Shoot the Sun Down

1978

Action / Drama / Western

5
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 40%
IMDb Rating 4.7/10 10 284 284

gold desert vulture

Director

David Leeds Photo
David Leeds

Top cast

Christopher Walken Photo
Christopher Walken as Mr. Rainbow
Ben Zeller Photo
Ben Zeller as Assayer
Sacheen Littlefeather Photo
Sacheen Littlefeather as Navajo Woman
Jorge Cervera Jr. Photo
Jorge Cervera Jr. as Lieutenant
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
912.55 MB
1280*546
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 1
1.66 GB
1920*818
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by paul_m_haakonsen 5 / 10

It was adequate...

Needless to say that I had indeed never even heard about the 1978 Western movie titled "Shoot the Sun Down" prior to stumbling upon it here in 2026. But then again, Western movies is generally not my go-to genre of movies for entertainment, though I do sit down to watch one every now and again.The storyline in the movie was adequate. But then again, I am not overly keen on Westerns, so it takes a bit to impress me. Not that "Shoot the Sun Down" was a bad movie, not at all. It most certainly was watchable, but I just didn't find it to be outstanding. Writers David Leeds and Richard Rothstein put together a fair enough script and storyline for the movie.The movie actually has quite a good cast ensemble, with the likes of Margot Kidder, Geoffrey Lewis, Christopher Walken and A Martinez. The acting performances in "Shoot the Sun Down" were good.I am sure that diehard Western fans will enjoy this 1978 movie far more than I did as a casual viewer. Though this is hardly a movie that I will pick up to watch a second time.My rating of director David Leeds's 1978 movie "Shoot the Sun Down" lands on a five out of ten stars.
Reviewed by FightingWesterner 6 / 10

Christopher Walken's Only Western: Offbeat, Mildly Interesting

Christopher Walken is an enigmatic stranger wandering the west. Geoffrey Lewis is a scalp-hunter, turned prospector, with a serious case of gold fever, while Margot Kidder is the indentured servant of emotionally-stunted ship captain Bo Bundin. The four collide in and around Mexican-controlled Santa Fe as they dig for gold and search for the lost treasure of Montezuma.Though mostly character-driven and not for everyone's taste, this independent western looks great, with nice location photography and and the presences of Walken and Kidder, right on the cusp of their breakthrough performances in The Deer Hunter and Superman: The Movie respectively, though Walken is a bit out of place.Of the cast, the late Geoffrey Lewis is the most game (as usual), delivering some amusing lines, his eulogy for a treacherous henchman especially memorable. Familiar faces, A. Martinez and Sacheen Littlefeather (on the final seconds of her fifteen-minutes of fame) round out the cast.Action scenes are clumsy and the score is all over the place, with spaghetti western horns one minute, pulsing rock the next, traditional string instruments a few minutes later, with some prints featuring a title song by Kinky Friedman!
Reviewed by lost-in-limbo 4 / 10

The vultures are circling...

Not just the protagonist, but also "SHOOT THE SUN DOWN". There's not much to this creaky, workmanlike western with minor offbeat strokes. A British sea captain and his accompanying lady (though there's more to their relationship) are on a quest to find the lost treasure of Montezuma, where along the way to Santa Fe they're joined by a wandering stranger and a small posse led by a conniving scalphunter.Watch it for the cast (Christopher Walken, Margot Kidder & Geoffrey Lewis), but even then they don't look all that interested either. Actually, I would make Lewis the exception. Without his smarmy performance as the scalphunter it would be quite a slog to sit through. With the likes of a pre-stardom Kidder and Walken (who later that same year go onto acclaimed films; "SUPERMAN" & "THE DEER HUNTER"), you could see why it was fairly obscure at the time. On the other hand it's the lackadaisical experimental style that might have alienated it up until this day.The influences are obvious; where it seems to want be some sort arty western (without the art) executed in a minimalist style of Monte Hellman, but also there's a spaghetti western within wanting to break out. Sadly it's not as exciting as it sounds, where I think the music composer was confused to what type of western he was scoring. It's very plodding and overly talky for most part in its attempts of a meditative sort of character-mood piece. The script however, is just too shallow and uninteresting in the details to make it work. When comes to the shootouts, there's little of it and it's staged in a rather scratchy manner. It's not until the backend when it gets a little interesting with an unexpected downbeat sense of closure.As for Walken, he spends some time channeling Eastwood's dry, loner bounty hunter persona, but also one with principals and even a romantic interlude. His attire however looked more like a costume getup, than anything authentic. The same can't be said about the picturesque backdrops of New Mexico and Texas.
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