I've just finished watching the most recent UK release on DVD. Released on the 20th April 2015. There are no bells and or whistles here. Thankfully from my perspective there are no time wasting extras. No pretentious and or condescending special features in other words, not even a trailer. Other than the feature itself all you have access to is the chapters, but then there is nothing special about doing that is there? This is actually a replacement for a copy that Amazon provided some while back. An import from Belgium or the Netherlands (I forget which off hand), where you could not toggle off the subtitles. You either watched it in French with English subtitles, or in English where one had to put up with the French subtitles. In this case there are no subtitles at all. The inclusion of English subtitles for the hard of hearing might have been a good idea, if nothing else, but even that is not an option here.This particular version has something of a better quality picture than the imported version, which pleases this picture perfectionist no end, though it does show it's age a bit. One is making allowances for when it was made. As to the film itself. It's not the best western ever made, that's for sure; but it's not the worst that I've seen either. The worst western ever is The Gatling Gun, but that's another story for another time. The Hunting Party is not on a par with The Wild Bunch and a few others I could mention but will refrain from naming. Nevertheless I like the simplicity of it. The fact that Gene Hackman is present has resulted in my giving it a plus 1 bonus to my original rating of 6.As a final footnote. Frank Calder and his men are described by some reviewers as a bunch of outlaws. This is not the case. They happen to be a group of gun-hands on their way to join a range war, as is clearly stated in the early stages of the film.

Oliver Reed is an outlaw, Frank Calder, and along with his rugged brood, swipes a cattle baron's wife, and lives to regret it. The cattle baron is Brandt Ruger(Gene Hackman), his wife, Melissa(..the lovely Candice Bergen). So Ruger assembles a group of his friends as a hunting party to seek after Frank and his outlaws, not knowing until much later that Melissa has become quite attached and affectionate towards her kidnapper. This indeed drives Ruger over the edge and there'll be hell to pay before he's through.I'll be honest, the stale plot isn't earth-shattering, and even though the movie results in a bleak, uncompromising, and tragic manner, it's pretty predictable. But, if you want your fix of bloody violence with plenty of people blown away by long range rifles(..mostly by Hackman, who's a crack shot), then "The Hunting Party" might just be what the doctor ordered. It has plenty of familiar faces. LQ Jones a sleazy scoundrel who, while in a drunken high, attempts to rape Bergen, getting his medicine(..what she doesn't complete, Hackman sure as hell does), with Mitchel Ryan as Reed's compadre, Doc, who is gut shot, but lives on the brink of death for damn near an hour as the group move from territory to territory seeking a town physician to pull the bullet buried inside him.The major problem with this western is that you kind of have no one to really side with. Hackman, understandably so, becomes so bloodthirsty, that he alienates those who accompany him on the quest to find Reed. We don't really spend a great deal of time with him, either, so we have little real time to get to know him all that well. He very well could be a disaster of a husband which might explain why Bergman responds so passionately eventually to Reed. We do recognize a friction between the Rugers, and it's visible how Brandt treats her as a prize no one but can claim, but still, Frank isn't exactly the greatest substitute, now is he? But, that scene where Reed forces himself on Bergman is hard to watch, and, despite the fact she succumbs to his desires, that rape does tarnish any sympathy one might have in his favor.The film seems to side with Reed, though, as Hackman just continues to shoot down his men, picking them off in intervals, and we follow them as they grow more weary, their tempers tested due to the fact that they are dying because of a broad. Simon Oakland(..who I consider to be one of the finest television actors in the history of the small screen, his face recognizable across all genres, particularly in the 60's and 70's, most notably, "Kolchak The Night Stalker") is well cast as Matthew Gunn, attempting to be a voice of reason for Ruger, trying to talk some sense into him, especially after it's realized that Melissa has chosen Frank over Brandt. But, it's obvious that Brandt isn't a man to lose any property that's his to anyone, much less an outlaw whose life has been about stealing and killing. Like a lot westerns coming out in the 70's, I reckon "The Hunting Party" suffered as the genre was starting to wain, it very much an example of "The Wild Bunch" influence.

I'll start out by saying that this film did not have the greatest director or editor in the world but the outcome was a film full of thrills.From the very beginning we are introduced to variations of pretty unlikable and ruthless people. Brandt Ruger (Gene Hackman)is a rich farmer who clearly doesn't give a damn about his wife (Candice Bergen). After he have left on a hunting trip, his wife who helps out the school teacher is kidnapped by a gang of outlaws so she can teach their leader Frank (Oliver Reed) to read. Apparently he wants to become a bigger man and reading is the next step. He have of course no idea that the womans husband is even scarier than his whole gang combined.After stumping cigarettes on a Chinese hooker and having a pretty fun night Brandt is awaken by the news. Infuriated and equipped with the long range rifles he and his rich pals for a hunting party with the mission to kill the entire gang and save his wife.This must be one of the darkest films ever made. It could best be described as misanthropic. I felt a complete rush while watching this. As the hunting party starts their game everything can happen and the suspense is extreme. Incredibly entertaining and completely uninterested in the worth of a human life. This film is more merciless than The Wild Bunch.This is most certainly a film about anger and revenge! And what this may cause. It shows violence for what it is: Ugly and brutal! I can see why this has such a low rating. A lot of people will obviously reject such material but if your a fan of The Great Silence, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Rabid Dogs and films of this kind it's most definitely for you. A great story indeed. A must for fans of western and grit.

I wonder if this film doesn't have pretensions to art. Maybe not, but it's evident that someone went to the trouble of thinking up some novel variations on the usual conventions.We've seen a number of movies before -- the posse or the revenge party pursuing somebody across harsh terrain -- "Tell Them Willie Boy is Here," "Three Godfathers", "Chato's Land," and so on -- but this is the only one I can think of offhand in which each party -- pursued and pursuer -- changes its attitude towards the other.About two dozen cowboy roughnecks led by Oliver Reed and including the bad L. Q. Jones and the good Mitchell Ryan kidnap the bride of the wealthy Western entrepreneur and big game hunter, Gene Hackman. Hackman hears about this while on a train, after banging a Chinese hooker, and, man, is he mad. He fantasizes the gang will rape Bergan repeatedly, impregnate her, and then sell her back as damaged goods. So he forms a posse of half a dozen friends, arms them with telescopic rifles that will outshoot any existing rifle by twice the range.Nothing much new there, except that instead of an outraged groom, Hackman has revealed himself as a stark materialist and a rather rough lover. But then Hackman's group gradually find themselves within range of the kidnappers after a long chase through some extremely picturesque mountains, badlands, and desert scrub. The kidnappers have no idea anything is up until a couple of them get shot by rifles too far away to see.Here's where somebody put some thought into the script. Ordinarily, in an ordinary Western, the convention is that when you are shot, you die. They may shoot your horse instead, but then the horse gets up with an irritated look and trots off unharmed. If you are only wounded, you get away and, if you're a good guy, you recover the use of your gun hand.Not here. A wound is intensely painful and your buddy can't always pluck out the offending bullet, no matter how much mescal you drink or how hard the praying Padre holds your arms down. If they're mortally wounded the victims just don't flop down and lie there. They twitch a little before they kick off. The horses don't get up if they're hit, although they're definitely horse de combat. (Apologies. The voices make me do it.) They jerk their heads and legs and whinny. The first kidnapper to get shot has his head blown off while taking a dump.Hackman treats all this as a hunting party. And one or two of his posse smile as they take pot shots, especially G. D. Spradlin. What they don't know is that Bergman has been scared out of her wits after the kidnapping but when she seeks comfort in the arms of the stolid Oliver Reed, he roughly rapes her. Then she falls in love with him. (I said it was artistically ambitious, not that it was politically correct.) The others in Hackman's party realize what's happening and leave. "It's not worth it," shouts Simon Oakland, the least likely cowboy you're ever likely to see, but he's right. Nevertheless, all the gang die except Reed who, along with Bergman, is reduced to trekking through the vastness of the desert, horseless, until they collapse. Their hopes in ruins, they murmur about plum trees and grapes in California, until the shimmering image of an equally horseless Hackman appears. He shoots both of them dead and collapses to wait for death.Hackman is always fine, either as bad guy or good guy. Oliver Reed, with his hoarse mutter and eternal scowl, is hard to place. Candace Bergen isn't given much opportunity to act. She looks (1) wary, (2) distressed, or under stress, as when being raped, (3) shocked and surprised. You can tell because her mouth opens and she screams, "Oh, oh, oh!" She's so staggeringly beautiful that it hardly matters. Her long loose blond hair is always immaculately brushed and lustrous. What would happen to your hair and mine under those circumstances does not happen to hers. As an actress, she labors under the same disadvantage as some other actresses -- like Kathleen Ross and Jane Fonda. She sounds like she just graduated from some classy school like Sarah Lawrence.There's a misplaced semi-comic incident involving canned peaches that the musical score, a sprightly banjo, tells us is supposed to be funny, but it's not.There may be an occasional wince while watching this but it's not a bad film. It's at least interesting all the way through.