The Hunt (2020)

Directed by Craig Zobel

Do you know what’s great for art? Controversy! That magical quality that gets people talking about a movie regardless of anything else about it, controversy can be a magic wand for movies that people would otherwise not give a crap about. There are of course real provocateurs, John Waters comes to mind, who produce shocking art that pushes boundaries, even if that’s just the boundaries of good taste, but controversy doesn’t have to be planned. For example, when you take a story concept that predates movies with sound, like people hunting others for sport, you may not think it would be particularly controversial, especially considering how many movies and books and television shows have come out with that same story. So it is a bit suspect when some groups got riled up following the release of the early trailers for The Hunt. I’m not accusing anyone of acting in bad faith, but it seems like these people would have to be pretty ignorant about movies and stories that are traditionally told in them. Why am I spending so much time talking about this controversy? Because it is far and away the most interesting aspect of The Hunt.

Snark Aside, Here’s The Summary.

If you have no idea what The Hunt is, it is a movie that was released what feels like 10 years ago in 2020 right around when the pandemic that we all know and hate became very very serious in the US. The Hunt was supposed to have been released months earlier but got pushed back after some, shall we say, complaints brought up by media outlets that can be charitably described as right of center, politically speaking. You see, the plot of The Hunt is about a group of ‘Deplorables’, Trump supporters, although the movie never explicitly names him for some reason, who wake up together in a field not knowing how they got there and are then hunted by a group of people who are clearly an analog for the liberal elite. Our story follows a few of the hunted as they try to survive and perhaps find out what is going on, who is killing them, and why. Going further would be spoilery, but if you want to discuss further head down to the comments.

Let’s Ease Into The Rant By Saying What Works.

Before I get too critical I want to be fair and highlight what The Hunt does right. The premise is just fine, and as I alluded to before in a slightly snarky way, people hunting others is a classic setup that is always ripe for satire and is a good jumping-off point here. There are many good character actors here, and regardless of the material that they were given, these actors are going all in and delivering exactly the performances that they were asked to, which is something I appreciate, they’re all trying to make this movie work. In that same vein, the action sequences are all fairly well done, nothing mind-blowing here but there’s general competence with nearly every aspect of filmmaking here which should deliver at least an acceptable diversion under most circumstances. My problem isn’t with the actors, the cinematographers, the stunt choreographers, or even the premise, those are all decent and could easily be in a good movie. My problem is with the writing, more specifically the satire, which is a failure of titanic proportions.

Niceties Are Done. Rant Time Is Now.

It’s really interesting to me that The Hunt has been derided as anti-Right Wing propaganda because after having watched the movie, it feels way more like anti-Left Wing propaganda. The difference between how these two sides are depicted is shocking, and I think completely the fault of at least one writer, who I am going to call out right now. Damon Lindelof co-wrote and co-produced this movie and I don’t think he gets the Left/Right divide as much as he thinks he does. Either that or he’s secretly a Right-wing agent because everything The Hunt says completely affirms the fears and beliefs of the far right without ever challenging them in any meaningful way or even satirizing the far right in any way. In The Hunt, the left is a powerful cabal that is overly sensitive, more concerned with using the right words than with meaningful action, is petty, and pretty dumb. The right, in comparison, are harmless cranks without any real power. What kind of satire is that? The right CONTROLLED THE GOVERNMENT when this was written! It’s tempting to say that a lot has changed in the past year since this came out, and I do grant that, but this movie was released in 2020, well into the Trump administration’s campaign of seeing what they could get away with, which turns out, is a lot. By playing into the far-right narrative that right-wingers are the oppressed minority fighting against the powerful ‘liberal elite’ without challenging it in any way, The Hunt only satirizes the left, clumsily I might add, at a time when a far-right agent was sending pipe bombs to Democrats and billionaires got a massive payout that Republicans jammed through Congress.

And Now I Formally Challenge Damon Lindelof To Fisticuffs.

I bring up Damon Lindelof specifically because I have a bit of a history with projects he’s been involved with. Most famous for co-creating and co-writing Lost, a TV series that everyone thought was smart until they realized that nothing was planned in any way or connected when the ending was released as the equivalent of “it was a dream the whole time”, Lindelof hasn’t written that much else. He wrote Cowboys & Aliens, a movie that should have been a lot more fun but was just a dour slog, and Prometheus, a movie with a great look, a great cast, and an infuriatingly simplistic and nonsensical script, and Tomorrowland, a movie that no one has seen, including me. To be fair, he’s also the showrunner for the new Watchmen series, which I hear is good but haven’t seen yet. Of the three movies he’s written that I have seen, there’s this element of pseudo-intellectualism that is insulting to me, particularly in Prometheus and The Hunt, and I would probably be less hard on Lindelof if he didn’t keep trying to tackle high-minded concepts without really getting them. I assume it was easier to satirize the left than the right because Lindelof, as a successful (in many ways) writer probably spends more time with people on the left and has a clearer view of their issues. That’s fine, but if you don’t know enough about a subject, don’t write about it!

I Wish The Hunt Was Smarter Than It Is, Then It May Have Had A Chance.

I don’t mean to get too into insulting Damon Lindelof. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and I’m happy for his success, I’ll even give Watchmen a shot because I have heard good things about it! My point is, to construct a clever satire on the Left-Wing v Right-Wing issue, someone who is writing that needs a better understanding of both sides and more of a willingness to get into the evils that “average” people are capable of. As it stands, The Hunt is, in the typical Blumhouse manner, a decent-looking and well-made movie. There was real talent in bringing this script to life but the problems are almost entirely in the script, and it’s hard to get past that when the movie rests so heavily on its ideas. The Hunt was clearly meant to be provocative but doesn’t understand the topic well enough to present a meaningful argument, so there’s no real way I could recommend this movie to anyone. The Hunt feels dated, it is dated, and doesn’t do anything new. Just watch Psycho Goreman instead and call it a day.