The Hunting Party is a very simple movie. Really, it's just Gene Hackman chasing the bandits who kidnapped his wife. But what makes it special is how bleak and immoral it is. Candice Bergen's character escapes her sadist husband through kidnapping only to fall into the arms of Oliver Reed's character who isn't all that much better than her husband was. Apart from the kidnapped wife there really is no character you can root for in this movie. You feel sorry for her but you feel nothing when Hackman and his band mow down the outlaws that kidnapped her with no remorse. And you don't want her to return to him as he will probably kill her anyway.
This is a rare movie that is truly devoid of any moral lesson. Really, there is no point the movie is trying to make apart from maybe showing that everything is hopeless and that humanity is doomed to behave like beasts until we go extinct. Bergen's character kind of falls in love with Reed's character but I never bought the romance as more than a means to escape her husband and a kind of lesser evil option. Normally in such a movie the outlaw would turn out to be better than expected and the two love interests would ride into the sunset together but that's not the case here. The ending is perfect in that everyone dies and no one gets a happy ending because such a thing was impossible. This move is just pure bleak exploitation and I can understand how it's not for everyone. However, as much as I can appreciate an uplifting movie a la Spielberg I can also appreciate a movie that doesn't try to preach any message and is just pure mindless violence with no moral core.
This is a rare movie that is truly devoid of any moral lesson. Really, there is no point the movie is trying to make apart from maybe showing that everything is hopeless and that humanity is doomed to behave like beasts until we go extinct. Bergen's character kind of falls in love with Reed's character but I never bought the romance as more than a means to escape her husband and a kind of lesser evil option. Normally in such a movie the outlaw would turn out to be better than expected and the two love interests would ride into the sunset together but that's not the case here. The ending is perfect in that everyone dies and no one gets a happy ending because such a thing was impossible. This move is just pure bleak exploitation and I can understand how it's not for everyone. However, as much as I can appreciate an uplifting movie a la Spielberg I can also appreciate a movie that doesn't try to preach any message and is just pure mindless violence with no moral core.