Shoot Out (1971) is a fine, overlooked Western directed by Henry Hathaway with Gregory Peck playing Clay Lomax, an ageing outlaw who’s just been released from a seven-year stretch in the pen for bank robbery and begins a journey to track down the partner who betrayed him, Sam Foley (played by James Gregory), who shot and left Lomax for dead and scarpered with the loot, which he used to set himself up as a successful businessman.
In the course of tracking down Foley, Lomax has thrust on him 7-year-old Decky Ortega, who may or may not be his daughter from a fling he had just before being imprisoned and whose mother has died leaving the little girl an orphan.
Meanwhile, Foley, aware that Lomax has been released from jail and in all likelihood will be coming after him seeking revenge, hires three young thugs – or ‘punks’ as Lomax calls them – to follow Lomax and report to him when he approaches Gunhill, the town he now lives in.
The trajectory of the story revolves around the increasing bond that develops between Lomax and his possible-daughter and the extent to which this new-found paternal purpose in his life will deter Lomax from killing Foley and, therefore, returning to jail, if he hasn’t ended up on the gallows. Lomax knows that doing what he’s been dreaming of doing, day in day out, for seven years, will satisfy his thirst for revenge but will also inevitably lead to the destruction of his life and destitution of the girl, who he now loves and may be his offspring.
The theme of domesticity versus the outlaw life is one of the most common in the Western and can also be expressed as the conflict that takes place on the frontier between civilisation and barbarism. Often, this conflict is expressed in the civilised values held by women and children – virtues of love, compassion, forgiveness – versus the barbarian ones held by men, values of violence, solitariness, hatred and revenge.
In Shoot Out, this contrast in values is emphasised not just by Lomax’s relationship with his young ‘daughter’ but also finds expression when, as he approaches Gunhill and his target, Lomax takes shelter from the torrential rain for the night with a beautiful widowed farm-owner and her young boy. In the best scene of the film, Juliana Farrell (played by Patricia Quinn) describes her crushing loneliness, how she needs alcohol to dull the pain and virtually begs Lomax (and his daughter) to stay with her and her son so that they can form a family.
It is an offer that Lomax is willing to consider, but as his thirst for revenge is ameliorated by the civilising influence of women and children, the threat of male violence, in the form of the three punks sent out to track him, threatens to ruin this final opportunity presented to him to lead a purposeful life, in communion with others and society rather than in opposition to them.
Meanwhile, Foley, aware that Lomax has been released from jail and in all likelihood will be coming after him seeking revenge, hires three young thugs – or ‘punks’ as Lomax calls them – to follow Lomax and report to him when he approaches Gunhill, the town he now lives in.
The trajectory of the story revolves around the increasing bond that develops between Lomax and his possible-daughter and the extent to which this new-found paternal purpose in his life will deter Lomax from killing Foley and, therefore, returning to jail, if he hasn’t ended up on the gallows. Lomax knows that doing what he’s been dreaming of doing, day in day out, for seven years, will satisfy his thirst for revenge but will also inevitably lead to the destruction of his life and destitution of the girl, who he now loves and may be his offspring.
The theme of domesticity versus the outlaw life is one of the most common in the Western and can also be expressed as the conflict that takes place on the frontier between civilisation and barbarism. Often, this conflict is expressed in the civilised values held by women and children – virtues of love, compassion, forgiveness – versus the barbarian ones held by men, values of violence, solitariness, hatred and revenge.
In Shoot Out, this contrast in values is emphasised not just by Lomax’s relationship with his young ‘daughter’ but also finds expression when, as he approaches Gunhill and his target, Lomax takes shelter from the torrential rain for the night with a beautiful widowed farm-owner and her young boy. In the best scene of the film, Juliana Farrell (played by Patricia Quinn) describes her crushing loneliness, how she needs alcohol to dull the pain and virtually begs Lomax (and his daughter) to stay with her and her son so that they can form a family.
It is an offer that Lomax is willing to consider, but as his thirst for revenge is ameliorated by the civilising influence of women and children, the threat of male violence, in the form of the three punks sent out to track him, threatens to ruin this final opportunity presented to him to lead a purposeful life, in communion with others and society rather than in opposition to them.
