A hunting trip goes very wrong in this intriguing Canadian movie starring Cliff Robertson and Ernest Borgnine.
A group of middle-aged buddies go on a deer hunt in the woods. With nothing to shoot but the breeze, the party are about to call it a day, when they come across another set of hunters. After some major eye-balling, the other group takes a pot-shot at them, and a spontaneous shoot-out breaks out. When Zeke, played by perennial bad guy Henry Silva, kills one of their party, the groups scarper.
With its similarities to Deliverance, the movie becomes an exploration of the consequence of this violence. Should they report it to the police? will the others? What importance would they place on who started it? Lou (Borgnine) is the group's conscience, and as they decide their next steps, its clear that he is a lone voice.
Rex (Robertson) plays the most troubled member of the party. A man who seems to have a better relationship to his gun collection, than to his family. As he investigates who the other shooting party were, he begins to believe that what happened was only an opening skirmish in a full-on war.
The film has plenty of earthy dialogue. When one of the group is being treated by a veterinarian friend, Borgnine quips "You know that needle was previously in a horse's ass?". There's a nice down-to-earth quality to the movie, and the direction by Harvey Hart is solid and unshowy (he directed several 70's Columbo TV movies).
The film doesn't quite live up to the opening scenes, as Rex is pretty unlikeable, and we don't get to know the other characters that well. This gives a too narrow perspective on the events that follow. It would have been better if Rex's paranoia hadn't been so obviously valid, and the ending would seem to undermine the point the films seem to raising. I think this maybe due to simplifying the source material, a novel by Douglas Fairbairn.
Still, its worth a look as an examination of machismo and gun control.
(Presently on YouTube)
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