Ride the Whirlwind - Shot back to back with "The Shooting" (that I like a lot and will revisit soon) by Monte Hellman with a young Jack Nicholson on both this is less avant garde and more subdued. At face value it seems like an ordinary western, one more akin to spaghetty ones than the classic americans, more on the realm of Peckinpah than Ford I guess, but the emphasys on the "dead times" (cowboys pissing, eating beans, going up or down hills and playing checkers) establishes a more observational view to it. It is nihilistic without being grim and sober, nothing is learned and no one is saved, shit happens and there is no time for drama. The gunfights are never exciting, the hints of backstories never go further and the conflicts stay dead on the surface, things happen and people die and people run around clueless but this is all shown without ceremony and pomp. It will never be a classic but it is a great movie that will enrichen your experience as a viewer if you have patience and leave your guards down.
