Lou Perryman and Sonny Carl Davis in "The Whole Shootin' Match," Watchmaker Films, 1978

Eagle Pennell’s "The Whole Shootin’ Match" has a different and distinctly American new-wave sensibility: Nowheresville good-ole-boy comedy-tragedy, uncovered in the Austin outlands as if under a rock, and shot with resources that might’ve then bought you a decent but far-from-new used car. First seen in 1978, the movie has become something of an indie martyr legend -- it inspired Robert Redford to initiate the Sundance monolith, while Pennell’s nascent career as a newly anointed avatar of "regional cinema" in the "Star Wars" era crashed and petered out thanks to his apparently catastrophic alcoholism. A handmade 16mm double-shot of loser whimsy, Pennell’s movie tracks two boneheads (Sonny Davis and Lou Perryman) from one get-rich scheme to another (a turbo-accented vacuum invention is one such tangent; talk of a failed flying squirrel breeding program flits by), existing in a kind of lite-lager twilight on the edge of commerce and success characterized by barren neighborhoods, claustrophobic kitchens and worn pickup interiors. 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. 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 L.A. 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. The new, definitive DVD edition of "Shootin’ Match," which hasn’t been available in any form for ages, triples the Pennell-martyrdom bet and lets it ride, with an entire booklet of eulogies, a new documentary, a CD of the soundtrack and Pennell’s first short, "A Hell of a Note" (1977).

"I Served the King of England" (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) and "The Whole Shootin’ Match" (Watchmaker Films) are now available on DVD.

Name (Required)

Email Address (Required, not displayed)

URL

Type your comments here...