The Savage Seven

Biker movies have never been my can of beer. Fortunately, THE SAVAGE SEVEN is better than what I discovered so far. What it has for a basic plotline makes up for the perfect setting ever devised in the genre, an Indian resort. Pretty hilarious at times, and wait for the finale where the whole place goes up in smoke! Listen for the film's signature line: "Hey man, you just barfed on my broad!". Penny Marshall makes a very early screen appearance here. If you like classic drive-in movies, then this will be a whole lot of fun.

Savage Seven, The (1968)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely bizarre AIP flick about a group of Indians, led by Johnnie (Robert Walker, Jr.) who are tired of their poor lives where they're pushed around on their reservation by a greedy white man. Soon a gang of bikers show up and the two sides clash, especially Johnnie and Stud (Adam Rourke) and it's all going to end in a battle. This is a very bizarre movie as it seems three or four screenplays were just mixed together and AIP quickly filmed them without trying to put anything into order. There are times when you think the bikers are wanting to help the Indians but then we're back to fighting only to flip flop a couple more times. The entire movie constantly left me with a WTF look on my face as nothing ever made too much sense or really added up in the end. You've got your typical white bad guys who are stealing money from the Indians. You have the Indians wanting to fight back on what is basically your land. Then you have the bikers show up who are probably here so AIP could exploit the biker genre. The film was apparently selected by Quentin Tarantino during one of his film festivals, which is a little interesting since there are much better biker flicks out there from this era. There's really not too much violence, no profanity and no nudity so the "exploitation" market is pretty low. What the film does have are a few long fights that seems to keep going and going. That's certainly not a bad thing as the fights are pretty outrageous with bats, chains and various other objects being used. Walker isn't too bad in his role but the screenplay doesn't leave him too much to do. The same can be said for Rourke who is also impressive for what he's given. Supporting players include Billy Green Bush, John "Bud" Cardos, Larry Bishop and Joanna Frank. Most of the time these biker flicks are at least mildly entertaining but this one here left me bored for long stretch of periods and way too many times. There's some cult-ish items here but just not enough to make this worth sitting through when there are so many better films out there.

OK biker flick which meanders for awhile before the inevitable "all hells breaks loose" finale. The novelty here is that most of the conflicts take place between bikers and Indians. The soundtrack contains a few songs from Iron Butterfly and Cream.

Adam Roarke and his gang ride into nowheresville, inhabited by Indians and a few white guys. Naturally the white guys, led by a large fellow played by Mel Berger, are keeping the red guys down, by having them work for low pay. Robert Walker Jr., as a blue-eyed Indian, is constantly getting beat up by everyone in the cast. Roarke sets his sights on Walker's sister, played by Joanna Frank. Of course, this leads to another beatdown of Walker. But Walker and Roarke suddenly become best buds, and take part in raiding Berger's store, supplying all the Indians with essentials like Frosted Flakes, Quaker Oats, and casino chips.

When a couple of the bikers are arrested, Berger cuts a deal with Roarke. He will decline charges against the bikers, if Roarke agrees to burn down the shacks where the Indians live. Roarke agrees, then decides to back out of the deal. He spends the night with Frank, which leads to another beatdown of Walker the next morning.

After one of the bikers is killed, Roarke thinks the Indians did it and orders his gang to destroy the village. This leads to the climax, with lots of motorcycle stunts, knifings, gunshots, people flying through the air, explosions, and one Indian having his dump in the outhouse interrupted.

Roarke is good as a creep with a slight trace of decency. Perennial biker Larry Bishop is one of the gang, and acts mentally impaired. At least, I think he was acting. Did I mention Walker gets beat up? My favorite character was the heretofore unknown Mel Berger, who is built like Tor Johnson and is always smiling, even when he is shooting someone. Laverne DeFazio makes her screen debut.

The film was produced by Dick Clark. Thankfully, none of the Indians say "How." But I suspect most of the critics said "Why?"

I hate you, I love you, I hate you, I love you, I stab you, I'm sorry...WOW....think 1960's TV Batman as Billy Jack, but in motorcycle gang garb, with a spacey Cher look-a-like floating dreamily around, alternately fighting and smootching the Chirakowa from F Troop, with King Tut and his henchmen pulling the puppet strings....

In the late seventies, I saw a Second City voice-over of an episode of The Cisco Kid, which was hilarious. This script is so bad, the acting so goofy, the music so jarringly inappropriate, the fight scenes so laughable....I thought I was seeing another Second City spoof. This would make an unbelievably fun evening for a Mystery Science Theatre 2000-type event. Gather your smarmiest friends, some likker and snacks...and have a blast. Perhaps one of the worst movies I have ever seen, I would GLADLY buy a copy. Monty Python couldn't have done it better. There's even a bit with a VERY young Penny Marshall getting raped by the campfire, asking "Does this make me seem cheap?" The intensely serious, psychoanalytic review provided by IMDb on the main page made me laugh even more.... just have fun.

I actually tried to suspend belief and imagine that blue eyed Robert Walker Jr, (Johnnie) Max Julien (Grey Wolf) and Joanna Frank (Marcia) were actually Native Americans. In the early part of the movie after the bikers, led by handsome Adam Roarke (Kisum), rolled into the shanty town Joanna's character actually looked like a Native American especially in the darker bar scenes, however, once the filming moved in to the sunlight it was obvious that the beautiful lady was most likely a descendant of the Squirrel Hill Tribe. As far as the movie's plot goes the shanty town is ruled by (Mr. Fillmore) Mel Berger who works the Native Americans to the bone and takes all of their money at the company store. The film spends two much time flipping between the Bikers and Native Americans fighting each other or partying together while the evil Fillmore plots against them both. Then there is the subplot of a romance between Marcia and Kisum but there are two many points of dispute between the two and I couldn't help but think it would be better for each if they just moved on without each other.

Somehow, I did make it to the end but just didn't care anymore with all the fighting and especially the campy brain dead dialog between the bikers that really got old. I'm going to be charitable and give the the film three stars because Joanna did give her character Marcia a real calm and mellow presence making Marcia by far the most believable in a fine bit of acting among a lot of bad acting. László Kovács also did his usual great Cinematography and oh yea Penny Marshall in her first role was young and cute. I am happy that things have changed where Native American's principally play the parts of Native American's in the movies and not guys with baby blue eyes. Not that there is anything wrong with the baby blues but you know what I mean. If you want to watch a fun bikersploitation flick check out "Angels Hard as They Come" and skip The Savage Seven IMHO.