Advertisements for "The Hunting Party" misleadingly portrayed the scenario as a western riff on the old "Most Dangerous Game" ploy: man hunting man for sport. Instead, this William Norton-Gilbert Alexander-Lou Morheim script is an old-fashioned revenge tale studded with new-fangled blood and sex. Gene Hackman plays land baron Brandt Ruger, an amoral sadist living in the rural town that bears his surname, who leads a somewhat-leery pack of well-wrought gentleman friends on a hunt to kill the gunslingers responsible for kidnapping his wife (he also appears to want his wife killed as well, since she's obviously been raped and now may be carrying a bastard child!). Taking his cue from Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch", director Don Medford takes great delight in blasting his supporting cast away to Kingdom Come in a hail of gunfire, blood-packs spurting in slow motion. Medford hasn't much originality (or versatility), and several of his scenes are downright sloppy. However, Ruger's unmitigated relish for treating humans as cattle allows Hackman to revel in some mangy, dastardly deeds--he's a marvelous villain. As the head of the kidnappers, Oliver Reed disguises his British accent fairly well and is surprisingly tender with captive Candice Bergen (as sort of a Sweet Hostage). Opening scene juxtaposing the knifing of a cow with Hackman forcing himself on his wife in the bedroom is heavy-handed at best, distasteful at worst. But the picture improves from there and gives us a brutal, fairly realistic look at the lawless West. Very good performances from all three stars, excellent work as well from Mitchell Ryan as Reed's faithful friend Doc. **1/2 from ****
