Remembering Monte Hellman: The Five Essential Films You Can Stream Now

Who was Monte Hellman? The iconic director, who passed away on April 20, never became a household name in the way that some of his contemporaries did. He never made a purely commercial career maneuver; even when he was offered the chance to direct the third film in the “Silent Night, Deadly Night” franchise, his acceptance of said assignment felt like more of a defiantly personal choice than any kind of bid for mainstream acceptance. (Hellman later went on to declare, at an Alamo Drafthouse screening of that aforementioned cult horror sequel, that the finished product was among his finest work.)

Hellman, if anything, thrived outside of the mainstream. He often made movies about outlaws: men, typically, who debase themselves for money, or earn it through unscrupulous means, or live outside the lines of polite society in one way or another. Many cinephiles know him for a pair of lean, rugged ’60s Westerns featuring a then-ascendant Jack Nicholson. These brilliant genre deconstructions refuse to peer through the rose-colored glasses through which so many more traditional Westerns might choose to see their characters instead of languishing in savagery and cosmic ennui. There is also “Two-Lane Blacktop,” widely regarded as Hellman’s masterpiece: a cooler-than-cool art film about drag racing and betting big that also happens to be one of the all-time great movies about the promise of America.

Hellman is also known as an executive producer on Quentin Tarantino‘s directorial debut, “Reservoir Dogs,” a mentor to the film, who initially wanted to direct it and, instrumental in getting the movie made in the first place.

It could be said that Monte Hellman made movies about America. Hellman most certainly personified the deep value of real, honest, creative integrity: at the risk of employing a trite turn of phrase, Monte Hellman did things differently. He colored outside the lines and truly followed no one’s playbook but his own. When we lost Hellman, we lost a maverick and a true champion of cinema. He may be gone, but his outlaw legacy lives on.

Here are five of the must-see Monte Hellman films, almost all of which are available to stream:

“Beast From Haunted Cave” (1959)
Over the years, Monte Hellman lent his time and efforts to a variety of projects in a non-directorial capacity: not only was he a second unit director on Paul Verhoeven’s “Robocop,” for example, he also helped to boost the profile of Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” upon its release, and helped with the edits of landmark cult flicks like Sam Peckinpah’s “The Killer Elite” and also “The Wild Angels.” Like Francis Ford Coppola, Hellman was a protégé of “The Wild Angels” director Roger Corman, who contracted Hellman in the mid-’50s to helm what would be his directorial debut “Beast From Haunted Cave,” a creature feature caper with shades of “The Thing” and “The Hateful Eight,” from a script by “A Bucket Of Blood” screenwriter Charles B. Griffith. Particularly when one considers how enjoyably cruddy some of the Corman B-movies from that era are, it’s impressive how confident and atmospheric Hellman’s style is right out of the gate in his debut. “Beast” boasts a delicious, noir-like atmosphere and an uncanny sense of dread, spinning a characteristically Hellman-esque yarn about a band of crooks on the run through the South Dakota snow, the curveball being that a cave-dwelling arachnid monster then stalks the gang. The creature design is actually pretty neat here, particularly when compared to the likes of “The Wasp Woman” or “Attack Of The Crab Monsters,” and Hellman’s breakthrough, when examined through the right lens, announces the arrival of a generational talent.
Where To Stream: Tubi

“Ride In The Whirlwind” (1966)
“Ride In The Whirlwind” blows by in a flash of dust, blood, and sudden, abrupt carnage. It’s as swift and whittled-down as genre movies get, which makes sense when one considers that Hellman’s mesmerizing anti-Western was shot back-to-back with the thematically, if not exactly stylistically analogous “The Shooting,” for budgetary reasons (Hellman, apparently, took the advice from mentor Roger Corman that he could attempt to helm two Westerns for the price of one). While “The Shooting” is the dreamier of the two films, “Ride In The Whirlwind” is possessed by tough-minded poetry that is entirely its own. The film, which only dispenses with dialogue when it absolutely has to, begins with the ruthless economy that is this director’s signature: three taciturn cowhands happen upon a hanged man, unaware that they’re about to arrive at a hideout that is occupied by a trio of depraved outlaws, all responsible for the ignominious fate of said hanged man. A case of mistaken identity and much gunplay ensues. However, Hellman’s elliptical direction and the philosophically inclined screenplay by Jack Nicholson, who easily walks away with the picture despite limited screen time, paint a gorgeously mesmeric portrait of frontier life as a never-ending cycle of treachery, viciousness, and, ultimately, cathartic escape.
Where To Stream: The Criterion Channel

“The Shooting” (1966)
One could argue that “The Shooting” is a Western almost exclusively in terms of its genre iconography. Otherwise, this is about as bizarre as these movies get: “The Shooting” features no swelling, Morricone-style score, no shoot-outs in saloons, and not a trace of false sentiment. It’s an austere tone poem, a terse allegory about the innate lawlessness of man, and a slow-drip march to the grave – the characters just happen to ride horses and wear cowboy hats. The great Warren Oates plays the lead, a stone-faced killer named Gashade, with co-star Will Hutchins almost doing a Garrett Dillahunt riff as his naïve, all-too-trusting traveling companion. The two wandering men eventually make the acquaintance of an enigmatic, unnamed woman played by Millie Perkins. She offers to pay the men to act as her guides through the barren, unforgiving desert terrain they are all navigating. As the trio press onward, the ultimate endgame of Perkin’s femme fatale transforms into something sinister as the particulars of her plan remain vague, with a cold-blooded, Reaper-like executioner (Jack Nicholson, exuding sleepy-voiced menace) tracking the group every step of the way. “The Shooting” marries the nihilistic existential torpor of something like “L’Avventura” with the unseen-killer, ticking-clock structure of a contemporary thriller like Joel Schumacher’s “Phone Booth” – it’s an elusive, occasionally difficult movie that, if you’re patient with it, can reveal magnificent depths.
Where To Stream: HBO Max