College
students Mitch Brown and Nate Kohn aren’t names you’ll immediately recognize in
the annals of 1970s New American Cinema.
But in 1973 after raising $15,000 with college campus film screenings,
first-time writer-director Brown with producer Kohn made a miniscule but
nonetheless impressive mark with their first and only feature film Shot.
An understated little entry in the buddy cops-and-robbers action
thriller, the film follows unorthodox detectives Ross and Wilson who have their
own frowned-upon methods of crime fighting.
In pursuit of local drug lord Blasi, the two enlist the help of Blasi’s
disoriented girlfriend as an informant.
Unbeknownst to them, Blasi is plotting a big score which threatens to
take the two detectives down with him.
Spoken
of the same breath as Jim Van Bebber or Buddy Giovinazzo, Shot is the very definition of an underground picture. Made quickly on a shoestring budget with
local actors and fellow University of Illinois students, Shot is mostly remembered for staging wild car chases, tense
shootouts, startling stunts and frequently stunning aerial photography. While not the most complicated or compelling
narrative, Shot impresses with how
much physical action is onscreen despite being an overtly collegiate film. Performances are mostly fine by the local
cast members with the actor playing Blasi looking very like Combat Shock actor/composer Rick
Giovinazzo.
For
a homegrown amateurish production, despite poorly recorded audio and
occasionally shaky camerawork, Shot is
an inspired microbudget action gem which proves you can still make an engaging
thriller with little to no money. You
also have to hand it to the cast and crew for tackling this film in the dead of
winter with some chase scenes making you fear someone will slip and fall. Coupled with a funky rock score by Area Code 615, Shot sports a uniquely small-town American backdrop and winds up
feeling more authentic as a result. Most
of the crimes take place in local restaurants and open fields, contrary to the slick
and shiny nightclubs often dramatized as gangster backdrops.
Screened
on campus and given a limited local theatrical release, Shot almost vanished without a trace before resurfacing years later
on a Sony VHS with the title Death Shot
in truncated form. Thought to be lost,
the film was rediscovered by the good folks at Vinegar Syndrome who have given
the gritty 16mm film production a new 2K digital remaster. Seen now, the film while being something of a
poor man’s The French Connection nonetheless
remains impressive for what they were able to pull off despite having both
hands tied behind their backs financially.
Not a masterpiece but an otherwise entertaining slice of ‘70s regional
student filmmaking.
--Andrew Kotwicki
