I am so sorry to hear of Monte Hellman's passing earlier today. He was a great American filmmaker, and he made arresting films right out of the box with BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE (1959). His RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND, THE SHOOTING, TWO LANE BLACKTOP and COCKFIGHTER are all masterpieces, and he may well have made others I haven't seen. He was one of the many directors on THE TERROR with Boris Karloff. He produced RESERVOIR DOGS for Quentin Tarantino, he shot additional footage for Roger Corman's THE INTRUDER and Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, he edited THE WILD ANGELS for Roger Corman (which wins him a guest spot on my script and novel THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES), and he tried to make a movie of Alain Robbe-Grillet's LA MAISON DE RENDEZVOUS. It's also said he had a hand in cutting Bob Rafelson's Monkees film HEAD. All this, plus he was once married to Barboura Morris, the delicious beat girl from A BUCKET OF BLOOD.
I can't post this without reproducing this frame from THE SHOOTING (1966), photographed by Gregory Sandor, which I consider one of the most stunning natural images in motion picture history:
RIP Maestro - and my deepest condolences to my friends Brad Stevens (who wrote a terrific book about him) and Kier-La Janisse (who has been preparing a COCKFIGHTER monograph for years) and anyone else reading this who knew Monte and cared for him.
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