Electra Glide in Blue (1973)

 Electra Glide in Blue (1973)


1973’s Electra Glide in Blue is a movie that only could have been made in the early 1970’s. It is a meandering film that features striking cinematography (from future Oscar-winning Conrad Hall) and tells a story about one’s disillusionment, this time within the police force. Eventually, the film would become a cult classic despite some production woes and gave more people an opportunity to discover Robert Blake. Despite the prodding pace, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Blake delivers a fine performance. The powerful ending was unexpected as it came out of nowhere, but it does fit the theme of the film regarding disillusionment and how people can be completely different people than what you expect them to be.

This project was directed by first-time (and last) director James William Guercio. He is better known as the producer of hit musical band Chicago. Some members of the band, such as Peter Cetera, actually make an appearance throughout. He was an inexperienced director, and you can tell as such. Blake later admitted in his autobiography that it was him and Conrad Hall directing the movie while Guercio “stood around.” The director did forgo his salary to hire Hall, but even they got into arguments about how the picture should look. Guercio wanted the film to be reminiscent of a John Ford pic which eventually did happen on the exterior. From motorcycle chases that looked a little fake to second-rate acting from extras, this is not the cleanest film I have seen from a director. Thankfully enough went right for me to become hooked to the story.

John Wintergreen (Robert Blake) is a motorcycle cop who spends his days writing traffic tickets in the Monument Valley area. He always had dreams to be promoted to Homicide. After a murder of a hermit, he finally got his wish. In order to solve the case, he must also come to the fact that the people around him, whether they are friends or co-workers, may not truly be who they seem.

For the most part, the performances were merely fine. Given the production woes, Blake managed to pull out a performance that will hook you. Especially during the final sequences. In fact, the movie managed to bring Blake to the eyes of others which allowed him to be cast in a television series about police, which he is best known for. The rest of the cast, with the exception of Mitchell Ryan, is a bunch of unknowns and band members of Chicago. They were good, I suppose?

Overall, I liked Electra Glide in Blue despite some clear inexperience on the directing side of things. That said, gorgeous cinematography, Robert Blake’s strong performance, great music (I love Chicago), and a gripping (albeit weird) story managed to save the film and even turn it into something of a cult classic. This is the type of picture that could only be made in 1973, not in today’s world. As motorcycle movies from this era, I enjoyed it more than Easy Rider oddly enough.

My Grade: B

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Image
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” Ah, wise words from our new young friend, Ferris Bueller. In John Hughes’s 1986 film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , all Ferris wants to do is take a day and have fun. That is the most simplistic theme the movie has. You can go deeper, but the main takeaway is that it is okay to have fun. That is a motto I have taken to heart. I really loved the film. People consider The Breakfast Club to be Hughes’s best and most important movie. That’s a fine statement to make, but I would personally rank the film number two behind this particular one. The teen characters are instantly relatable, it has a memorable antagonist for the children, and this is basically a thirty-year-old travel guide for Chicago. Just how Woody Allen creates his movies as love letters for New York, this is applicable for John Hughes. A Chicago love letter!   Like all of his films, Hughes wrote...
Read more

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Image
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) The James Bond franchise is one of those franchises that will never die. It has been going strong since the first movie rolled out in the early 1960’s, and new James Bond movies are still produced today. What makes this series unique is they use multiple actors to play the titular character over the years. They all bring their own gravitas to the role, and each Bond is a different man when compared to each other (although the martini, shaken not stirred and the beautiful women among other things remain a constant.) So my first James Bond review for this blog is 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. This wasn’t my first look at the series, but it was my first look at the older movies. I really liked what I saw. This is an old-fashioned story that combines a spy drama and an action-packed war movie into one package. Like many of the older Bond movies, the story can get borderline preposterous. The cheesiness of the plot did come to grow on me after awhile, even...
Read more

Table for Five (1983)

Image
Table for Five (1983) I can guarantee that ninety percent of my readers here have not seen this tear-jerking melodrama 1983’s Table for Five , yet alone heard of it. Hopefully after reading my kind words, you will be somewhat intrigued by this movie. When doing my research for the film, I was shocked to see how vastly underrated the movie is. There are only a few reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, hardly any information on Wikipedia or Google-hardly anything out there in this vast Internet landscape. Then, why on earth is this movie so good? Sure, maybe some folks will say the movie is just a predictable Lifetime TV movie, but honestly it is much more than that. There are some elements that makes this film seem destined for the television at times, but to me it is much more than that. I consider the movie to be an honest, emotional portrayal about fatherhood and family. Directed by Robert Lieberman, this film is about a man named J.P Tannen (Jon Voight) who fails at being fathe...
Read more