Jack Nicholson didn’t make a lot of Westerns, which, for a movie star who has maintained his standing as one of the greats since the 1960s, is somewhat surprising. That said, the man did manage to make one Western that went down as a critical hit and still enjoys a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score to this day: 1966’s “The Shooting.” Even better, the movie is now streaming for free over on Pluto TV.
Though he worked steadily for five decades before he disappeared from Hollywood, Nicholson only ever made five westerns, and most of them came during the early days of his career when he was still trying to break away from B-movies. His Western debut came with 1962’s “The Broken Land,” in which he co-starred with Robert Sampson and which sort of came and went without much fanfare. Monte Hellman’s “The Shooting,” however, was a different story, This was Nicholson’s second Western and saw him play unpredictable gunslinger Billy Spear, who joins Willet Gashade (Warren Oates) and his partner, Coley Boyard (Will Hutchins), on their mission to escort a mysterious young woman (Millie Perkins) through the Old West to a town on the other side of the desert. The lady’s reasons remain unclear for most of the movie, until it transpires that the ragtag crew is in pursuit of another rider. A final showdown then erupts.
Nicholson also co-produced “The Shooting” alongside Hellman, with whom the actor had worked three times before. The duo actually shot the film in seven weeks, during which they also filmed another Western, “Ride in the Whirlwind.” While that 1965 Oater fared well enough to garner a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, only “The Shooting” managed a perfect 100%.
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The Shooting is a perfect movie according to Rotten Tomatoes
Jack Nicholson’s Billy Spear is seen in closeup against a blue sky in The Shooting – Jack H. Harris Enterprises
You might not hear Billy Spear listed as one of Jack Nicholson’s most iconic roles all that often, but the film in which he played that maverick marksman certainly remains well-reviewed. A contemporary review from the New York Times described the films as “sparse, austere, stripped of all unnecessary language, stripped and flayed until there is nothing left but white bones drying in the sun.” That doesn’t sound all that positive, but according to the Rotten Tomatoes rules, everyone else was very impressed.
Of the 20 reviews collected on the site, five come from so-called “Top Critics,” with Richard Brody of the New Yorker praising Hellman’s “tight telephoto shots,” which he claimed “press the characters entomologically against the barren landscape.” Likewise, Philip Strick of Sight & Sound lauded the director’s “spectacular precision of technique,” with several other reviewers highlighting the visual style of the movie and Hellman’s ability to make the genre as a whole feel fresh, despite his meager means.
As such, “The Shooting” is well worth a look if you’re a fan of either Nicholson or Westerns — especially as it’s one of the only times the actor deigned to appear in an Oater. Back in 1994, Nicholson told the New York Times, “I’ve tried not to get pigeonholed doing a lot of westerns, a lot of rednecks, a lot of dope films.” Indeed, he only made five Westerns throughout his career, and if you have to pick one, “The Shooting” is a safe bet — though he’s not in the film as much as you might hope. If you want more Nicholson for your money, then Arthur Penn’s 1976 effort “The Missouri Breaks” features the actor more heavily and sees him take on Marlon Brando’s regulator Lee Clayton in a solid 77-percenter of a movie.
“The Shooting” is available to stream on multiple platforms, including Pluto TV, where you can watch for free.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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