The Wild West, 19th century. After returning to a mining outpost, Will only finds the scared Coley there, who tells him that the other two workers, Leland and Will’s brother Coigne, went to a nearby town “for some fun”, but accidentally killed someone, and that an assassin shot Leland whereas Coigne has disappeared and is hiding. A woman shows up, ostensibly because she had to shoot her horse that broke its leg, and offers them money to go to an unknown town. Will, Coley and the woman ride across the desert, and are followed and ultimately joined by assassin Spear, the woman’s friend. Spear leaves Coley behind, but Coley finds a horse, catches up with them, aims at Spear, but is shot. The horses die, Will attacks Spear and breaks his hand with a rock. The woman climbs up a rock formation and shoots a man hiding there, Coigne, who looks exactly like Will.
It may come as a surprise that the highest rated Jack Nicholson film on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% (!) score, “The Shooting”, is not the best Nicholson film, since the legendary actor made at least a dozen better films later on, yet it serves as a document from the early stage of his career, when he was unknown and made experimental independent films like this one. Monte Hellman’s surreal western is unusual and refreshing, but is not that well thought out nor is it consistently interesting, with several empty walks before the strange existential ending sets in, contemplating how the main protagonist Will has de facto set out to kill himself. There are some neat details that keep the viewers' attention (the mysterious woman just keeps randomly shooting for no reason during her journey with Coley and Will, so Will suspects she is giving signals to the assassin following them from a mile away; the woman complaining that the coffee tastes like snake poison), and the story has contemplative notions about fatalism and self-realization, yet it is not always logical, and doesn't truly ignite all until Nicholson, playing the assassin, shows up half way into the film.
Grade:++
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