by screenwriter Carol Eastman (FIVE EASY PIECES), stunning natural light photography by Gregory Sandor and an eerie score by Richard Markowitz. The DVD has an interesting commentary track with Monte Hellman and Millie Perkins recalling the experience of shooting the film. We learn that it was shot in Utah for $75,000, that the Mormon cowboys were the only union crew, and that Will Hutchins later ran off to become a clown in Australia. If you're not a fan of western cliche, give this flick a chance.	Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/shooting.php3 on line 29 Warning: include(http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/shooting.php3 on line 29 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/shooting.php3 on line 29
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