Wonderful Movie

Undescribable Perfection

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Let me start by thanking my buddy John for insisting on dragging me to this utter trash of a movie in 1974. The (numerous) unpleasant scenes are still seared into my memory.Never before-or since-has an assemblage of unsavory characters and cruelty to fellow human beings'graced'the big screen. (Okay, I should give honorable mention to 'Goodfellas', but that's for another One- Star review I'll submit later.) Now here we are in 2017 and, as we all know,the world is a much more peaceful and brighter place than the one portrayed in this putrid 1974 film. Ya right. Is society shaped-or desensitized- by violence in films and on television? Who's to say? I used to laugh when our teachers and preachers suggested that rock music was "destroying the youth of today". But I will say I'm disturbed by the number of people who give this film a positive review as a must-see 'message'movie. There is no message here but mean-spirited cruelty and violence.

Richard Lynch often plays the villain, but seeing hero types Peter Fonda, and John Philip Law as Lynch's comrades in crime is what really makes "Recon Game" a winner. It appears the three leads had a long leash as far as improvisation goes, and their constant bantering probably strays somewhat from what might have been scripted. The film is not perfect, and there are at least a bunch of tedious moments, especially inside the hunting lodge, including a truly boring sequence involving a Monopoly game. Once the "prey" are turned loose and the hunt begins, this raw revenge flick kicks into gear. "Recon Game" compares favorably with another rarely seen hunted in the woods film, "Hunter's Blood". If you can find it, see it, and along with "Recon Game" they would make a terrific double feature. - MERK

This film is a revelation in terms of editing technique, the use of stills right in the middle of the action (this is 1974, a long time pre-John Woo)and several passages of pretty associative editing. The photography is stunning with spectacularly framed images. There is a very thought-out way of using sound, with a change of perspective (from clos up to a wide shot and vice versa) that is counteracted by the sound - a lot of close-up conversation takes place on wide shots. and finally, because some folks think this is boring - the way the topic of the movie - the use of humans as living targets - is introduced is pretty compelling - the audience is not given a clue, or a well-worded plan - we are kept just as informed as the victims, and when seeing the movie for the first time, stuff like putting the chain on the woman in the kitchen really comes as an awful surprise - yet Fonda delivers this as if it was routine as usual (which it obviously is for his character) - thrilling stuff. They did a lot of experimenting with editing and imaging in the 70s which should not be lost. this movie should be put on dvd!

This film was different, but very good. The beginning was interesting, and Peter Fonda played really well, he made this film worth watching. Although he was a "bad guy", he had a certain hidden charm. I wish this film would come out on DVD, so I could buy it.