Shoot (1976)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Brilliant and touching

best movie i've ever seen.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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.

The IMDb doesn't have a great reputation these days for a number of factors which I won't bother going in to ,but if there's a film that the majority opinion has got right it's this one . SHOOT has a rather Luke warm reception with comments saying it's a film that's never as good as it could have been , or is a mediocre movie or is unrealistic . Certainly it's a film I'd never heard of until accidentally stumbling upon it and considering it has two big name actors in the shape of Cliff Robertson and Ernest Borgnine that alone tells you there's a reason as to why it's so obscure SHOOT is certainly a film with great potential . DELIVERENCE had spawned a subgenre that subsequently become known as " Backwoods brutality " . The Vietnam war had just ended in inglorious defeat for America so right away you're watching a film with massive potential for structuralism and political comment . For some strange reason any political subtext remains unexplored and when someone states " They look just like us " when the two hunting parties come across each other you soon come to realise this is probably coincidence rather than writer Dick Berg making a wider anti-war statement . Instead of making any subtle points the film concerns itself far more with setting up a totally unlikely and melodramatic plot turn featuring revenge that'll have you shaking your head as to how this would probably never happen in real life and then nodding your head that the IMDb reviews saying that this is an unrealistic movie are correct Another annoying aspect to the film is a very cheap budget which gives the impression that it's a TVM , so much so that when characters start swearing it almost comes as a shock to the system . The bleak , murky , grimy cinematography also adds to this impression . Would I be correct in stating this is a badly directed movie ? Regardless of this the majority opinion on this page that it's a ridiculous mediocre movie is correct

A group of war veterans led by Cliff Robertson are ambushed while hunting in the Canadian hills and return fire.Suspecting a future retaliation they gather together more army comrades,stock an arsenal of weapons and head back to the hills for a final shoot-out."Shoot" is a Canadian survivalist drama with Cliff Robertson,Henry Silva and Ernest Borgnine.The film can be easily compared to "Deliverance" and "Southern Comfort".I must admit that the first and the final shoot-outs are very intense and violent,unfortunately the middle section of the film is too talky and suitably dull.The message of "Shoot" is pretty clear:an easy access to weaponry can turn peaceful hunting trip into war zone.7 out of 10.

I'm watching "Three Days Of The Condor" right now and started thinking about a movie I saw long ago called "Shoot". A very interesting story line that could today be much better, The Shooting in the woods with the hunters is classic,(happens even today), the ending about all the home boys going back to finish, is great. But the hour in between this movie is lost. What is this crap about having to use 10 lines!!! The movie does not deserve ten lines!! OK i'm going for ten lines or I do not no what the Hec I'm doing!.Just a ThoughtAndy