THE HUNTING PARTY
US, 1971, 110 minutes, Colour.
Oliver Reed, Candice Bergen, Gene Hackman, Simon Oakland.
Directed by Don Medford.
Forget your love of the old West and its tough heroics. Remember the greed, hatred and brutality of harsh frontier men. Admit that a bullet rips and gashes flesh, spatters human blood and gore; real agony and death cannot be glossed over, intensify this into two hours running time and make it as visually jolting and sickening as you can. You might then imagine something like this film. The message about disgusting human violence is obvious. You might have enjoyed this story of vengeance and chase with John Wayne, but this is the ugly West that myths cover with glory. Serious viewing only.
1. Is this the kind of Western you like to see? Why?
2. How did the opening sequences, the cutting up of the horse, and the intercourse, set the tone for the rest of the film?
3. The contrast between the hunting party and the outlaw party: one respectable, one not. The question of morality: who is good and who is bad? Appearances and reality.
4. The contrast between Brand Kruger and Frank Calder as men? The role of Melissa and her relationship to both?
5. Melissa as a person - her role in the school, kindness etc?
6. The hunting party itself (symbol of the U.S.?) its luxury, extravagance, sensuality, lack of any moral perspective, where killing is sport and whim is pleasure? The train, the rifles etc.?
7. The role of the rifle - violence, arrogance, prestige, the motivation behind having and wanting such a gun?
8. The outlaw party - what made them outlaws? Kruger-type society? Calder taking Melissa violently but that he could read? Frank as a leader, his relationship to the group? Dominant?
9. The brutal treatment of Melissa - how necessary in this film? How visually necessary? For realism? The brutality and sexual overtones? the involvement of audience feeling in the victim of brutality.
10. Calder's changing attitude to Melissa. his growing protection, turning into love? How plausible? Her reaction - hunger strike (and the sensuality of the details of eating), attempts to escape, the ugliness of the first sexual encounter, her changing attitude?
11. Why did the hunting party go after the outlaws, - any concern for Melissa as a person, just a continuation of the sadism? The growing obsession of Kruger which even wearied his companions? The violence and ugliness of the shootings, the stalking, the use of the rifles?
12. The outlaws becoming prey? The visual violence of their deaths? (How necessary? How ugly? How sickening for the audience? How realistic?) Fear and menace?
13. How did the journey change all the participants for better and worse, especially Melissa's involvement?
14. The town - a reflection of the world of the film - ugly, drunken, brutal? Attempts to save life, attempted rape, self-defence killing?
15. The hunting party in the town - merciless?
16. The escape into the green area, dreams, plans, some hope - how ironic? The landscape echoing the mood, their not being shot?
17. The desert - its significance, its harshness, escape, their longings? How had they changed? How had Kruger hardened? The meaninglessness of the deaths?
18. Was this film necessary? Was it exploitive, tasteless, sensationalised?
19. What contribution to the Western genre did this film make - conventions, fate etc.?
20. Why was this film made? For whom?
