Out

Thank God for the numbers denoting each segment, or I would never have known when this thing was gonna end. Not much positive to say, except I did enjoy the Grandfather. He was the only spark of life in the plot. O-lan Mitchell (Dixie) provided about the only acting spark. This HAD to be a student film or experimental film, judging from some of the end credits. I want my dollar back!!! Lots of words, just no meaning or conviction. I did get a few of the mild, sly jokes that seemed to pertain to Patti Hearst. Also a bit offended by the "cookout" scene, it just seemed somehow anti-American. The jacket cover said the film was based on a novel. Was it a sci-fi novel? Hope someone knows.

If you've got more time than you know what to do with, and you're attracted to that which you just can't believe, then try to endure this faux pas in its entirety and kindly post your theories as to what the hell this is all about. I COULD watch it again, but I know that it'd STILL leave me shrugging my shoulders and scratching my head. At first, I thought that it was about a young couple who wanted to become part of an elite strike-force. Then, I thought that maybe it was a series of disconnected vignettes featuring the cast in different roles. (The "disconnected" part stays.) Finally, I realized that I had no idea about what was going on, but, if I hung in there long enough, perhaps it'd all come together. Well...it never did. And THAT was an Indian, several more vignettes, and a strike-force-reunion later. Except, instead of a strike-force, they were now an Independent Communal Unit, in tune with each others' thoughts. (But I doubt that anybody else is on their wavelength.) Sometimes I can overlook the obvious signs of a "cheapie", especially that low-budget audio and bottom-of-the-barrel acting, because there's a followable, ongoing message which is not dollar-conscious. Don't get me wrong, though... there's plenty of that inexpensive stuff here; but I almost missed it trying to latch on to ANY message. However, I don't think that there IS one. This is so ambiguous that I wouldn't even know what genre to put it in: drama? comedy? fantasy? (Horror, for sure; but not in the usual sense.) And it's based on a novel? Must be a bookful of blank pages. I shouldn't say that, though, because I found some of the dialogue quite interesting. (I'm not sure how it pertained to what was happening on screen, but, interesting nonetheless.) To say anything else positive about this movie, however, would, I think, without contradiction, be an impossibility.

Peter Coyote presents a decent performance in this far less than credible movie. It has been released as a DVD featuring Danny Glover. Danny has a very small role in this 1982 independent film, so I suspect his inclusion on the jacket is because of his recent popularity - in other words - just to sell the DVD. The best performance comes from O- Lan Shepard (O-Lan Jones), who is not listed on the CD. Her role provides the only semblance of a plot in this othwise pointless film. She is also a viable addition for the reasons Peter points out in in the course of the film. The drifter (Peter Coyote) is seen in each of 10 scenes which count down from 10 to 1. They seem to point out in absurdist terms the pointlessness of life as a man with early stages of ESP drifts from venue to venue encountering slimly related mini-plots. Some of the transitions would have required a Star Trek-like transporter to work. Characters reappear like themes in a cyclic symphony, feeding on the main characters paranoia and lack of direction. If you just love absurdist theatre, you might actually like this one a little. If not, stay home.

I checked out this movie from the local library and was intrigued by the plot summary written on the back. That was as good as it got! This film is a rambling mish-mash of unconnectable plots and dialog and doesn't make the slightest attempt to live up to it's own selling points.

How respectable actors like Peter and Danny became involved in this putrid mess will forever remain a mystery. They must have been drugged and kidnapped.

If you're a good, conscientious human being, you will make an effort to buy up any and all copies of this intellectual black-hole and have them destroyed with large caliber hand-guns.

This movie is a true horror.

There seems to be a point to this movie, but I have not figured it out yet. There is some kind of conspiracy going on, every time dynamite explodes people's personalities change (like a person with multiple personality syndrome) and the ending provides no explanation to what has been happening during the movie. It's hard to enjoy a story if you don't know what has happened. If you enjoy unusual plots that you have to look deeply at to figure out, you will love this movie. As for me, I can do without it.