When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?

This unique psychological thriller is a decent adaptation of Mark Medoff's brilliant play in which a psychopathic Viet-Nam vet holds a diverse group of individuals hostage in an isolated New Mexico diner in 1968. He then slowly exposes each of the their fears, faults, desires and ulterior motives while challenging American ideals, morals and heroism in transition.

This rarely seen film's box office was marred its long title, difficult to market subject matter and lack of well-known stars. However, each of the half dozen or so actors turn in brilliant performances as their fascades are slowly torn down by the vet (played by former child evangelist, Marjoe Gortner) whose intuition and captivating rants are exceeded only by his intimidating demeanor, and mind-blowing innuendo - the crux of which is born upon Red whose James Dean persona makes him an easy target considering the timeframe.

Comparatively speaking, this film can best be be described as a darker, grown up version of "The Breakfast Club" although much more fascinating and thought-provoking.

A greasy diner at the apex of a one-horse New Mexico town is the primary setting for one of the most unfairly critically savaged movies of the 1970s. Within this diner, a dangerously impetuous drifter reeling with post-'Nam hostilities(Marjoe Gortner)and his acquiescent, unassuming girlfriend(Candy Clark)subdue a number of people at gunpoint, and proceed to emotionally and physically terrorize them.

A raw and disconcerting rural American nightmare, RED RYDER was a target for much critical assault upon its initial theatrical release. While its certainly not without its peccadilloes(the supine staginess of its exposition, for instance), it does impart potent moments of nerve-rattling discomposure, and puts forth some penetrating and incisive character studies which are dramatically vitalized by an able cast.

All things considered, this is a blemished film which warrants reinvestigation, and deserves some long-withheld acknowledgments.

6/10.

Most descriptions of this movie read something like "psycho Vietnam veteran terrorizes roadside diner patrons" or "bad movie adaptation of Medoff's stage play" and though these may be accurate surface descriptions, the movie deserves far more comment than that. As the movie progresses, each character's deepest motivations and fears are revealed and what is exposed is the shallow values, ignobleness and dark fears of mankind.

Marjoe Gortner's youthful rage manifest's itself strikingly as he rants on a each of the diner patrons. His cynism is directed at pretentious city intellectuals (Hal Linden and Lee Grant), small town folk (Stephanie Faracy), self-righteous do-gooder (Pat Hingle), bad-ass-wannabe (Peter Firth) and even the protagonist's girlfriend (Candy Clark). The film gives a whole new meaning to the American perception of machismo and much of this can be difficult as well as fascinating to watch.

The most interesting thing about this film however is that it has gone virtually unnoticed since the day it was released. It lasted in the theaters only a few weeks and the edited versions, which have only rarely appeared on non-cable TV, truly ruined the entire effect of RR. The movie was overlooked by the critics and the public for several reasons.

The critics labeled the movie "better as a stage play" and "it's been done before" and "overacted". For reasons that I have never completely understood, movie critics typically dislike stage plays made in to movies unless a lot of flashy camera work and new spirited locations make the play-now-a-movie fit more conventionally into the film art form. What critics fail to realize is that the general public does not have access to good theater and even if a movie is literally a play shot on film, one can now get the subtle nuances of close-up facial expressions and the quality dialogue that stage plays require and movies often go without. Some critics said the film was similar to other films such as The Petrified Forest yet these same critics can never seem to get enough gangster movies, boxer movies or movies about Hollywood professionals. Red Ryder has about as much in common with Petrified Forest as Platoon had in common with Green Berets. And the criticism that Gortner overacted ...... my god that WAS the point !!!

The public overlooked the movie mainly due to the marketing. A long non-descriptive title stunted audience draw and RR lacked the graphic exploitative violence that so often the public looks for in a movie that was touted as "he is getting even with every woman who slapped your face and every man that ....". A more accurate title (possibly "Unexamined Lives") and a descriptive byline like "he is here to prove to you that there is really nothing decent about anyone" may have at least got the right people in the movie house. Of all the mind pap available on video these days, such as Armageddon, it is a crime that this masterpiece has been lost to history.

Gortner's character is smarter and tougher than anyone else in the diner. In an experiment in depravity, he decides to see how far he can humiliate and bully people before they stand up to him--if they do at all. He uses his worldliness and intelligence to insult them in ways that they might not detect, or pretend not to notice. When he learns that a young man bears the nickname Red Ryder, he sets out to show the banality and hypocrisy of American culture.

It's an anti-Western: the antagonist, a Vietnam veteran, finds that America is not the home of the brave, that perhaps the free and heroic spirit embodied in the popular conception of the Old West has vanished--or has it?

While the character is reminiscent of *Blue Velvet*'s Frank Booth (played by Dennis Hopper), *Red Ryder* is the superior film. Its predator is more comprehensive, realistic, and transparent. Booth, like many of Lynch's characters, is ultimately a cipher, and therefore uninteresting.

It's been over 20 years since I've seen this movie and it's every bit as good as I remember it. Marjoe Gortner is most convincing as a sociopath tormenting small town folks and passersby with a touching love story in the background. Great soundtrack too! When You Coming Back Red Ryder? deserves to be rereleased on DVD.