This is the kind of low-budget genre ripoff that is executed not by regional nobodies with auteur syndrome, but by dutiful hacks on loan from the tube. The genre is Western, the ripoff is of "The Wild Bunch," and excitement is distinctly lacking as a deep-south Oliver Reed kidnaps stressed-looking Candice Bergen (pretty much all she does is look stressed) so that the mysteriously dislikeable Gene Hackman can come and kill everyone with his newfangled high-powered rifles. I certainly didn't get all freaked out about the gore like Maltin and some of these guys, although when I think about it the whole movie is basically an excuse to watch scumbags get shot by other scumbags. Elements come and go according to convenience - it would have been nice to have some follow-through on the teaching-an-outlaw-to-read thing, and the seduction-by-canned-peaches is so wrong - especially given the spaghetti-drenched bum-ba-dee-da soundtrack - that all hope is lost by the reel change.
Review of The Hunting Party
