The Losers (1970)

Well, at the rate I'm going, I'll watch a new biker movie every year or so. It's not that I don't like them, far from it. It's that at times, it can be difficult to find good ones, even viewable ones. So following up 1968's The Savage Seven (a very pleasant surprise) and 1969's Hell's Angels '69 (liked it a lot, heist movie meets biker movie), here's 1970's The Losers.

At a a remote Army outpost deep in Vietnam, a heavily armed patrol cuts through several Viet Cong ambushes to deliver a special team being used for an almost suicidal mission. Who steps out of the Army truck? Five Hells Angels bikers led by Link Thomas (William Smith), a tough as nails biker recruited by his brother, an Army major (Dan Kemp), who's limited by international law as to what he can do. Just across the border a few miles into Cambodia, an American diplomat/CIA agent is a prisoner of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, but American forces aren't allowed to cross the border to rescue him. On the other hand, there's nothing stopping five rogue Hells Angels from hopping on their bikes and riding into Cambodia. With Army backing as long as they're in Vietnam, Link and his men armor their motorcycles with armor-plating, heavy machine guns and grenades, all the while preparing to go in and rescue the captured American.

There are certain low budget genres you just know aren't going to be truly quality moments, many of them from the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Think of the lousier spaghetti westerns, gory, schlocky horror flicks, and in this case, biker flicks. Put a bunch of tough-looking, grizzled bikers on some motorcycles and let the craziness ensue, low budget be damned! If you can embrace that cheap quality, you're in for a treat. Sometimes, it's just too much. I wanted to like this biker action movie from director Jack Starrett (also starring as the paranoid, ranting CIA agent). At its heart, it is a men-on-a-mission movie, a bunch of oddballs working together to pull off a suicide mission. Even the bad ones can be good with that formula, but this one just isn't good enough to recommend. It has a moment here and there, but in between can be rough-going.

For openers, the casting felt like a good jumping off point. A physical bear of a man, Smith is Link, a Vietnam vet turned biker who assembles a team of bikers to pull off a rescue at his brother's behest. He's the leader, but an anti-hero through and through, troubled at what the war has become. He has a soft spot for some of the people he runs into, all the while trying to hold his crew together. That group includes biker regular Adam Roarke as Duke, a fellow vet looking to find a past love in the Vietnamese boonies,  Paul Koslo as Limpy, similarly finding love in a rundown old house, Houston Savage as Dirty Denny, the pot-smoking, booze-swilling, three-way having biker, and Eugene Cornelius as Speed, the goofy, long-haired hippie with an odd sense of humor. There's also Bernie Hamilton as Capt. Jackson, the regular army officer tasked with keeping the Losers in line, and John Garwood playing his right-hand man, Sgt. Winston.

Some cool potential there, right? That's what I figured, but that's what it remains with little else, potential. I expected a hard-edged men on a mission movie with said men fighting impossible odds. Instead, it's a half-boiled love story. We get Roarke's Duke reuniting with his lost love, walking through the fields dreamily, wondering about the future. Koslo's Limpy falls for a Vietnamese girl with a baby and steps in as a surrogate father. What the hell happened?!? Sure, there's some biker shenanigans, Dirty Denny (of course) having a three-way and then getting in a fight with some locals. There's no story, no sense of urgency, and no rhythm in the least. The bikers party and bitch and fight and screw around, outfit their cycles, and then oh yeah, they head into Cambodia. By that point, I'd been fast-forwarding through huge stretches of so-called 'story.'

If there's a remotely positive saving grace, it is the biker attack on the Red Chinese camp in Cambodia. All sorts of crazy bike stunts, gunfire and explosions throughout make it an exciting, adrenaline-pumping shootout. That isn't the end though, some preachiness saved for the last 15 minutes as a movie about bikers on a suicide mission decides it needs to deliver a message to its viewers. Seems logical, right? The ending is not surprisingly pretty downbeat, but it was yet another case of too little, too late. A pretty bad movie, aided by two folk songs in the soundtrack that try to again, add depth to a story that simply doesn't require it.

Make a movie about Hells Angels rampaging through Vietnam and Cambodia and be content with it. Don't try and make it something more. A disappointment.

The Losers (1970): * 1/2 /****

The Frisco Kid

Some movies have a formula that should just work. They just should. A great director, a really cool premise/plot, and two actors in the lead roles that I'm a big, big fan of. And sometimes, the formula doesn't add up to something that's as good as it could have been. That's 1979's The Frisco Kid. I liked it, but it has its flaws/struggles and doesn't quite live up to its potential.

It's 1850 in Poland and young rabbi Avram Belinski (Gene Wilder) is 87th in his graduating class of 88 potential rabbis (because rabbis have graduation/class rankings?), but he's about to be on the move. He has been named the rabbi of a congregation/church in San Francisco so Avram packs his things, a Torah included, and sails across the Atlantic on his way to his new life and destination. Likable and naive, Avram is taken in by three con men who steal his money, clothes and all his possessions, leaving him on his own on the trail westward. His hopes of surviving on his own seem slim at best, much less actually making it to San Francisco to get to his church. Just when it seems his chances are completely shot, he is saved on the trail by young Tommy Lillard (Harrison Ford), who looks like a cowboy but is in fact, a bank robber. Maybe the duo can get by together.

From director Robert Aldrich (of The Dirty Dozen fame, among many others), this 1979 western is good but not great. It just should have been better. I've made no bones about my general dislike for comedic westerns, but this one could have been a pretty good one. As it is, it is way too long at 119 minutes, utilizing an episodic story that is funny at times and drags in a big way in others. There's no real unifying link in the story that simply drifts too much. Never bad, but never as good as it could have been in the end unfortunately.

Come on now, it doesn't take a nuclear scientist to figure out the best thing going here in Aldrich's western comedy. That would be Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford as one of the odder buddy pairings I've ever seen, a naive, likable rabbi and a wild west bank robber. Above all else, this pairing works because both actors commit to their parts. Things get a little goofy at times, a little over the top, as both actors are required to ham it up as their trail trials get a little weirder. It is a pairing that wouldn't seem to work, but it does. They have a great chemistry together whether it be arguments or bonding back and forth. With Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Blazing Saddles and many other movies, Wilder was the established star by 1979. Ford was riding high as Han Solo off the success of 1977's Star Wars ('Empire' to come). Two very different stars, but it works throughout.

Not many others resonate from the rest of the cast unfortunately. Most of the episodic portions of the story don't stick around long enough to do so. Ramon Bieri, William Smith and George DiCenzo play the three con men who rob Avram and leave him for dead on the trail. Val Bisoglio has some fun as Chief Gray Cloud, an Indian chief who's fascinated by Avram's Jewish background. Penny Peyser has a good part as Rosalie, the sister of the somewhat slutty young woman who's been promised to Avram upon his arrival in San Franisco.

With a talent like Wilder, you've got to figure some comedic moments are going to stand out from a story that drags at times. Some of it is as simple as a physical mannerism, like the inexperienced Avram riding a horse, holding the reins out wide of his body like he's conducting an orchestra. The Jewish jokes can be hit or miss at times, but when they work, they're really funny. In a life or death situation, Avram refuses to ride a horse on a Saturday (the Shabbat) but encourages his horse to walk faster, Tommy screaming at him all the while, as the sun ever so slowly sets behind a rock formation, a posse in hot pursuit behind them. A trip to a monastery run by monks who have taken a vow of silence has some good laughs, as does a detour to an Indian camp where Avram sees their cultures aren't so different, the Indians and the Jews.

There are a handful of moments like these, really strong moments that hold the story together, whether they be dramatic or funny. The same for Wilder as Avram and Ford as Tommy, a genuine if unlikely friendship developing between the two men. If only the movie had been a little tighter, a little more pointed in its story, we'd have a pretty good movie. As is, it is a mild recommendation with some worthwhile moments.

The Frisco Kid (1979): ** 1/2 /****

Red Dawn (1984)

Just about any movie can -- and most likely will -- be remade at some point. After a debacle of a free screening of the new Red Dawn movie (I missed it, didn't get there early enough), I consoled myself with the original, a 1980s classic that is still as good as ever. Guilty pleasure? Eh, maybe, I maintain it's just a good movie. Enter 1984's Red Dawn.

It's an October day like any other in the town of Calumet, Colorado. As classes start at the local high school though, parachutes appear in the sky, hundreds of them. What exactly is going on? It's Russian and Cuban paratroopers dropping in as an advance element of the invasion of the U.S. The school and town gets shot up in the process with many casualties, but a group of teenagers including Jed (Patrick Swayze), a former jock working with his Dad, and his younger brother, Matt (Charlie Sheen), manage to escape the town and head for the Rockies where they'll be relatively safe. A month goes by though as they hide, and then the news hits. The invasion was a success -- to a point -- but the fighting has now gone stagnant. Well behind Russian/enemy lines, Jed, Matt and their friends decide to take the attack to their invaders, becoming a partisan group of resistance fighters.

From tough guy writer/director John Milius, 'Dawn' is definitely a product of the times, but in good ways. With the Cold War still very much alive between the U.S. and Russia, this potential invasion story hits home. People had wondered and questioned for years if this was where the conflict was heading. In the years since, 'Dawn' has gained a reputation as a so bad it's good movie, even a guilty pleasure. Yes, I suppose it qualifies, but I tend to disagree. The acting is over the top at times, the ultra-patriotism evident everywhere, and some scenes do produce some unintentional laughs, but I maintain this is just a good movie. If it is a little heavy-handed at times, so be it. It is entertaining as hell from the start, and that doesn't change by the end.

The screenplay from Milius and Kevin Reynolds wastes no time setting the stage. Less than two minutes into the movie, parachutes are descending on Colorado, sending Calumet into chaos. People are running for their lives as paratroopers start shooting anything that moves. Talk about a tone-setter. As an opening, it's hard to beat. 'Dawn' has its fair share of memorable moments, probably most famously the teenagers yelling 'Wolverines!' after successful attacks on invading forces (Wolverines was the school mascot). Aided by Basil Poledouris' score, the action scenes -- of which there are plenty -- and dramatic scenes are balanced out perfectly. Listen to the main theme HERE. The film was shot on location in New Mexico in the mountains, giving it a hard-edged look that benefits the ever-darkening story as well.

It is an 80s movie, and the cast certainly reflects that. I have a theory about Swayze in 1980s movies. He's in every great movie from the decade. If you can't find him, you're not looking hard enough. A 32-year old playing a recent high school graduate? Right. But who cares?!? It's Patrick Swayze, and he's ridiculously cool! Along with Sheen, the Wolverines include Lea Thompson, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Grey, Darren Dalton, Brad Savage and Doug Toby. Swayze and Sheen as brothers stand out, as does Howell as Robert, the Wolverine so bent on revenge for his parent's death he becomes a hardened killer. Also look for Powers Boothe as Col. Andy Tanner, a downed fighter pilot who fights with the Wolveines, in a scene-stealing part. In smaller parts, old pros Ben Johnson and Harry Dean Stanton (as Jed and Matt's imprisoned Dad) certainly make positive impressions too.

On repeated viewings, I've come to like this movie more and more. I think you can chalk that up to the darkness of the story. Yes, there's a fair share of fantasy here; school kids getting guns and taking on invading forces, becoming heroes in the process. But actually considering the story, it's incredibly dark. Case in point? The Wolverines start getting picked off one-by-one. The Russian invaders call in a specialist, a hunter, Strelnikov (William Smith), to brutally hunt them down, using any tactics he has at his disposal. We see the war from basically the opposite side of how the U.S. has fought in any conflict. We're being attacked. We're defending. When the Wolverines kill Russians, Americans are killed in retaliation, but on we fight. In a sympathetic part, Ron O'Neal plays Colonel Bella, a former revolutionary now fighting from the opposite perspective, an officer trying to quell an uprising.

This darkness comes through in the final 45 minutes, building to a surprising but highly effective ending. I love Swayze and Sheen's conversations they have in between fights. Swayze's Jed puts it best as these two friends/brothers plan their line of attack, knowing their odds are slim. He states "It's not easy being brothers, huh?" Shakespeare? No, but it works. As the Russians turns the tables on the Wolverines, that is 'Dawn' at its best. I love the ending as well, Jed and Matt taking the attack to the Russian base. It's a great ending, and not surprisingly, a patriotic one. Heavy-handed guilty pleasure? Maybe, but I think it's just a really good movie.

Red Dawn (1984): *** 1/2 /****