reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (07/12/85)
"The Shooting Party" treads rather heavily in the footsteps
of "The Rules of the Game". Not surprisingly, it isn't nearly as
good, but then, few films are. The story concerns a group of
British aristocrats at their favorite recreation, slaughtering
vast numbers of birds, just before World War I. Metaphors and
portents of the imminent collapse of the old social order are
rife, but fundamentally "The Shooting Party" doesn't have very
much to say.
"The Shooting Party" will appeal to "Masterpiece Theater"
fans. It has very nice production values (lavish Edwardian sets
and costumes), muted sepia-toned photography, and a certain fur-
tive nostalgia for the old days of aristocrats and servants. It
is also well acted by a distinguished cast, the film's major as-
set. James Mason has the lead as a particularly civilized aris-
tocrat, the host for the shooting party. Mason is excellent, in
his final film role, as a tolerant man willing to accept that
change is inevitable. He seems almost the only character depict-
ed in the film who doesn't base his life on a belief that the
current order is immutable. Edward Fox shows perhaps too much
stiff upper lip as the cold master marksman. John Gielgud has a
brief but splendid part as an animal rights activist who pickets
the shooting party. He has a delightful scene with Mason in
which they discuss where one can get the best bargain on having
pamphlets printed up. This scene is one of the more insightful
of the picture, particularly when counterposed with an earlier
scene showing the general discomfort when Gielgud tries to peddle
his doctrine to the lower classes in a local pub. Despite funda-
mental differences in some of their principles, perhaps the ones
they would claim are most important to them, the hunting enthusiast
and the animal rights advocate are really very closely allied,
living off a society which provides them the wealth and leisure
to pursue their avocations. If the film had more moments like
this, it might have been more than a pleasant interlude.
Various subplots about infidelities, competition in the
shooting, and whether a little boy's pet duck will be shot are
not really very interesting, and, while the performances are, by
and large, convincing, it is difficult to care much about most of
the characters. "The Shooting Party" is leisurely paced, doubt-
less to suggest a less hurried time. In this it is successful,
but the director, Alan Bridges, fails to find a way to make a
slow story interesting. The final plot twist is supposed to be
very significant, obviously, but Bridges fails to demonstrate its
importance, so we see it as little more than a tragic result of
poor sportsmanship. The last shot has a certain poignance, but
the "American Graffiti" style ending revelations of the fates of
the characters fails because we simply don't remember most of
them by name, a major flaw in the script. Performances, photogra-
phy, and production design are the worthwhile components of "The
Shooting Party". "The Shooting Party" is definitely for a select
audience only.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher