The Shooting / Ride in the Whirlwind (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)

In the mid-sixties, the maverick American director Monte Hellman (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP) conceived of two westerns at the same time. Dreamlike and gritty by turns, the two films would prove their maker's adeptness at brilliantly deconstructing genre. As shot back-to-back for famed producer Roger Corman (THE WILD ANGELS), they feature overlapping casts and crews, including Jack Nicholson (FIVE EASY PIECES) in two of his meatiest early roles. The films - THE SHOOTING, about a motley assortment of loners following a mysterious wanted man through a desolate frontier, and RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND, about a group of cowhands pursued by vigilantes for crimes they did not commit - are rigorous, artful, and wholly unconventional journeys into the American West.

Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Warren Oates, June Gable, Will Hutchins, Jessica Hecht, Tom Filer, B. J. Merholz, Carlo Imperato, Lisa Kudrow, Millie Perkins, Katherine Squire, Matt LeBlanc, Guy El Tsosie, Matthew Perry, Jack Nicholson, Leah Remini, David Schwimmer, George Mitchell, Dean Stanton, Jane Sibbett, Jonathan Silverman, Rupert Crosse, Wally Moon, Peter Cannon, William Mackleprang, Brandon Carroll, John Hackett, William A. Keller, Charles Eastman, Neil Summer, James Campbell, Walter Phelps, Gary Kent