First, if you're interested in independent films and want to buff up on knowledge regarding the USA Film Festival, I highly recommend seeing this movie (which was awarded a second prize at the 1978 USA film festival). Furthermore, If you're interested in the development of regional cinema, I highly recommend seeing this movie. Lastly, if you're interested in everything Texas then I really, really recommend seeing this movie.

However, if you are interested in entrepreneurship and are an entrepreneur at heart, I must provide you with the following cautionary notice. First, this film will tear aspiring entrepreneurs to pieces with the very realistic portrayal of failed business ventures and the ups and downs that come with entrepreneurship. Every entrepreneur has their own reasons for embarking upon a business venture. In "The Social Network", Mark Zuckerberg is presented as an entrepreneur who invents Facebook to impress a girl that dumps him. Additionally, the Facebook film portrays the entrepreneur behind Napster as a man driven to impress an unrequited love that gave him no attention in high school. However, when you view "The Whole Shootin' Match" you will not really know the true motivations behind Loyd and Frank's entrepreneurial activity.

Maybe viewers will see Loyd and Frank's entrepreneurial activity as a way to avoid holding down a job. Maybe they'll see their efforts as a means to provide income for women chasing and alcohol benders. I think such judgments would be rash, however. I believe Loyd and Frank are two men engaged in the worthy pursuit of self-sufficiency and personal stability. Indeed, sometimes a successful entrepreneurial idea can serve as the "magic bullet" to provide an individual with sustained income and financial security. Unfortunately, Frank and Loyd's "magic bullet" was taken from them. They say that entrepreneurship is like throwing spaghetti to the wall and going with "whatever sticks." Unfortunately, the noodle that stuck for Frank and Loyd was taken from them. This happens to a great deal of entrepreneurs who "get their lunch eaten" by a bad deal or a competitor who abruptly innovates and "one-ups" their product. Go watch "The Whole Shootin' Match" to see how painful this common occurrence is.

Stubborn Frank (the always excellent Sonny Carl Davis) and his easygoing inventor buddy Loyd (a delightful performance by Lou Perryman) are a couple of lifelong pals and wannabe entrepreneurs who concoct a get rich quick scheme involving Loyd's latest contraption that combines a mop, floor cleaner, and vacuum cleaner into one handy device. Alas, bitter reality and the pair's own hopeless naiveté put a severe damper on their ambitious plans.

Director Eagle Pennell, who also co-wrote the sharply observant script with Lin Sutherland, not only astutely captures the raw regional tang of Texas and the colorful folks who populate the state without ever resorting to cheap sentiment or cardboard stereotypes, but also offers a thoughtful and touching cinematic mediation on failure, friendship, and the basic human need and desire to make one's life count somehow. Davis and Perryman display a wonderfully natural, engaging, and utterly convincing chemistry as our lovably feckless protagonists; they receive fine support from Doris Hargrave as Frank's loyal, but long-suffering wife Paulette, Erin Henshaw as the hostile Olan, David Weber as Frank's sensitive son T. Frank, and Cindy Hanson as the vibrant Rhonda Lynn. Beautifully shot in crisp black and white and further graced by Chuck Pinnell's folksy and delicately harmonic score, it's a lovely little gem.

The whole shootin match directed by Eagle Pannell is an independent movie made in 1978. The movie details the lives of two handymen and their attempts to get rich quick. Although the production values of the film were quite low and the plot did not make a lot of sense the movie as a whole was really good with solid acting and some really engaging scenes. I had been told that this was supposed to be a movie that was representative of Texas but after seeing it i cannot support that claim the culture seemed more representative of the old south ie Alabama, Georgia etc than Texas.Im not sure what types of films i would recommend in relation to the Whole shootin match the movie is quite unique but i do know Pannell made several other films most famously a film called Last night at the Alamo