The Hunting Party (1971)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The first hurdle to overcome for this viewer had to do with the idea that Melissa Ruger (Candice Bergen) could actually fall for an outlaw thug like Frank Calder (Oliver Reed). Granted, husband Brandt (Gene Hackman) was no prize in the perfect husband sweepstakes, but this was carrying the old Stockholm Syndrome idea just a bit too far. Heck, Melissa even went so far as to say it herself when she found herself with Calder in an intimate moment - "You smell like a horse". Some might even say he looked like one too.I read with interest some of the other reviewers for this picture how they felt it wasn't realistic that Brandt didn't shoot Calder immediately when he had the chance. The thing is, I had it nailed the first time Ruger backed off with his long rifle; he wanted his revenge up close and personal, preferably with his wife watching as he settled the score. You had to know that was on his mind when he saw Melissa call out for Frank during one of the long distance ambushes.You know, I had to wonder how completely devoid of common sense Hog Warren (L.Q. Jones) was after the first time he tried to have his way with Melissa. Something should have told him that attempting to rape her later on in the story would not have been a good career move. While that scene was going on, I was picturing Calder breaking into the room and going full bore crazy on old Hog, but it ended when Hog felt that stabbing sensation to his throat. Nice move there, Melissa.As for Candice Bergen, I thought this was a rather intensely physical role for her to be handling, and the scene that really convinced me of that was when she took that horse spill in the desert with the animal falling almost on top of her. I wondered how the film makers managed that without injury to the actress, it looked kind of dangerous. And it didn't look like a stunt-woman in Miss Bergen's place either.The biggest head scratcher of all for me though was when Frank Calder became a compassionate killer after shooting his friend Doc (Mitchell Ryan) to put him out of his misery. Throwing away his weapons didn't seem to be the best idea figuring that the merciless Brandt Ruger would keep pursuing him and Melissa. The closing scene hints at the desperation of all three, with Brandt sealing the deal in the middle of nowhere. That he would wind up virtually committing suicide stranded in the desert was a fitting end for the low down skunk.

Oliver Reed is an outlaw, Frank Calder, and along with his rugged brood, swipes a cattle baron's wife, and lives to regret it. The cattle baron is Brandt Ruger(Gene Hackman), his wife, Melissa(..the lovely Candice Bergen). So Ruger assembles a group of his friends as a hunting party to seek after Frank and his outlaws, not knowing until much later that Melissa has become quite attached and affectionate towards her kidnapper. This indeed drives Ruger over the edge and there'll be hell to pay before he's through.I'll be honest, the stale plot isn't earth-shattering, and even though the movie results in a bleak, uncompromising, and tragic manner, it's pretty predictable. But, if you want your fix of bloody violence with plenty of people blown away by long range rifles(..mostly by Hackman, who's a crack shot), then "The Hunting Party" might just be what the doctor ordered. It has plenty of familiar faces. LQ Jones a sleazy scoundrel who, while in a drunken high, attempts to rape Bergen, getting his medicine(..what she doesn't complete, Hackman sure as hell does), with Mitchel Ryan as Reed's compadre, Doc, who is gut shot, but lives on the brink of death for damn near an hour as the group move from territory to territory seeking a town physician to pull the bullet buried inside him.The major problem with this western is that you kind of have no one to really side with. Hackman, understandably so, becomes so bloodthirsty, that he alienates those who accompany him on the quest to find Reed. We don't really spend a great deal of time with him, either, so we have little real time to get to know him all that well. He very well could be a disaster of a husband which might explain why Bergman responds so passionately eventually to Reed. We do recognize a friction between the Rugers, and it's visible how Brandt treats her as a prize no one but can claim, but still, Frank isn't exactly the greatest substitute, now is he? But, that scene where Reed forces himself on Bergman is hard to watch, and, despite the fact she succumbs to his desires, that rape does tarnish any sympathy one might have in his favor.The film seems to side with Reed, though, as Hackman just continues to shoot down his men, picking them off in intervals, and we follow them as they grow more weary, their tempers tested due to the fact that they are dying because of a broad. Simon Oakland(..who I consider to be one of the finest television actors in the history of the small screen, his face recognizable across all genres, particularly in the 60's and 70's, most notably, "Kolchak The Night Stalker") is well cast as Matthew Gunn, attempting to be a voice of reason for Ruger, trying to talk some sense into him, especially after it's realized that Melissa has chosen Frank over Brandt. But, it's obvious that Brandt isn't a man to lose any property that's his to anyone, much less an outlaw whose life has been about stealing and killing. Like a lot westerns coming out in the 70's, I reckon "The Hunting Party" suffered as the genre was starting to wain, it very much an example of "The Wild Bunch" influence.

This is arguably the best western ...maybe the best movie .....I have ever seen in the last 50 years. Having a copy of the DVD should be any westerns lovers desire, but,if you ever have the opportunity to view it on the big screen, grab it. Sure ,the experts can find faults with it,but the greater majority of them even extol the film's virtues. I absolutely & unconditionally recommend it (not for under 15's though) I guess I should point out that I am a huge Gene Hackman admirer. I have never seen a movie of his that I didn't at least enjoy viewing. Oliver Reed was an exceptional actor & does a superb job with his role. Candice Bergen is still in demand ,albeit for TV ,& in this role does her character proud,as difficult as it must have been . Overall excellent casting including the supports who play their parts very well. Seriously ,forget about technicalities...enjoy the movie...YOU WILL

Advertisements for "The Hunting Party" misleadingly portrayed the scenario as a western riff on the old "Most Dangerous Game" ploy: man hunting man for sport. Instead, this William Norton-Gilbert Alexander-Lou Morheim script is an old-fashioned revenge tale studded with new-fangled blood and sex. Gene Hackman plays land baron Brandt Ruger, an amoral sadist living in the rural town that bears his surname, who leads a somewhat-leery pack of well-wrought gentleman friends on a hunt to kill the gunslingers responsible for kidnapping his wife (he also appears to want his wife killed as well, since she's obviously been raped and now may be carrying a bastard child!). Taking his cue from Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch", director Don Medford takes great delight in blasting his supporting cast away to Kingdom Come in a hail of gunfire, blood-packs spurting in slow motion. Medford hasn't much originality (or versatility), and several of his scenes are downright sloppy. However, Ruger's unmitigated relish for treating humans as cattle allows Hackman to revel in some mangy, dastardly deeds--he's a marvelous villain. As the head of the kidnappers, Oliver Reed disguises his British accent fairly well and is surprisingly tender with captive Candice Bergen (as sort of a Sweet Hostage). Opening scene juxtaposing the knifing of a cow with Hackman forcing himself on his wife in the bedroom is heavy-handed at best, distasteful at worst. But the picture improves from there and gives us a brutal, fairly realistic look at the lawless West. Very good performances from all three stars, excellent work as well from Mitchell Ryan as Reed's faithful friend Doc. *** from ****