The Hunting Party (1971)

When a notorious bandit (Oliver Reed) kidnaps his wife (Candice Bergen), a cold and cruel cattle baron (Gene Hackman) isn't concerned about his wife. He's enraged that someone has stolen one of his "possessions" and he goes after the outlaw and his gang with a vengeance. Directed by Don Medford (THE ORGANIZATION), this pointless and violent western is a miscalculation on almost every level. Spaghetti westerns from Italy and American westerns like THE WILD BUNCH opened the doors for a more realistic and graphic violence in the genre. But the violence here seems gratuitous as if the film makers wanted to outdo the previous westerns, violence for violence sake if you will. The violence isn't the only film's problem. Candice Bergen spends most of the film getting raped, fending off rapists and beaten up and to make matters worse, she falls in love with her rapist! But it seems a poorly thought out plot point rather than the use of what we now refer to as the Stockholm Syndrome. A truly nihilistic western (that's not meant as a compliment). With Simon Oakland and Mitchell Ryan.