User Reviews

As the reviewer Snowleopard points out, the premise for the Canadian film Shoot is a good one, the irrational gunning-down of a hunter by a member of another hunting party, and the subsequent ramping up of a revenge attack on the opposition the next time they're out in the wild. But good ideas sometimes run afoul of sloppy direction and lack of production cash.

Shoot sounds good, but looks cheap. Yet, even when you've given up on the movie, when you don't even care anymore that the film has some great talent (Cliff Robertson, Ernest Borgnine, and Henry Silva), you're still rooting for some sort of justice or even just a violent closure to the tragedy that sets the stage for the film.

You get the impression that this is just one more of those earlier Canadian films that were thrown together to compete with American products, but didn't have the expertise or the financial backing to pull it off. This isn't an insult to Canada; the skill that Canadian film-makers exhibit is excellent, but skills take practice to acquire and Shoot looks like practice (watch Russian Roulette with George Segal to get a feel for a film industry finding itself).

Anyway, as a 19 year old, I was astonished by the ending of the film. Thirty years later, I would probably see it coming a mile away. Unfortunately, I can't find Shoot, but I would suggest that if you can acquire a cheap copy (or even see an edited version on TV), you should do it. The performances are tense and the scenery is stark and beautiful.

My recollections are from HBO in 1979 or so, but I do have an affection for this movie. There is a place in Spokane, Washington, under the T. J. Meenach Bridge, on the way to Spokane Falls Community College that will remind you of the river scene in the climax to Shoot. Covered with snow, with icy river water rushing by, you can imagine the climactic shootout in this movie taking place right in front of your eyes.

It's a pleasant memory of a mediocre movie.

Not a bad thing.

Harvey Hart's SHOOT is easily as paranoid a 1970s movie to come out of the paranoid 70s as I have ever seen, other than perhaps Hart's own 1973 urban Gothic horror nightmare THE PYX -- a film which left me feeling uneasy for days. He is good at it. This one is more of an intriguing idea run amok, supposedly based on a novel of about the same name that I will simply have to seek out after finally managing to "get" the movie.

The situations under which I first encountered it played a part in why it failed to impress upon the first sitting; I chose this as a party night movie, expecting another OPEN SEASON or RITUALS or even WOLF LAKE, three other films which deal with war veterans encountering human barbarity in the great outdoors that are raucous fun by comparison. SHOOT even gives an important supporting role to Henry Silva -- "Mr. Ice" -- one of my favorite actors to have graduated from the Italian genre film era where he headlined in a number of amusingly amoral & gory crime thrillers.

SHOOT however, in spite of its subject matter of beer swilling humans hunting other humans for kicks out in the woods, is about as close to a thoughtful drama as I have allowed on my TV set since Paul Schrader's equally paranoid ROLLING THUNDER. Where that film explored America's painful post-Vietnam hangover in starkly arid rural themes, SHOOT is a Canadian tax shelter film that likewise explores another hangover from the scourges of war out in the chilly sticks of Ontario. Specifically the scars left on Cliff Robertson's Major Rex, a decorated Canadian war hero who secretly yearns to do it all over again. All he needs is an excuse to play army man again for real, and the story is about his apparent glee at having one handed to him.

If nothing else, SHOOT is a sort of cinematic proof that men go deer hunting because they can't hunt each other anymore. The core premise of the film has two hunting parties encountering each other on a hum-drum day with no game in sight. For reasons that the film wisely never bothers to explain they start shooting at each other and someone gets their brains blown out. I say wisely because to try and put a motivation to the first shot is pointless: They were guys with guns out looking to for things to shoot at with them, and when humans get together in groups under such situations things often happen that have no rational explanation. The guy opened fire because that's what a gun is for, the other group fired back to defend themselves, and Henry Silva aces the bozo right between the eyes from about 175 yards without thinking twice about it. So far so good. That's what Henry Silva is usually in a movie for.

The film then shifts gears and becomes about the paranoia that develops within the group as they debate what to do about it, hence the tagline about how SHOOT takes up where DELIVERANCE ends. But its more than that as the communal paranoia apparently pushes Robertson's over-the-top Major Rex right over the line into active psychosis. He seems to think he's General Patton at one point in the film's most bizarre scene where he calls his war council of aging buddies together. His solution is to muster "volunteers" from the local militia group he commands, arm them with automatic weapons in full combat garb with steel helmets, and go back to the site of the incident to engage in a private little war with the other group, provided of course the other guys show up likewise armed for a fully pitched battle. They do.

The final 10 minutes of the film pack as much mayhem and violence into it as your standard Department of Defense documentary on The Battle of Iwo Jima as the two forces tear into each other with a ferocity that is totally out of proportion to anything that the film hinted at up until then. Absolute mayhem. If Robertson's closing monologue is to be believed his entire 20 man assault force is annihilated in the bloodbath, raising the curious question of how local Canadian authorities might have reacted to such a body count. Though within the context of the film it was the only ending possible. War is hell, and without an actual war men will cheerfully create their own hells to fill the vacuum.

So I say SHOOT is actually about Major Rex' spiral into functional insanity and the close bond between his hunting buddies that drags them down the toilet with him. It certainly isn't a fun movie but does have a kind of visual authority to it that is quite authentic. The outdoor sequences are well staged and the final shootout on a snow strewn woodland scene is something right out of Korea. The interior of the men's homes, bedecked with weapons of war as decorative pieces, is also something striking. It's about as un-romantic a depiction as possible, showing us warriors displaced in a society that seems to feed their paranoia without thinking twice about it

They aren't even the heroes of the movie, just its protagonists. Like THE PYX there aren't any genuinely sympathetic characters in the cast aside from Ernst Borgnine's reluctant war buddy who doesn't know if this is all such a good idea. It isn't a particularly fun movie but was very well made on somewhat limited resources and makes for thoughtful viewing once you get beyond its deliberately methodical pace. Just don't be fooled by pictures of Henry Silva packing a Swedish K sub machine gun into thinking it's going to be a laugh riot like I was. It's not that kind of a movie at all, and faulting it for being what it is rather than what it's not misses the point.

7/10

***SPOILERS****Little known film despite it top cast including 1955 Academy Award winner- for his role in "Marty"- Ernist Borgnine as hunter Lou about a tragic hunting accident that leads to a full scale armed confrontation between the two warring parties of hunters in the wild Canadian woods. It's when James Graham's hunting party opened fire on that of Rex Jeanette, Cliff Robertson, for what Graham felt was invading his party of hunters space Rex's fellow hunter Zeak, Henry Silva, returning fire gunned down one of Graham's men. Not seeing on TV or the the local newspapers the news that the person that Zeak shot was killed Rex came to the conclusion that the Graham party of hunters were out for revenge. And decided to settle the matter or score on their own, without the courts, in a shootout the very next week on the first chance they get to confront, on their hunting trip, each other.

Getting all the guns and military equipment ready Rex, a Major in the National Guard, plans a shootout at the obscure area of Saddle Lake that was set to take place that Saturday when the two groups are set in Rex's mind to meet each other. It was Rex who earlier went to see the late James wife, Kate Reid, to express, as a friend of James, his condolence. It's there that he noticed that she sensed to know that he had something to do with her husband's death as well as smells the whiskey on her breath and her failed attempt, in her drunken state, to get him to go to bed with her. He also realized that her husband's death was kept from the news so his friend in the hunting party were going to settle the score on their own not with the help of the law!

***SPOILERS**** It took a while for Rex's friend Lou who at first wanted none of this, the modern version of the shoot-out at O.K Corral, to join in the action that in the end ended with him as well as Rex's almost entire party of gunman-hunters and national guardsmen-getting killed in the fighting with Rex himself blinded when it was all over. All this death and destruction being the result of a hunting accident showed just how crazy and insane people can get when they let things get way out of hand. And how mob psychiatry can overrule common sense that like in here settled nothing but in fact ended the lives of some dozens of people who were infected by it!

Cliff Robertson was involved in some pretty decent movies in 1976 – "Midway", "Obsession" and the TV movie "Return To Earth" spring to mind. The same cannot be said for Ernest Borgnine for whom 1976 was an 'annus horriblis' in terms of film work. Not only did Borgnine find himself in the dire Italian sex film "Natale In Casa D'Appuntamento", he also co-starred with Robertson in one of the very worst films of the year – the utterly wretched anti-gun thriller "Shoot". You will have to look far and wide for a more boring, obvious, unappealing and morally muddled film than this Canadian offering from director Harvey Hart. It doesn't even fall into the so-bad-it's-good-on-a-curiosity-level category.

By day, Rex Jeanette (Cliff Robertson) runs a successful furniture business, but he really lives for evenings and weekends when he and his buddies run an army club and go deer hunting in the nearby forests. One weekend, four of the regular deer hunters travel up to Rex's woodland lodge for a Saturday shooting expedition. Besides Rex himself, there are his pals Lou (Ernest Borgnine), Zeke (Henry Silva) and Pete (James Blendick). Whilst out in the forest they encounter another group of hunters, but for no obvious reason the other group open fire on them and Zeke shoots back, killing one of the opposite group's guys. In panic, Rex's group return home and contemplate their next move – Lou wants to report the incident to the cops, but Zeke is worried that he might be jailed for killing a man, and Rex himself thinks the other group won't report the incident because it was them who shot first. As the week progresses it becomes clear that Rex is right – when the story of the hunter's death finally appears in the newspapers, it turns out that his friends have fabricated a story about how he was killed by an accidental stray bullet. Rex realises that the other group want to have revenge their own way, and figures that the two sides are expected to revisit the site of their earlier encounter to shoot it out. Strangely excited at the prospect, Rex recruits extra men and gathers extra ammunition for the second shoot-out, almost turning the whole affair into a weekend military war game. But when the confrontation finally comes, which side will be most prepared?......

For about ten minutes, "Shoot" gives no indication of just how poor it is going to be. The opening sequence in which Rex and his hunting pals run across the other hunting party is put together with enough competence to suggest that a half-decent outdoor thriller might be on the cards. But from there forth, the film is a long-winded bore. We trudge through the whole week leading up to the second shoot-out, watching Rex and his buddies going about their daily lives, meeting up after work to plan their attack. This section of the film goes on and on and on, stumbling from one pointless debate/argument/meeting to another. Watching paint dry is preferable to sticking with the film through this particular segment. When the final shoot-out comes it is over faster than you can blink, and culminates with a pretentious "twist" that has been obvious for the entire length of the film. At any point you might think to yourself: "what if the other group are preparing themselves better? What if they want it more? What if they arm themselves stronger? What if they plan their attack with greater cunning?" If any of those thoughts occur to you, then you're smarter than Rex Jeanette…. and you're infinitely smarter than director Harvey Hart expects you to be!

I could understand how this movie could be social commentary on masculinity or gun enthusiasm but the choices these characters make just seem unrealistic. The story is that a group of World War 2 and Vietnam veterans are all hunting in the forest when they come across another group of hunters. Instead of saying hello or waving, they stare at each other before one of the other group inexplicably shoots at the main characters. It erupts into a short fire fight before both groups disperse into the forest. After this occurs, Rex (Cliff Robertson) decides against calling the police for some reason and decides to make plans to go back and seek revenge. They're all in the National Guard so they somehow are able to get permission to mobilize their unit to go into the forest and get revenge. When they get to the forest the other party is waiting and shoots first. This movie raises so many questions. Why did they get shot at? Why do they want revenge so bad? Why don't they call the police? How were they able to use the National Guard to get revenge? It makes no sense. The choices that these characters make are beyond belief and it's really no wonder how they ended up wounded. It's not a bad movie but it's not good either. Moreover it's really just a bore. I don't really recommend it a whole lot.

Yes folks, when a hunter shoots at first sight, I did fell in love with this film the very same way, in the early eighties, when it was released in France in VHS. I rented it and made a copy just after the first viewing. A film as I love. It reminds me SOUTHERN COMFORT, DELIVERANCE, WOLF CREEK, OPEN SEASON, in summary another kind of survival, a men's tale. ONLY for men. And I also have read the novel that inspired this authentic gem. Very interesting too. With a real character study, an offbeat study which the ending makes more important; watch it and you'll understand why. A hit right into the face. A propaganda message against fire arms use and abuse, against the Second Amendement.

The film is very faithful to the book, except the novel emphasizes more on the characters. But it is a very unusual story, entertaining, even totally unbelievable. Nothing realistic here. Nothing.

But who cares?

I'll never be tired to watch it again and again.

In spite of the casting of 1955's best actor Ernest Borgnine and 1968's best actor Cliff Robertson, this is a ponderous film from start to finish. In a sense it reminded me of "Deliverance" and "First Blood", a movie made years later, but in spite of the actors, I wasn't interested in the plot at all. Kate Reid pops up to add a bit of class, but unfortunately she's totally wasted. The character development is poor and the motivation just simply is not believable, and frankly, it bored me to near sleep. Long scenes where there's no dialogue and a slow setup also had me yawning. In the end, I felt nothing really exciting happened in spite of the fact that what little plot there is promised a great deal that ends up never being delivered.

Easy to dismiss as a cut-rate version of DELIVERENCE, this movie is not without merit. A group of seemingly straight-laced weekend hunters are inexplicably fired upon by another group of hunters, resulting in tragedy. The men find paranoia and anger begin to take over and decide to confront the mysterious band. This is a fairly intriguing look at what happens to "normal" people when faced with unbelievable savagery. The cast, led by Cliff Robertson, is first-rate. Robertson, an upstanding business man, is revealed to be a power-mad war monger just aching to shoot somebody. Ernest Borgnine is his best friend, a pacifist trying to talk Robertson off a no-win ledge. There's a truly outré cameo by Kate Reid as a very kinky widow and Henry Silva is part of Robertston's trigger-happy posse. It's directed by Harvey Hart and has a good, suspenseful music score by Doug Riley.