Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueA cattle baron with a long-range rifle hunts the outlaw who kidnapped his wife.A cattle baron with a long-range rifle hunts the outlaw who kidnapped his wife.A cattle baron with a long-range rifle hunts the outlaw who kidnapped his wife.
- Chinese Girl
- (as Francisca Tu)
- Sheriff
- (as Ralph Browne)
- Cowboy
- (as Carlos Bravo)
Histoire
Le saviez-vous
- AnecdotesThis is the second Western in as many years for Candice Bergen which has a reputation for extreme brutality. The other was Soldat bleu (1970) released the year before.
- GaffesNone of the hunting party's horses are packing the rifles when they get off the train. Even the two pack horses have packs too small to hold rifles (or much else for that matter).
- Citations
Frank Calder: You ain't too bad. For a schoolteacher.
Melissa Ruger: If you think you're going to get a lot of money for me, you're wrong. They'll be coming after us, you know. A lot of men.
Frank Calder: Why? They short of teachers back there?
Melissa Ruger: I am not a teacher. I am Brandt Ruger's wife. I am! I am Brandt Rugers wife!
Frank Calder: It don't matter whose wife you are. There ain't nothin' he can do about it.
Melissa Ruger: Why do you want to learn to read?
Frank Calder: 'Cause I can't.
- Versions alternativesThe British network version aired on BBC2 in 1999 had several cuts, including a close-up of a cow being slaughtered during the opening sequence, the ending of the scene with Brandt Ruger and the chinese prostitute (he forces her into the bed and tortures her with his cigar), the death of one of Ruger's friends and some horsefalls when Frank Calder ambushes the hunting party and some shots of Hog Warren beating Melissa during the attempted rape.
- ConnexionsFeatured in Les centaures (1972)
You know it's a grim movie you're going to see when it opens with a shot of Gene Hackman roughing up his wife a little in that particularly mean-spirited way that made him such an endearing villain in the early 70's (and which he reprised for Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN winning his second Oscar) intercut with shots of a cow being slaughtered. At least director Don Medford is upfront about it. The movie remains pretty unflinching in the portrayal of violence. Almost every actor is propped with blood squibs at some point in the film while others not lucky to be shot out of horses in slow motion get knives in their necks and buckshot in their faces. The Hunting Party is dinstictly a product of its time, a loyal retracing of the steps back to THE WILD BUNCH instead of taking the genre to new areas, belonging to that particularly bloody and violent American western niche that followed in the wake of Peckinpah's film (along with others like Chato's Land, The Revengers, The Deadly Trackers etc). Subverting and taking off the rose-tinted glasses the far west mythos was seen with by people like John Wayne, who cared so much about perceived values and ideals he had to make RIO BRAVO in response to Gary Cooper throwing down his star in HIGH NOON, taking a closer, more realistic look, if not at authentic period detail, then at least at how people were shot and killed.
All blood and clamor aside however, The Hunting Party is just not a very good movie. Medford's average-to-poor direction and the fact it's 20 minutes too long make sure it won't be seeing top lists anytime soon. And then there's the script. That Brandt Ruger (Gene Hackman) curiously refrains from shooting Frank Calder, the man who kidnapped his wife and whom he specifically set out to kill, when he gets plenty of chances to do so, seems to occur for no other reason than to stretch a final showdown that could have taken place in the first half hour into almost two hours. The acting is in turns okay and wooden, generally of the 'good enough' or 'will have to do' variety. Oddly enough for a cast featuring a man who would go on to win the Oscar that same year for THE FRENCH CONNECTION and kickstart a brilliant career, the best thing about The Hunting Party is a man who made a career out playing Athos in The Three Musketeers. Oliver Reed looks just right for the part, in a role that would be played probably by Richard Boone 20 years earlier and Javier Bardem twenty years later. When he tries to emote and just do anything that doesn't involve looking mean and badass, he faulters, but he looks mean and badass for all but maybe 2 minutes in the film.
- chaos-rampant
- 6 mars 2009
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Détails
Box-office
- Budget
- 1 600 000 $US (estimé)
- Durée1 heure 51 minutes
- Couleur
- Rapport de forme
- 1.85 : 1