The Last Hunt

A western set in the American West. The buffalo herds are almost gone. Where there were once millions, what remains can be counted, and the hunting continues. Sandy is a hunter who gave it up. He loses his cattle and, left with nothing, agrees to go back to his old work. His partner is Charlie. The two set out together. Sandy does it as a job; Charlie enjoys the killing and does not hide it. The difference between them grows on the road. Charlie kills a group of native people and takes a surviving woman with him. Sandy objects but does not leave. What the film is interested in is not hunting but going on working inside an extinction. The narrative says it directly: the herds are ending, this work is finished and the men who do it will finish with it. The last section takes place in midwinter in snow country and is built on waiting. Footage of real buffalo herds was used; filming was done during a cull in a national park at the time, and the choice was criticised afterwards. Stewart Granger plays Sandy and Robert Taylor plays Charlie. Lloyd Nolan and Debra Paget are in the cast. Richard Brooks directed. A solid production for anyone who likes classic westerns and films that criticise their own genre. Before you watch, know this: the film contains footage of real animals being killed.