Criterion Collection: Shooting/Ride In Whirlwind

In the mid-sixties the maverick American director Monte Hellman (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP) conceived of two westerns at the same time. Dreamlike and gritty by turns the two films would prove their maker s adeptness at brilliantly deconstructing genre. As shot back-to-back for famed producer Roger Corman (THE WILD ANGELS) they feature overlapping casts and crews including Jack Nicholson (FIVE EASY PIECES) in two of his meatiest early roles. The films - THE SHOOTING about a motley assortment of loners following a mysterious wanted man through a desolate frontier and RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND about a group of cowhands pursued by vigilantes for crimes they did not commit - are rigorous artful and wholly unconventional journeys into the American West.