The Big Bounce

Well basically my description says it all... not a bad movie but terrible music, especially from a period of such GREAT music. The music really ruins the movie. It's about a worker who gets in a fight and hits another worker in the face with a bat and well i dont want to ruin the movie if you feel like seeing it, despite the music....

"Elmore Leonard called this adaptation of his book "an awful movie"...IMDB Trivia.

"The Big Bounce" is Ryan O'Neal's first theatrical film. I saw it mostly because one of the supporting actors is Van Heflin...a darn fine actor from Hollywood's golden age.

Jack (O'Neal) is a guy who's drifted since being discharged from the Army. He also is a guy with a criminal record for Burglary and Assault. Perhaps this is why Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is so smitten with him. Regardless, she takes her clothes off OFTEN to get the drooling Jack to do what she wants. Now he protests a lot...but off come her clothes and he complies. This leads to complications, such as when she runs a dune buggy off the road (possibly killing the occupants) for kicks. She also proposes he help her with a robbery...one that will be 'fun'. And, once again, he agrees to go along with this flaky lady...and you assume it's because of her super-powers of persuasion...in other words, her hot bod. What's next? See the film yourself and find out.

In some ways this is a tough movie for some to watch. After all, there are not 'good guys' in the film. But it is a mildly interesting character study of a woman who appears to have a Borderline Personality with strong Antisocial features (I used to diagnose folks when I was a therapist and this one is right or at least close!).

You probably noticed the quote from IMDB where the writer calls this an awful film. Obviously he wasn't thrilled with it. I didn't think it was terrible, though a few of the characters and plots are WAY underdeveloped...especially the one involving Lee Grant and her onscreen daughter. It's almost criminally underdeveloped and it really doesn't work well...as if they edited out most of this plot but forgot to edit out it all. But as far as the plot involving Young, it is compelling. After all, you wonder....is she some nutty thrill-seeker or is she setting him up? Neither one is good...and possibly the nutty thrill-seeker angle is worse considering how extreme her behaviors are! I liked but didn't love the film...and think it's worth a look.

By the way, this film has a significant amount of nudity. You might not want to show it to your kids or your mom or Father O'Reilly.

I'm giving this seven although the terrible music almost makes the picture unwatchable. What is interesting is Leigh Taylor-Young's portrayal of an under-age woman driven mad by being debauched, perverted and corrupted by a string of rich old men to whom she is pimped by her ageing moneybags employer. Dutch Leonard, author of the original novel, got his facts right here, and it gives the movie an underlying force that can't be denied. It's a surprise to find that the principal character is not Ryan O'Neal, who is wooden and sulky as the out-of-place "anglo" farm-worker in rural Monterey, but instead his then-wife and co-star Taylor-Young. Her character has gone over the edge as a result of being seduced by the local Senator at the instigation of her employer and bed-mate, the local landlord. Taylor-Young gets right into it, yipping and chortling as she turns over other cars and pumps bullets into mistaken interlopers. Her plan to rip off her employer for the fortune in his house-safe never comes off (at least not during the picture's action), and she escapes a murder charge, but as Van Heflin's character grimly points out: "Give it a month or ten years: she'll get hers". Worth watching just for Taylor-Young's performance, about one-third of which is in the nude. This film is a rare insight into female psychology, almost in spite of itself.

As I'm a product of the 60's, this is classic fare for the movies. Campy yes, but many were. Someone mentioned the soft nude scenes, etc. Well, that was the usual fare as well. We didn't get 'in your face' sex. I miss those days, to be honest.

Now, as far as the music is concerned, whether the music matches the movie is debatable. One should realize 'The Mike Curb Sound' was quite popular to the straight-laced of my era. I enjoyed it but I enjoyed Zappa and Reed too.. go figure.

As a record collector, The Big Bounce soundtrack is one that should be included in one's collection. In fact, the original pressing is collectible now. There are a few quite nice tracks on it. Curb almost got a little out there on couple tunes, but, he reeled himself back in.

I think I know music pretty well as I have collected since the 60's and I say, in and of itself, the album is pretty darn good.

I watched this movie with curiosity rather than interest inasmuch as I'd seen some comments that it had "bombed" when initially released. The ratings in IMDB, where as many people rated it a four as rated it a ten, clearly showed that it elicits a wide range of individual reactions. Personally I thought that it was worth watching but has a number of weaknesses. Jack Ryan (Ryan O'Neal) is a drifter working as a farm field worker. Fired for getting into a fight he escapes trial due to the intervention of the local judge, Sam Mirakian (Van Heflin). Jack is told to leave town by the farm supervisor Bob Rodgers (Robert Webber). However he stays after meeting the farm owner, "pickle king" Ray Ritchie (James Daly) and his secretary/mistress Nancy Barker (Leigh Taylor-Young). Jack takes a job as handyman at a hotel owned by the judge where he also meets a divorced woman, Joanne (Lee Grant), and her daughter. Unfortunately Jack begins to romance Nancy who turns out to be a thrill seeker (nice 1960's exploitation movie term!). Thrills include vandalism, breaking and entering and more (no sense giving away the plot). The movie is not entirely successful. In large part this is because it was taken from a book by Elmore Leonard. His works have a significant element of black comedy but, when played straight as here, it comes off as absurd melodrama. This movie has none of the sense of fun (i.e. Get Shorty) that this nuanced material needs. Fortunately Elmore Leonard's plots are relatively complex and full of incident so the movie keeps going and doesn't sag. The actors, aside from the pleasure of seeing them all so young, are mixed. Ryan O'Neal is best at light comedy which is to say that his performance here is limited. Leigh Taylor-Young displays a far greater range although, from time to time, a little histrionic for my personal taste (but then again I'm not a big Bette Davis fan either). While I've always looked forward to seeing Robert Webber I have to admit that he has only one expression throughout this movie. James Daly is underutilized but does have one extremely nasty scene, in the delicious sense of the word, pimping Nancy ("How would I know, I'm in produce"). The revelation is Van Heflin who is far more avuncular than I've ever seen him. I swear he was "channeling" Brian Keith! Unfortunately he lived only another two years and we lost what could have been a very interesting career as an older "character" man. RIP. The technical credits are fine and the gorgeous California scenery, I suspect the Monterey peninsula, would convince me to move. Overall the movie is worth watching but shows why Elmore Leonard's novels have a reputation for being poorly adapted to the screen.