The Shooting Party

This article is about the 1984 film. For the novel it is based on, see The Shooting Party (Colegate novel). For the 1884 novel by Anton Chekhov, see The Shooting Party (Chekhov novel).

The Shooting Party
Film poster
Directed byAlan Bridges
Written byIsabel Colegate (novel)
Julian Bond
Produced byGeoffrey Reeve
StarringJames Mason
Edward Fox
Dorothy Tutin
John Gielgud
Gordon Jackson
Robert Hardy
Music byJohn Scott
Distributed byCurzon Film Distributors
Release dates
  • 16 May 1984 (1984-05-16) (Cannes Film Market)
  • February 1985 (1985-02) (United Kingdom)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Shooting Party is a 1984 British drama film directed by Alan Bridges and based on the book of the same name by Isabel Colegate. The film is set in 1913, less than a year before the beginning of the First World War, and shows a vanishing way of life amongst English aristocrats, focusing on a shooting party gathered for pheasant shooting. Their situation is contrasted with the life of the local rural poor, who work on the estate and during the shoot serve as beaters, driving the game.[1] It was entered into the 14th Moscow International Film Festival.[2]

  1. ^ "THE SHOOTING PARTY". Memorable TV. Archived from the original on 27 July 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2009. Elegiac in tone and full of muted browns and greens The Shooting Party captures the period beautifully, showing the class divide which World War One helped to break down some.
  2. ^ "14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.