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I'm watching "Three Days Of The Condor" right now and started thinking about a movie I saw long ago called "Shoot". A very interesting story line that could today be much better, The Shooting in the woods with the hunters is classic,(happens even today), the ending about all the home boys going back to finish, is great. But the hour in between this movie is lost. What is this crap about having to use 10 lines!!! The movie does not deserve ten lines!! OK i'm going for ten lines or I do not no what the Hec I'm doing!.

Just a Thought

Andy

This hard to find drama about two hunting parties that decide to wage war on each other after a party member is killed from a previous encounter, seems at first promising, but after a ponderous snail-paced middle act, patchy characters and a somewhat unbelievable story to begin with, 'Shoot' begins to lose it's credibility with each slow moving scene.

Despite a half decent cast of it's day, the likes of Ernest Borgnine and Henry Silva have little to do, the pale script seemingly stretched just a little too thin for the film's running time, in fact the film seems a lot more suited to TV of which director Harvey Hart is more accustomed to. Cliff Robertson admittedly pulls off a hard driven performance as the unhinged Major Rex, however his character's actions do seem a little unbelievable and unintentionally funny at times as do the escalating events that lead the hunting party into more conflict.

Though an interesting premise, that could be easily mistaken for a John Woo plot if there ever was one, 'Shoot' suffers the most by it's shallow unlikeable characters and it's slow yet meticulous build up to the final bitter act, which when finally surfacing leaves the viewer feeling undeniably shortchanged.

I am a sucker for survivalist films, men caught up in a situation, especially in isolated settings. This is that type of film, or at least starts out as one, but takes different turns that at first were disappointing, then when all was said and done were appreciated for their originality. The pacing, slow and thoughtful, throws some for a loop, but so did the climax for me, which shifts gears several times and catches you off guard before the credits roll. I defy anyone to nail where this film is going at any point, or figure out its message easily. Several social issues arise. I think you can project different meanings on this film. It has stuck with me.

Another thoughtful, slow and subtle film by the same director, in the Horror genre, is The Pyx (1973), also made in Canada. Director Harvey Hart has quite an interesting TV resume, including Alfred Hitchcock, Wild Wild West, Star Trek, Starlost and Colombo.

I saw this flick years ago when TV was still cool and they had late night movies on most stations instead of ridiculous talk-shows and infomercials. It was probably only on because it was Canadian, and stations were required to have so much Canadian content and back them Canadian movies were for the most part bad or non-existent. It had all the cursing blanked out but still I was old enough to infer what was said. But I was most impressed with this back then! It took me a lot of years to track down a copy of this on video, and now that I did and watched it again, I still thought that it was awesomely cool (even though I knew what the ending would be). The story is pretty simple. A group of hunters bored because there is nothing left to shoot, meet another group of hunters in the same situation. Then just like that, a firefight erupts leaving one of their group injured and one of the other group dead. From then on, it builds up from 'should they report it' to 'they be after us for revenge' and every level in between. So the hunters get all the guns and gear and able-bodied men they can and go back to the spot the following Saturday in anticipation of the other hunters being there to ambush them. Will they be there or is it just paranoia? I'm not saying but the ending is a surprise.

With Cliff Robertson, Ernest Borgnine, and Henry Silva on board, I was expecting a lot more than "Shoot" delivered. Character development is virtually nil, and Silva's part could easily been played by a no name actor. Sandwitched between the opening ambush and the final shootout in the snow, is some filler that has no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the movie. A chatty widow and a friend's wife throwing themselves at Cliff Robertson feels like nothing more than script stretching. "Shoot"'s similarity to "Rituals" and "Hunter's Blood", two other "Deliverance" clones is unmistakable, but they are far superior movies. A BIG letdown. - MERK