Movie Review--The Hunt

"War is war."
--Athena, The Hunt


Few filmmakers are willing to make movies that target both of America's philosophically inept political parties, much less with such irreverent, savage comments.  Thankfully, director Craig Zobel's controversial The Hunt has finally been released after being rescheduled due to dramatic overreactions from emotionalistic people last year (yes, liberals and conservatives can both be petty snowflakes).  The Hunt uses a clever series of misdirects to hide who its main character is until several important scenes have already passed.  By this time, the black comedy at the heart of the film has already been established.  It does not take long for intelligent viewers to realize that The Hunt does not just attack one major party or the other, though.


Production Values

There are twists and revelations, but The Hunt is not a movie about developing multiple characters across its runtime.  It is about political ideas, gore, and comedy--three things that go together very well here.  Given the nature of the film, this works: Betty Gilpin's character Crystal, a veteran of Afghanistan with the observational skills to work around trap after trap, gets plenty of attention, while other characters often die after serving their narrative or comedic purpose.  Betty Gilpin does a phenomenal job with her role, conveying everything from intelligence to humor to emotional moments without any of her scenes tonally conflicting with the others.  Hillary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, and the other supporting cast members likewise make the most of their roles, but Betty Gilpin's Crystal is clearly the character the movie is based around.


Story

Mild spoilers!

An opening text conversation referring to a hunt eventually spurs several individuals to make a plane trip with abducted people on board.  When the majority of them wake up, they find themselves gagged and placed next to a box that turns out to be full of weaponry.  Sudden gunshots result in several quick deaths, and the disoriented survivors find themselves being hunted by unseen attackers.  One particular victim with the skills necessary to identify key traps begins the process of tracking down Athena, the woman behind the murderous hunt.


Intellectual Content

Without ever actually having its characters explicitly identify as liberal or conservative, The Hunt does an excellent job of showing the seeming political and moral ideas of its characters simply through the jokes they make and the comments they make about other ideas.  This is used for comedic purposes all throughout the film, but the best political comedy or satire exploits genuine contradictions or the fact that certain ideas are merely assumed to be true.  A great example of this is when the liberals who organize the titular hunt are screening possible victims, only to almost reject a black candidate who fits their target profile simply because he is black--one of them even says they have to lean into stereotypes about blacks in order to eventually oppose the stereotypes!  In another scene, a character who has been espousing typical conservative ideas objects when a character is about to kill a woman who has been participating in the hunt.  The character who eventually kills her asks if she should receive merciful treatment just because she is a woman, to which the woman says "No" before she is quickly killed.

Scenes like these deconstruct allegedly "positive" forms of racism and sexism rather well!  While provoking laughter, they demonstrate how asinine, arbitrary, and unjust it is to make exceptions to punitive actions on the basis of someone's race or gender.  Of course, The Hunt touches on plenty of other misconceptions and fallacies, like the equivocation of the right to own firearms and the right to murder, the assumption that anyone who looks Mexican must be an illegal immigrant, and the idea that there is absolutely no reason to be concerned about the environment at this time.  As aforementioned, no one ever specifically calls themselves liberals or conservatives: it is the worldviews that make the distinction clear as things unfold.


Conclusion

The Hunt cleverly combines relentless comedy with graphic violence, mocking people on both sides of the major American political parties in ways that often do touch on legitimate ideological problems.  However, if someone wants to simply watch it for its action and mystery, there is plenty of both to be found.  The philosophical underpinnings are not the only parts of The Hunt that are executed well.  Hell, the final confrontation between two certain characters is a better fight than those of many superhero movies that have been released in recent years!  Anyone eager to see a movie with quality in a time when other major films have been pushed back due to concerns over COVID-19 who is also aware of the failings of both primary American parties might find The Hunt provides more than they expected.


Content:
 1.  Violence:  The Hunt is one of the most violent movies to come to theaters in recent times.  Early in the film, a man's eye is impaled, pulled out of its socket, and shown onscreen while it is still stuck on the object that pierced it.  A woman falls into a spike pit, getting out with some help only to be thrown back into the pit without her legs after an explosion.  In another scene, a man is shot with arrows that come out the other side of his torso--and all of these things happen near the beginning alone!
 2.  Profanity:  "Fuck" is by far the most prominent choice of profanity in the movie, but "shit" is exclaimed at times as well.