The Hunting Party main backdrop
The Hunting Party main poster

The Hunting Party

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6.2/10 • 63

1971-07-161h 51m

Western

You're Invited to a Party... We'll Play the Deadliest Game of All... Hunting 26 Men and 1 Woman!

A ruthless rancher, and his gang, use extremely long range rifles to kill the men who kidnapped his wife.

Directors
Don Medford
Editors
Tom Rolf

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Oliver Reed

    Oliver Reed

    Frank Calder

  2. Candice Bergen

    Candice Bergen

    Melissa Ruger

  3. Gene Hackman

    Gene Hackman

    Brandt Ruger

  4. Simon Oakland

    Simon Oakland

    Matthew Gunn

  5. Mitchell Ryan

    Mitchell Ryan

    Doc Harrison

  6. L.Q. Jones

    L.Q. Jones

    Hog Warren

  7. William Watson

    William Watson

    Jim Loring

  8. G. D. Spradlin

    G. D. Spradlin

    Sam Bayard

  9. Rayford Barnes

    Rayford Barnes

    Crimp

Reviews1

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Wuchak Avatar

Wuchak

Aug 18, 2019

6/10

Grim early 70’s Western with Oliver Reed, Gene Hackman and Candice Bergen In the Southwest, an outlaw gang led by Frank Calder (Oliver Reed) kidnaps a school teacher (Candice Bergen) so he can learn how to read. Unfortunately for them, she’s the wife of a sadistic wealthy rancher (Gene Hackman) and he’s coming with his personal posse to hunt ’em down with high-powered rifles. Mitchell Ryan, Simon Oakland and L.Q. Jones are also on hand. “The Hunting Party” (1971) treads similar terrain of two earlier Westerns: "Bandolero!" (1968) and "Macho Callahan" (1970). There are also elements of the later “The Train Robbers” (1973). But “The Hunting Party” is the least of these, although it’s not far off. It’s worth catching just to see Reed star in a Western (he’s essentially the British version of Brando), not to mention the potent sequence between Frank (Reed), Doc (Ryan) and Melissa (Bergen) in the last act. The grim climax is memorable as well. There’s a lot of Peckinpah-styled violence. One effective scene involves someone getting shot in the face with a shotgun. There are also a couple of rough adult-oriented sequences. The problem is, the characters are too shallow to care much when their lives are eventually threatened. There’s loads of quality emoting by the actors, but not enough character-defining moments, which was expertly done in “Bandolero!” Speaking of which, the issue of Stockholm syndrome rears its head. This condition occurs when a strong emotional link develops between captor and captive wherein the former intermittently abuses the other in one way or another, whether beatings, threats, intimidation or harassment. Melissa gets to know Frank & Doc and slowly discovers that they're not outright evil. They're basically goodhearted people trapped in a tough lifestyle. The film runs 1 hour, 51 minutes, and was shot in Spain (Almeria and Granada, with interior stuff done in Madrid). GRADE: B-

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
infidelitywifetexasranchrifleoutlawloverevengemurderganggunfighthumiliationrich