The Shooting

Western starring Jack Nicholson as Billy Spear and Warren Oates as Willet Gashade. A Deconstruction of the western made on the same year as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.


 * Complete Monster: Jack Nicholson's character
 * Doomed Hometown: The film opens with the lead finding his mining camp depopulated.
 * Eloquent in My Native Tongue: A horse trader who barely speaks english is nonetheless capable of reading and writing (no small feat) and seems to run a successful business. He walks away from the confused Gillet mumbling in some language or another.
 * Gainax Ending
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: Played painfully straight by Willet's sidekick.
 * Hyper Awareness: Willet.
 * Jump Cut: Stylishly used.
 * Retired Gunfighter
 * Rouge Angles of Satin: On someone's grave. Lousy 19th century education.
 * Kick the Dog: The woman who hires Willet to accompany her to Kingsley keeps killing horses.
 * No Name Given: The Woman.
 * Viewers are Morons: Surprisingly averted on the advice of Roger Corman. The original script gave had several long scenes that made the backstory explicit, but they were clearly dragging the story. Corman convinced the director that people could follow the story as long as the relevant information (that Willet has a brother) is repeated three times early in the movie.
 * The Western