Gunpoint. Peter Graham, 1972.
😿😿😿
Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray Blanche, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.
Summary: Murder of many pheasants.
This glimpse into sophisticated sporting culture is a collaboration between Graham and Borowczyk, filmed during an actual shooting weekend and permitted because our filmmakers remained mum that they actually hated these miserable fuckers and wished to expose them accurately as violent psychopaths. We first see hatchlings being handled roughly, hand fed and partially tamed, then trained to not fear automobile noises and human screeching. Finally the big day arrives and a stream of luxury automobiles pulls into the gated estate, out of which tumble over-dressed yapping galoots armed as though they had something to protect. They and their dogs proceed into the woods and kill everything they can, the most adorable sequence being a grinning pony-tailed bitch stomping on a peasants neck to kill it. They all retire to the estate in high spirits and enjoy a fine dinner.
Gunpoint is so straight-faced that I have difficulty believing that the hunting type would even understand that they were being exposed. Heck, it jest looks like nice folks havin’ a good weekend’s fun before political correctness ruined everything. They got them some nice birds, they did.
The Arrow Blu-ray of Blanche also includes Daniel Bird’s new 5-minute interview with Graham, Behind Enemy Lines: The Making of Gunpoint, in which Graham discusses the deception necessary to make the film, his decision not to expose that most of these fine gentlemen were away for a weekend’s bloodlust with their girlfriends rather than their wives, and the personal consequences of releasing such a factual exposé.