‘The Hunt’ isn’t anti-Trump or anti-Hollywood, it’s anti-America
Mar 13, 2020, 4:16 PM
1.5 stars out of four
This is a film that is a genre all its own. It is a body count comedy, and the basic set up is the international elites — the globalists, the people who run our financial industry and the deep state and the media and Hollywood — a group of them come together for the sport of kidnapping, drugging, and then dropping off a number of “deplorables” in this hunting ground.
They’re described as deplorables. They’re people who believe in President Trump and who supposedly hold xenophobic and homophobic attitudes, and they are mercilessly hunted. But one of them, played by Betty Gilpin of “Glow” on Netflix — she’s actually a very fine actress and great screen presence — fights back.
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It shows the deplorables as really, utterly deplorable. This basically is not so much anti-Trump or anti-Hollywood, it’s just anti-America.
The ugliness of both sides is so accentuated here because the deplorables who are being hunted are conspiracy theorists, and when they come across a group of refugees with children, one of the deplorables believes they’re just crisis actors.
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In any event, this is a very, very disturbing film. It’s one of those things where people will ask for their money back. They will walk out. It is nauseating, and rated R, of course.
Literally within the first moments, you not only have this fellow whose jugular is pierced with a pen on an airplane, he also has his eyeball removed for the sin of being a deplorable conspirator.
The one thing you could say about “The Hunt” with all its disgusting levels of violence is that it’s not a badly-made film from a technical aspect, and some of the performances are good, especially from Betty Gilpin and Hilary Swank. Though she’s won two Oscars — why is she in this?
It’s hard to rate a film like this because on the one hand your job is to tell people whether to go to see it. Let me be very clear on this: Please don’t go see this film. There’s no reason to see it and it will put disturbing images in your head.
The only argument you could possibly make for it is that it puts the coronavirus in context — at least it’s not as bad as sitting through two hours of “The Hunt.” You’ll come out of the theater looking at the deserted streets in downtown Seattle or wherever and think, “Well, this is not so bad because it could be like the movie.” But this is not a reason to see it.
The half star is only because it’s one of those films where you come out feeling sorry for the cast, the crew, everyone associated with it. They’re trying to advertise this by featuring some of the quotes denouncing it, as in come see the movie you weren’t supposed to see.
But there’s very little satisfaction. I can’t imagine how furious I would be if I ended up spending $10 or $12 dollars to go see “The Hunt.”
