RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE EXISTENTIAL WEST

By Raymond Benson

I never had a chance to see these two legendary westerns that were made back-to-back in the mid-1960s, presented by Roger Corman, directed and co-produced by Monte Hellman, and starring a young Jack Nicholson (among others), for they were elusive. I’d heard they were quirky, moody, and very different takes on the western genre, so I was excited to hear that The Criterion Collection was releasing both pictures as a double-bill on one Blu-ray disc. Now you, too, can view these strange little movies in all of their high definition glory.

Hellman was one of the few directors that producer Corman would let helm pictures for his studio, which at that time was famous for low-budget horror films, youth-in-rebellion pictures, and, later, rock ‘n’ roll counterculture flicks. Jack Nicholson was also involved with Corman since the late fifties, doing much of his pre-Easy Rider work for the producer as an actor and sometimes writer. In this case, Nicholson served as co-producer (with Hellman) on both pictures and wrote the script for Ride in the Whirlwind. At first, Hellman presented Corman with the script for The Shooting, written by Carole Eastman (using the pseudonym “Adrien Joyce” and who would later write the screenplay for Five Easy Pieces). Corman suggested that Hellman shoot two westerns at the same time to get more bang for the buck, so to speak. Therefore, Nicholson came up with Whirlwind and both movies were shot together in the Utah desert with the same crew and most of the same cast. The two motion pictures were seen at several film festivals in 1966 and the distribution rights were bought by the Walter Reade Organization, which promptly sold them to television. They were broadcast sometime in 1968 and were then lost in limbo.

Both The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind could be called “existential westerns” because they are indeed philosophical, atmospheric, and, well, arty. Very arty. Corman had insisted that Hellman and Nicholson add more action to both scripts—which they did—but you still can’t say these are in any way typical westerns. At a time when Sergio Leone was tearing up the genre Italian-style, it’s no wonder that the two pictures slipped into obscurity.

On the one hand, both films are interesting simply because it’s fun to see the young actors that appear in them—Nicholson, Warren Oates, Millie Perkins (the original Anne Frank from the 1959 The Diary of Anne Frank, now a grown up and a babe), Harry Dean Stanton (billed as “Dean Stanton”), and a not-so-young Cameron Mitchell. No one in the films, except maybe Mitchell, looks particularly comfortable on a horse; it’s rather obvious that these actors are “playing at” being in a western. Other positive aspects include the cinematography—by Gregory Sandor, for both pictures—and the strange musical scores—by Richard Markowitz (The Shooting) and Robert Jackson Drasnin (Ride in the Whirlwind).

On the other hand, as narrative westerns, they don’t measure up. The acting is, for the most part, pretty bad. Nicholson is the heavy in The Shooting, and he spends most of the time sneering. The higher-pitched voice of the young Nicholson doesn’t really work for the character; he is much better in Whirlwind as one of the good guys. Oates is suitably ornery but not much else. Perkins seems like a fish out of water in both films. Will Hutchins, who plays Oates’ simple-minded sidekick, straddles a fine line between being quite effective and incredibly annoying. Mitchell is forgettable. Stanton is—well, Harry Dean Stanton.