Writers: Loris Barbi (story), Egidio Veronesi
Stars: Francesca Botti, Augusto Gatti, Paolo Lodu
Il cacciatore di anatre (English title: The Duck Hunter) is an Italian film that attempts to tell a slice-of-life-style narrative following an ensemble of characters in rural Italy before World War II. For the first ten minutes I was actively trying to figure many things out – who is the main character? What is this movie about? Is this one of those weird, straight-to-DVD Christian movies that’s supposed to be inspirational? Finally I realized that The Duck Hunter is just a very, very, very bad movie.
A terrible, awful, no good, very bad movie.
The Duck Hunter can’t support its own grand vision, and crumbles miserably under its own lofty narrative right out of the gate. The film does little to establish a main character, making following the story extremely difficult. Sub plots pop in and out of existence with little transition between story lines.
And that seems to be the main problem with The Duck Hunter. Any energy expended orienting the audience is energy wasted to the filmmakers. Characters walk on screen, and the audience has no idea who they are. Yet we’re expected to be engaged by their unfolding stories.
The Duck Hunter is a complete waste of time. Avoid it. This film is the perfect example of a filmmaker’s ambition being more than what their skill can deliver. It’s painfully apparent in every second of The Duck Hunter that the writers and director envisioned a grand scale of a film, and that realization makes the resulting 90 minute product just sad.