Hunter’s Moon (1999)

Directed by Richard Weinman; Starring Burt Reynolds, Haley DuMond, Keith Carradine, “Wild” Bill Mock, Pat Hingle, and Brion James

When I saw the poster to this at my local cineplex, I was caught quite off guard. Considering that I had never heard anything about it and even the local newspapers had not even put it in their film listings, I was a little weary upon entering the theatre. Not only does Hunter’s Moon have obscurity, it also deserves it. The film reminded me of something that would come on Cinemax after midnight with a premise like walk-sex-talk-sex-action-sex-action. The film even has a sex scene under a waterfall very reminiscent of last week’s A Walk on the Moon.

The film follows the relationship between some Georgia backwoods family and the man that falls in love the only daughter. The father (Reynolds) is a widower and has made his daughter (DuMond, nude in the first scene of her first film) do all the work around the house. When a nomadic man (Carradine) falls in love with the daughter, the father sees this as the loss of his slave. So what else is a father to do but set out to hunt the man down.

The film also goes into a stupid subplot about the father’s bootlegging business with “The Judge” (Hingle). That brings to mind that one of the few good things about this film is the audacious hamminess of Hingle. Whether in a 1970s Western or a 1990s action film, Hingle always succeeds in showing off his scenery-chewing ability. Another good point about the film is its moody use of music. This would come in handy if the director did not try to cram it down the throats of the audience by sticking with what sounds like Enya on “Pure Moods, Vol. 2.” It is easy to see from the beginning of the film that the director is either a purist or incompetent. My guess would be incompetent.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.