I have seen this movie but it was back in the seventies when it was made; it seems like it was a "Made For TV Movie".
A group of former "Vietnam combat" buddies develop a very unusual weekend hunting pastime. They hunt a most unusual rabbit; but there is a third party who has intruded; a shadowy figure who thinks this hobby is really a very bad habit and has decided to make the odds more even.
There are two characteristics of this movie that stand out in my mind. The first is that it had an almost hidden message, revealed by the William Holden line stated very dramatically and sadly at the end of the movie.This makes the movie for me.
It should be easy to guess what that message is considering that this time was post Vietnam. It can be posed as a question also in our current time. just what effect DOES wartime combat have on the human mind? What are the effects of the pressure of being in almost constant danger, being required to kill other human beings and, perhaps the most revealing description, doing this AS A GROUP? This movie may suggest an answer.
The other characteristic is its macabre sense of humor in how they describe a possible victim when they spot him at a gasoline station; "does he look like a rabbit to you?" And the little, old "Nursery Rhyme" type song they sing or hum. "RUN, RABBIT RUN, RABBIT, RUN RUN RUN." "dumb, dumde dumb, dumde dumb dumb dumb."
When I tried to remember the name of this movie, I actually thought it could be called "Rabbit Run" and be written by John Updike. It would have matched his distasteful "facts of life" style. But I found out that's a different story.
The third player, William Holden (I think we see his face now), at the end, looking over the bodies of the murderers he himself has killed, says: "Boys, somebody should have told you... when the war ended, the killing stopped."
A group of former "Vietnam combat" buddies develop a very unusual weekend hunting pastime. They hunt a most unusual rabbit; but there is a third party who has intruded; a shadowy figure who thinks this hobby is really a very bad habit and has decided to make the odds more even.
There are two characteristics of this movie that stand out in my mind. The first is that it had an almost hidden message, revealed by the William Holden line stated very dramatically and sadly at the end of the movie.This makes the movie for me.
It should be easy to guess what that message is considering that this time was post Vietnam. It can be posed as a question also in our current time. just what effect DOES wartime combat have on the human mind? What are the effects of the pressure of being in almost constant danger, being required to kill other human beings and, perhaps the most revealing description, doing this AS A GROUP? This movie may suggest an answer.
The other characteristic is its macabre sense of humor in how they describe a possible victim when they spot him at a gasoline station; "does he look like a rabbit to you?" And the little, old "Nursery Rhyme" type song they sing or hum. "RUN, RABBIT RUN, RABBIT, RUN RUN RUN." "dumb, dumde dumb, dumde dumb dumb dumb."
When I tried to remember the name of this movie, I actually thought it could be called "Rabbit Run" and be written by John Updike. It would have matched his distasteful "facts of life" style. But I found out that's a different story.
The third player, William Holden (I think we see his face now), at the end, looking over the bodies of the murderers he himself has killed, says: "Boys, somebody should have told you... when the war ended, the killing stopped."