Spend a night with Monte Hellman

Once again, the Cinématek at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is presenting another wonderful event -- this coming Wednesday, August 4th, they will be screening a new print of The Shooting, followed by a Q&A with director Monte Hellman. Hellman is one of American cinema's unsung masters, and his two best films (The Shooting and Two-Lane Blacktop) are existential takes on two of the cinema's most popular genres -- the western and the road film. Both are near-masterpieces, but unfortunately not spoken of (or screened) nearly enough. The Shooting, which stars Jack Nicholson, Warren Oats, and Millie Perkins, finds several characters wandering through the desert, each chasing after the same man, but for different reasons. Described as falling somewhere between Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, Hellman has fashioned a classic western tale that is a metaphor for the brief fame that Lee Harvey Oswald experienced. (There are even echoes of the Zapruder film.) If Hellman's commentary on the Two-Lane Blacktop DVD is any indicator, hearing him in person should prove to be an enlightening experience. Filmbrain will certainly not miss this one. Wednesday, August 4th at 7:00 PM. Q&A moderated by Kent Jones (Film Comment)

Comments

[M. Hulot]

I saw Hellman speak a few years ago at the Chicago International Film Festival when Two Lane Blacktop was "rediscovered" (this being a year or two before the DVD issue). He's a little dry as a presence but has some great stories. Definitely see him, and bring good questions.

[Aaron the Cinephiliac]

I whole-heartedly agree that The Shooting is an amazing and vital western, but for my dollar, I'm partial to Ride in the Whirlwind--even if it is widely considered the lesser of those two Corman-backed westerns (shot back-to-back with The Shooting, and written by Nicholson)! ... Somehow, that reminds me: Has anyone seen that 1998 ('97?) Russian existentialist pseudo-western, Outskirts? I hear it just came out on DVD, and if you haven't checked it out, it's fascinatingly bizarro.

[FIlmbrain]

Outskirts is on DVD? Cool. Always wanted to see that.

I used to share your opinion, but repeated viewings of The Shooting swayed my choice. Looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.

[ben slater]

Its great that there is a new print of The Shooting around, I came across it via Danny Peary's Cult Movies books in the mid-late-80's, which weren't great writing, but they did introduce me to all kinds of weird and wonderful films. I was pretty underwhelmed by it when I finally caught up with it on TV a few years later (along with Whirlwind) - Millie Perkins is great in both.

Two-Lane is a masterpiece, and it was only seeing a scratchy print of it in a cinema that I fully realised its power (the relentless engine drone)...I'd love to see Cockfighter, which has always been unavailable in the UK becaue we Brits are rather squeamish about cruelty to animals...

[Dave Cheung]

Almost forgot about this...hope there's some tickets left for this awesome event. :)

[George Fasel]

I too would like to put in a good word for "Ride the Whirlwind," which I first saw on a double bill with "The Shooting" in Paris in 1969. It's underplayed and powerful; if it has a godfather, I'd say Wellman's "The Ox-Bow Incident," from 1943, with perhaps a mention to Henry King's "The Gunfighter" (1950), with Gregory Peck--both stark, silent, and for the time counter-westerns.

[Filmbrain]

Cockfighter, while certainly an interesting film, is a far cry from Two Lane Blacktop. Still, Warren Oates' near-mute performance is outstanding.

[phyrephox]

I just saw The Outskirts at Anthology Film Archives around March; is it already out on dvd so soon?

[Filmbrain]

Yes, it's on DVD, released by Facets.