The Shooting

The Shooting (1966) is Monte Hellman's stripped-down desert western, free to watch online on iFILM. Former bounty hunter Willett Gashade rides back to his mining camp to find one partner dead and another gone without a trace.

That same day a silent woman shows up with a thick roll of cash. She hires Willett and his slow-witted friend Coley to lead her across the badlands. She won't say where. She won't say why. Trailing the group is Billy Spear, a cold-eyed gunman played by a very young Jack Nicholson, and the deeper they push into the heat, the murkier it gets who is hunting whom.

Hellman made the film on almost no money in the Utah canyons, back to back with Ride in the Whirlwind, and turned a plain manhunt into a riddle — spare dialogue, scorched ground, an ending people still argue over. Warren Oates and Millie Perkins carry entire scenes on a single look. If you like your westerns uneasy instead of action-packed, this is the place to start. Stream The Shooting (1966) online on iFILM.