"The Whole Shootin' Match"

By David Hudson on 02/24/2009

[Updated through 2/25]

"Eagle Pennell's 'The Whole Shootin' Match' is one of those films you hear about later than you should have and don't manage to see until even later than that," writes Michael Tully at Hammer to Nail. "But with the film's long overdue DVD release this week (compliments of Mark Rance's new imprint Watchmaker Films), you have no more excuses. Accompanied by the feature-length 2007 documentary 'The King of Texas,' Pennell's first short 'A Hell of a Note,' a rare 1981 interview with Pennell by Rance, and a bonus CD of music from 'The Whole Shootin' Match' and 'The King of Texas' - not to mention a compact, yet thorough, booklet in which friends and fans reflect upon Pennell's career - this gorgeous package is a mandatory addition to the home video library of anyone with an even remotely passing interest in American independent cinema."

"Not only was Pennell's film an artistic success on its own merits, but it also pointed the way toward a viable regional American cinema taking root in places other than the urban centres of Los Angeles and New York," writes Paul Matychuk. "Apparently, it was a screening of 'The Whole Shootin' Match' that gave Robert Redford the idea of starting up a film institute and an associated film festival that would foster voices like Pennell. Pennell may not have started the Sundance Festival, but he was one of the artists who made Sundance seem necessary."

"Seen today, it almost seems a template for the typical Sundance movie," notes Dave Kehr in the New York Times: "a desolate, semirural setting; a serio-comic tone that drifts from anticlimax to anticlimax; characters who may be financially challenged but are rich in human emotions and cultural heritage."

"The characters are mundane cartoons, a redneck, south Texan version of Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton, but the actors' awkward conviction and Pennell's relaxed pacing make them charming and genuine," writes Michael Atkinson here at IFC. "Still, I'm a little convinced that the critical ardor rained upon the film in its 2008 rerelease has more to do with its evocation of another downtrodden reality: honest-to-God indie filmmaking as we knew it during the Carter and Reagan administrations, proudly clumsy, poverty-stricken, grainy, and quirky in a small-boned, acutely anti-Hollywood manner; targeted at no particular festival audience or pool of industry buyers, and aligned with hang-out culture, be it Soho punk or LA working-black-man or Austin layabout. Pennell's movie was an instrumental and integral player in that historic mix (however it inspired the festival that obliterated that culture in short order), and it's a sweet vibe to visit."

Earlier: Glenn Kenny (The Auteurs' Notebook) and Peter Nellhaus.

Updates, 2/25: "The micro-budgeted 'The Whole Shootin' Match' has qualities lacking in films made at any price," writes Glenn Erickson. "Lloyd [Lou Perryman] and Frank are neither clowns nor regional stereotypes but fully realized characters. Sonny Carl Davis's Frank is a likeable blowhard and his own worst enemy. Davis's scenes with Doris Hargrave can match any drama about downwardly mobile southerners, and his rivalry with the cagey Eric Henshaw is inspired."

"The movie resembles a redneck version of Charles Burnett's seminal 1977 indie Killer of Sheep,'" notes Noel Murray at the AV Club: "both were shot in high-contrast black-and-white, both feature sometimes-stiff performances, and both are about men and women trying to eke out a living while spending their days colorfully jawing at each other. 'The Whole Shootin' Match' also recalls Texas-shot classics like Peter Bogdanovich's 'The Last Picture Show' and Wes Anderson's 'Bottle Rocket,' in that it's about restless people who face the future with a certain cockeyed, deadpan optimism."

Online viewing tip. Ray Pride talks with Mark Rance about restoring the 'Shootin' Match' and about what all else might be out there.

"It's possible that this is just that time of year and I have SXSW on the brain, but when I watched 'The Whole Shootin' Match' a few days ago, more than seeing the film as a love/hate letter to the bottle, more than spotting its shared DNA with various films by Richard Linklater and Andrew Bujalski (and, to a lesser extent, Wes Anderson and Gus Van Sant), I saw it as a catalyst for a conversation about Austin's evolving film cultural history," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog.

[Photo, "The Whole Shootin' Match," Watchmaker Films, 1978]

Tags: DVDs, Eagle Pennell, The Whole Shootin' Match, Watchmaker Films