Finally saw this fabled biker movie, and I was floored. Some had hailed it as 'batshit crazy' and while it's not exactly EL TOPO or POSSESSION, it definitely has an odd tinge. Case in point, the opening visual gag that sets the tone where the biker gang surrounds the car of an old couple that suffers a flat tire (when you see it you'll know what I mean). The plot plays with our expectations, as does the (decidedly low-budget) sound design. And it tells us that all is not as it seems. The bikers, who are usually anarchistic bad guys, here while still chaotic are in fact the downtrodden pariah of an oppressive society. Turns out the town, well really the cops, are the evil empire, and those said pigs, actually one of them in particular, frames the bikers for a heinous crime that was actually committed by that cop ~ stand in for the establishment, in turn - the fucked-up system, man! It is quite bummer-inducing that the bikers have Nazi swastika flags at their hangout (if it had been Buddhist symbols then it would have been okay), but granted, that's a biker movie trope, so I'll give the filmmakers a very lenient break. Anyhoo, when the baddies hoodwink an otherwise upright citizen to join in on their knee-jerk reactionary assault on the bikers, all hell breaks loose. This leads to a crazy double-edged revenge showdown. The finale is super violent, and executed cinemeatically in tone with all the layers of text and subtext, perfectly capped with an ambiguous, ultimately philosophical ending that leaves you, well, uh, dumbfounded. I believe the DVD is out of print, but you can watch the whole thing on YouTube:
Sunday, June 16, 2013
NORTHVILLE CEMETERY MASSACRE
Finally saw this fabled biker movie, and I was floored. Some had hailed it as 'batshit crazy' and while it's not exactly EL TOPO or POSSESSION, it definitely has an odd tinge. Case in point, the opening visual gag that sets the tone where the biker gang surrounds the car of an old couple that suffers a flat tire (when you see it you'll know what I mean). The plot plays with our expectations, as does the (decidedly low-budget) sound design. And it tells us that all is not as it seems. The bikers, who are usually anarchistic bad guys, here while still chaotic are in fact the downtrodden pariah of an oppressive society. Turns out the town, well really the cops, are the evil empire, and those said pigs, actually one of them in particular, frames the bikers for a heinous crime that was actually committed by that cop ~ stand in for the establishment, in turn - the fucked-up system, man! It is quite bummer-inducing that the bikers have Nazi swastika flags at their hangout (if it had been Buddhist symbols then it would have been okay), but granted, that's a biker movie trope, so I'll give the filmmakers a very lenient break. Anyhoo, when the baddies hoodwink an otherwise upright citizen to join in on their knee-jerk reactionary assault on the bikers, all hell breaks loose. This leads to a crazy double-edged revenge showdown. The finale is super violent, and executed cinemeatically in tone with all the layers of text and subtext, perfectly capped with an ambiguous, ultimately philosophical ending that leaves you, well, uh, dumbfounded. I believe the DVD is out of print, but you can watch the whole thing on YouTube:
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ZedZee! Thanks for this write-up! This is a "lost classic" of the Biker Genre for all the reasons you pointed out.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I regret not including it in my ancient Biker Movie post (http://ivanlandia1.blogspot.com/2009/05/and-we-wanna-get-loaded-national-film.html).
And welcome back to the blogosphere!
--Ivan
http://lernerinternational.blogspot.com/
Thank you King Ivan. It's a brief summary. Your more detailed reviews are so much more rigorous and eloquent. Having said that, I hope to follow up with more sudden, short sharp shocks of revelations.
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