The Scalphunters

The Scalphunters follows rugged trapper Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) as his valuable furs are stolen by scalphunters (led by Telly Savalas’ sadistic Jim Howie), with the movie detailing Joe’s continuing efforts at recovering his property – with his attempts both assisted and hindered by an escaped slave named Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis). Filmmaker Sydney Pollack, working from William W. Norton’s screenplay, has infused The Scalphunters with a deliberateness that immediately (and consistently) prevents the viewer from connecting to the material, with the palpable lack of forward momentum ensuring that the movie’s few engrossing sequences are drained of their impact. (There are, for example, a couple of decent fights towards the end that are essentially rendered moot by the otherwise interminable atmosphere.) The film’s erratic feel is compounded by a continuing emphasis on eye-rolling instances of humor, with the undercurrent of over-the-top comedy wreaking havoc on Pollack’s efforts at establishing any tension or suspense. It doesn’t help, either, that Norton’s script is, for the most part, awfully repetitive, as the movie generally revolves around the central character’s failed attempts at reclaiming his loot – which, when coupled with the movie’s overall vibe of pointlessness, cements The Scalphunters‘ place as a seriously misguided and hopelessly dated endeavor that’s best left forgotten.

* out of ****