J.C.

In the first 10 min. of this retelling of the Christ story the boom mike is visible in half the shots. D minus.

Writer-director-producer William McGaha shows up in a small southern town and makes friends with the local bikers. Sheriff Slim Pickens doesn't like his bringing a Black friend into a town where, I imagine, they still don't cotton them being around after sundown.

It's your typical biker as the Son of G*d movie. There are decent performances, good camerawork and thoughtful editing. It's a simple-minded script, though, more intent on making its moralizing points than in telling a story.

This film essentially begins with a young man by the name of "J. C. Masters" (William McGaha) working on a job at a construction site with his friend "David Little" (Hannibal Penney). Although he desperately needs the money, J. C. isn't very good at that kind of labor and as a result the foreman is constantly on his back about something or the other. Finally, after taking all of the abuse he can tolerate, J. C. quits and goes back to his house to apologize to his girlfriend "Kim McKool" (Pat Delaney) for losing yet another job. However, rather than feeling disappointed, Kim expresses her complete support and undying devotion to him. Not long afterward, J. C. has a drug-induced vision which he then goes on to share with his biker friends and in response they join him on a motorcycle ride from Georgia to the West Coast. To that effect, one of the first stops on their way is to J. C.'s former hometown of Mason, Alabama so that he can see his younger sister "Miriam Wages" (Joanna Moore). What they find, however, is a small-town mindset which not only disapproves of bikers but actually detests David Little simply because he is black-and it's this racial animosity which will eventually cause all sorts of problems for everyone concerned. Now, rather than reveal any more, let me just say that I have a good appreciation for biker films-especially those made in the 60's and 70's. Having said that, however, I must also say that this is easily one of the worst of its kind as not only was the pacing extremely slow but the writing was exceedingly bad as well. So bad in fact, that I felt embarrassed for the actors involved. Be that as it may, other than the presence of some really attractive actresses like Pat Delaney, Miriam Wages and Judy Frazier (as "Rachel Myers") there was absolutely nothing worth seeing here and I have rated this film accordingly.

Here's a movie for biker film enthusiasts. Its about a hippy biker who quits his job and leads his gang back to his hometown, which is run by racist cops! Unsurprisingly, the black biker gang member is huckled by the redneck police on a minor drugs charge and beaten up, leading J. C. and his gang to seek vengeance. You can guess by the initials of the title character, that he and his followers see him as some kind of messiah. I wouldn't say this is very deep stuff though, but it had some decent dramatics and suspense at times. Additionally, it's a boom-mic spotters delight, with that damned mic dropping into view left, right and centre throughout.

I collect bad biker movies. The more painful, the better. This one is king of them all. The worst biker film, indeed the worst film of any kind. I can't watch it in one sitting. In fact, it's hard to get to the opening credits in one sitting. If you ever see it, you will understand. The opening credits started rolling, and I mistakenly believed it was the closing credits and started rejoicing. The intro is that long. And bad. And painful.

I mean, I understand low budget films, I've even worked on one myself, but they could have taken up a collection for clean underwear for the lead character if they in fact felt it was that important to have the lead character roll around in his underwear. And apparently they did.

The scene where .....nevermind....its just too painful a memory.