Clay Pigeons (1998)

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo, and Scott Wilson.  Cinematography by Eric Edwards. Editing by Stan Salfas.  Produced by Ridley Scott and Chris Zarpas.  Written by Matt Hearly. Directed by David Dobkin.

Clay and Earl (played by Joaquin Pheonix and Gregory Sporleder), best buddies living in the small Montana town of Mercer, are out one day drinking beers and target practicing.  Out of the blue Earl snatches up Clay’s gun and accuses his friend of sleeping with his wife Amanda (played by Georgina Cates).  Clay has indeed betrayed his friend’s trust, but before he can even collect his thoughts Earl has turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. 

To make matters worse, Earl had intentionally made the incident look like a murder… a murder that Clay would likely be blamed for.  Without seeing any other option, Clay disposes of the body and heads home to Amanda to break the bad news.  But Amanda isn’t scathed in the slightest; in fact she’s ready to jump back into bed. 

A couple days later Clay meets a wandering rhinestone cowboy named Lester Long (played by Vince Vaughn). Lester is aggressively friendly with Clay and they are soon out fishing like a couple of old friends.  But suddenly another dead body pops up and unfortunately for Clay, who is looking guiltier every day, it will not be the last.

After a decent box office turnout for G.I. Jane, Ridley Scott’s next project was slated to be an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s famed horror novel, I Am Legend.  Matheson’s story takes place in a futuristic 1976 where a terrible plague has transformed the entire human race into blood-thirsty vampires. Only one man, Robert Neville, has survived the epidemic. Neville spends his days destroying the undead creatures and his nights trying to survive their hungry wrath.

I Am Legend was first published in 1954 and has since been heralded as one of the finest horror novels of the twentieth century. The story has been adapted to film twice before; once in 1964 as The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price and again in 1971 as The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston. But when Scott’s proposed budget looked like it was going to top one hundred million dollars, Warner Brothers got cold feet and pulled the plug on the film. Instead of jumping right into another directorial job, Scott decided to spend some time with the projects being developed at his production house, Scott Free.  This leads us into his producer’s credit on the neo-noir black comedy Clay Pigeons.

Obviously inspired by the Coen brother’s Fargo, Clay Pigeons is a fairly well played, offbeat, crime thriller with a handful of solid performances.  It marks the feature film debut of commercial director David Dobkin, who would eventually move into the big leagues with projects like Shanghai Knights and The Wedding Crashers.  The screenplay, written by the equally inexperienced Matt Hearly, is sharp and funny.

That isn’t to say that Clay Pigeons is without it’s faults, but if you’re just looking to have a good time you just might want to give it a peek.

Budget: $8,000,000

Total US Gross: $1,793,359

Genre: Black Comedy

Runtime: 104 Minutes

US Release Date: 9/17/98

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Awards: none

Tagline: Lester Long Never Forgets A Friend.

Quote: “Barney, could you not poke the body with a stick please?”