The Shooting

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Monte Hellman directs. Gregory Sandor behind the camera. Richard Markowitz scores. Monte Hellman cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 182 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 360 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 5Directed by Monte Hellman, shot by Gregory Sandor. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Richard Markowitz. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Monte Hellman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Warren Oates and Will Hutchins and Millie Perkins carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "Suspenseful desert pursuit in the “High Noon” tradition".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0062262 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Gregory Sandor

Original score

Richard Markowitz

Editing

Monte Hellman

Stunt coordinator

Gary Kent

Runtime

82 min · 1h 22m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$75,000

Original language

EN

IMDB

The Shooting (1966) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

100% 🍅 Fresh

IMDB rating

6.4/10 · 7,541 votes

MPAA

G

Also by

Monte Hellman

• 
  Inside the Coppola Personality

  1981 · ★ 7.5
• 
  Two-Lane Blacktop

  1971 · ★ 7.0
• 
  Ride in the Whirlwind

  1966 · ★ 6.2
• 
  Cockfighter

  1974 · ★ 6.1
• 
  Iguana

  1988 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Road to Nowhere

  2010 · ★ 5.8

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Monte Hellman and Roger Corman on “The Shooting” and “Ride in the Whirlwind”

  Featurette · Official
• 

  ▶
  Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Wuchak2021-10-16
  ★ 7/10

  Weird desert-survival 60's Western with Jack Nicholson & Warren Oates "The Shooting" is an offbeat 1966 Western directed by Monte Hellman and written by Carole Eastman (using the pseudonym "Adrien Joyce"). The story involves two men (Warren Oates and Will Hutchins) who are hired by a mysterious woman (Millie Perkins) to accompany her to a town located many miles across the Utah desert. During their journey they are tracked and joined by a mysterious black-clad gunslinger (Jack Nicholson) who is known by the woman. This early Nicholson vehicle is worthwhile if you have a taste for out-of-the-ordinary films. Millie Perkins is fetching and Will Hutchins is a convincing youngster sidekick while Oates is a good every-man protagonist and Nicholson just oozes quiet antagonism. It's easy too see how the 'kid' would be infatuated by the cutie, despite her dubiousness, but it's even easier to understand Willet's grave suspicions. The movie is also a must for anyone who likes lost-in-the-desert flicks. While the ending seems nonsensical, the answers are there, if you look closely and chew on the details... SPOILER ALERT (Don't read this paragraph unless you've seen the film). As the story progresses it becomes clear that the woman is hunting Oates' brother who apparently killed a child or a midget, likely the woman's child, close friend or relative. When they finally catch up to him at the very end we discover that the supposed murderer is Willet's TWIN brother who looks exactly like him, which explains his name, Coin (as in, 'the other side of the coin'). Since this is so, why didn't the woman assume Willett (Oates) was the person who killed her child since he looks exactly like the one who did, Coin? Obviously she was informed that Coin had a twin brother living near the town and she felt he would be the best person to track the culprit. In any case, the twin brothers represent the duality of human nature: Willet symbolizes the good and positive side whereas Coin embodies the more destructive aspects of our nature. As such, the Gashade brothers symbolize the two converging sides of the existential coin pertaining to the human experience which come together with catastrophic results at the climax. END SPOILER Bottom line: "The Shooting" is a worthy bare-bones independent 60's Western with occasional flashes of surrealism and brilliance, as well as a lot of humdrum mundaneness (so be prepared for some slow, dull stretches). It's less straightforward than its sister film "Ride in the Whirlwind," which was made just before this one and on the same (or nearby) locations. Some have called it the first "acid Western" but I wouldn't go that far. It has some weird touches, but not too weird. The film runs 82 minutes and was shot in Kanab, Utah. GRADE: B/B-

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• PR

  Proteus Films

• SA

  Santa Clara Productions

Key crew

• ProducerJack Nicholson
• ProducerMonte Hellman
• Executive ProducerRoger Corman
• EditorMonte Hellman
• Art DirectionWally Moon
• Sound MixerFrank Murphy
• Producer's AssistantJohn Herman Shaner
• Supervising Sound EditorJames Nelson
• Production ManagerPaul Lewis
• Assistant DirectorPaul Lewis
• Stunt CoordinatorGary Kent
• StuntsNeil Summers
• Assistant CameraGary Kurtz

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• gunslinger
• male friendship
• tracker
• frontier town
• dominant woman
• lost in the desert
• mining camp

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere1966-10-23· San Francisco Film Festival

Also known as

International titles

• Das Schiessen — Nur der Stärkste überlebtDE
• Disparo para MatarBR
• O Tiro CertoBR
• Le Visage de la haineFR
• Duelo no DesertoPT
• The EpitaphUS
• W poszukiwaniu zemstyPL
• ÎmpuşcăturaRO
• El disparoAR