Fighting Mad

Jonathan Demmes' third directorial effort for producer Roger Corman is good, solid revenge fare - manipulative, to be sure, but the manipulation is done with skill, and the characters and story are respectably entertaining.

It's a story of two opponents, both possessed of an incredible stubbornness and obsessiveness. The good guy is farmer Tom Hunter (Peter Fonda, good as always), usually an easygoing guy but who CAN be pushed too far. He's returned home to his dad Jeff (John Doucette) with his son Dylan (Gino Franco) in tow. The bad guy is arrogant fat cat Pierce Crabtree (Philip Carey), a combination land developer / strip miner who wants to get his greedy mitts on certain properties, including Jeffs'. The fat cat employs various thugs who infuriate Tom with their evil methods; Tom's cheery brother Charlie (Scott Glenn) is just one of the people victimized along the way.

As you can see, Demme directs a top notch cast in this heartfelt film. Also appearing is the delectable Lynn Lowry as Toms' girlfriend Lorene. Lowry even does a brief nude scene that's highly appreciated. Noble Willingham plays the mildly crooked senator in league with Crabtree, and Ted Markland the angry local farmer Hal Fraser.

One thing is for sure: Demme does a fine job of working on our emotions and getting us to despise the villains and hope they get what's coming to them. The film also stresses the effect that Toms' relentlessness is having on Lorene and Jeff and doesn't portray him in a completely one dimensional manner. And while Crabtree may be an unsubtle villain, not all the supporting characters are stereotypes. Willinghams' senator is really not such a bad guy, and things are kept ambiguous as to whether Sheriff Len Skerritt (Demme regular Harry Northup) is also in Crabtrees' pocket.

By the time "Fighting Mad" has reached its climax, we're all primed and ready for the inevitable bloodbath. It's exciting at times, harrowing during the scene of the burning barn, and nicely realized in one major set piece halfway through as Tom commits a night time act of sabotage; it's done as a crane shot. Bruce Langhornes' music, beautiful throughout, is especially effective during this sequence. The cinematography by Michael Watkins likewise impresses.

The acting is solid all the way down the line, with Glenn immensely likable in his brief time on screen. All in all, this is good entertainment of its type, and well worth checking out for fans of the director and cast.

Eight out of 10.

Peter Fonda and his son (Gino Franco) return to his dad's (John Doucette) horse ranch in rural Texas after a divorce. He finds that a mining company owned by Philip Carey have been buying up all the land and are harassing all the holdouts, including Doucette and Fonda's brother Scott Glenn. The campaign of terror escalates with beatings, Glenn's murder and finally Doucette's death in an intentionally set fire. Since local sheriff Henry Northrup has proved useless, Fonda takes matters into his own hands.

Demme's third and final film for Roger Corman really shines. It's another formula picture, but this time it transcends the formulaic elements and comes close to feeling like a personal expression. It's got some serious flaws, including a really long, dead section leading up to the final climax, but you can see why Demme moved on after this one and started making films on his own.

Lynn Lowry has a significant role as Fonda's new girlfriend and fellow director George Armitage pops up as Man Playing Tennis.

This film essentially begins with a man by the name of "Tom Hunter" (Peter Fonda) returning to his old home in Arkansas after being gone for several years. With him is his young son, "Dylan Hunter" (Gino Franco), who has been given permission by his mother to accompany him. Naturally, having been gone for such a long time, Tom's father, "Jeff Hunter" (John Doucette), is delighted to welcome him back. Unfortunately, things have changed over the years, and it soon becomes apparent that a greedy land developer named "Pierce Crabtree" (Philip Carey) has become determined to possess all of the land in the area--and he will stop at nothing to get it. To that effect, he even hires some men to kill Tom's brother, "Charley Hunter" (Scott Glenn) and his wife, "Carolee Hunter" (Kathleen Miller) in order to stop a lawsuit against him. So, when Jeff Hunter and the rest of the citizens in the area continue to resist, he becomes even more dangerous from that point on. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although I initially had high hopes for this movie, I was somewhat disappointed with it overall as it lacked the intense drama necessary for a film of this type. I don't know, everything just seemed a bit too methodical from the beginning to the very end. Be that as it may, while I don't consider this to be a bad movie by any means, I just couldn't get all that interested in it, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Henry Fonda should have been--appalled, that is--with his counter-culture son playing the hillbilly-vigilante-avenger who goes after the eee-vill mining company in Jonathan Demme's Fighting Mad.

Peter Fonda got off to an interesting start with Easy Rider, but it didn't take a lot of acting skill to cruise around on a Harley, stoned out one's gourd, so he wound up doing junk like this for producer Roger Corman.

I'm not going to give a synopsis of this thing, lest I start thinking about the time I wasted watching it. I just wanted to warn you 70s action fans out there to steer clear of Fighting Mad the next time Fox Movie Channel shows it. For the life of me, I can't understand why they chop up other movies for broadcast, but they slapped a TV-MA on this one because . . .

Hearing a couple "f-bombs" and seeing some boobage so helped advance the story. Don't get me wrong, boobs are just fine and a couple "fungoos" don't offend me. It's the fact that having the love interest of Peter Fonda scold him not to go out there and get hisself dead while airing out her mommy parts after sex isn't worth my time.

I must be getting old. In 1976, I would have elbowed my best friend to make sure he was grooving to the boobs on screen, the orangey blood being spilled, and the bad words that the three networks would hack out for broadcast.

Now.

Now, I look for things like originality, dialogue, depth and breadth of visuals, and intellectual stimulation. You know . . . the stuff you would never find in anything like Fighting Mad.

A man returns from the big city to his traditional family ranch in northwest Arkansas (Peter Fonda), only to discover that a determined land developer (Philip Carey) is buying up land nearby for strip mining and, of course, wants his dad's ranch. When beloved citizens turn-up dead, the kid gloves are off.

"Fighting Mad" (1976) comes in the tradition of "Walking Tall" and would influence "First Blood" six years later. Car crash movies from the 70s are also comparable, like Fonda's own "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry." This is the least of 'em, however, because the dramatics are curiously boring and needed a rewrite to flush out the potential, but it's still worth catching if you like Peter and these types of flicks. The best parts are the vehicular mayhem and the closing confrontation at the castle-like manor of the tycoon.

It runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in Washington County, Arkansas, and the corresponding town of Springdale, which are in the northwest corner of the state. The jail scenes were shot in the studio in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-