cult film freak: modern western

Showing posts with label modern western. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 7/07/2026 / No comments / action , billy green bush , cop , counter-culture , cult , mitchell ryan , modern western , nick nolte , robert blake , seventies

ROBERT BLAKE COPPING THE COP CLASSIC 'ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuk-bDsvzcI9-VPI05Sgzp4niDUp44OIjkOM3LK0NP6_9IsvlzSvUjTJFl3t986lkVzxOFS2pp29E2yQ5cphVqanwWgZH_H1lwFGWatDSpDB4Pr3r5AUZkDBPpKGO1dWonGoKKThnlt-nQcEiJw_UZF1WalMIrWiWEfrUxhGaC-CQgtaV6zvA6YKC_99Dd/s1806/Screen%20Shot%202026-07-07%20at%209.52.51%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1806" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuk-bDsvzcI9-VPI05Sgzp4niDUp44OIjkOM3LK0NP6_9IsvlzSvUjTJFl3t986lkVzxOFS2pp29E2yQ5cphVqanwWgZH_H1lwFGWatDSpDB4Pr3r5AUZkDBPpKGO1dWonGoKKThnlt-nQcEiJw_UZF1WalMIrWiWEfrUxhGaC-CQgtaV6zvA6YKC_99Dd/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202026-07-07%20at%209.52.51%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">title: ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE year: 1973 rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>In 1973, cops got their very own EASY RIDER in ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE, both involving gorgeous, travelogue motorcycle rides past canyon horizons while the latter remains in one location — that seems eternal...As first-time director and cowboy movie lover James William Guercio... manager of the band Chicago... gets the best from Arizona's Monument Valley, where John Ford shot many John Wayne epics...

action, billy green bush, cop, counter-culture, cult, mitchell ryan, modern western, nick nolte, robert blake, seventies

ROBERT BLAKE COPPING THE COP CLASSIC 'ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE'

title: ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE year: 1973 rating: ****1/2 In 1973, cops got their very own EASY RIDER in ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE, both involving...

STEVE MCQUEEN LITERALLY STEALS SAM PECKINPAH'S 'THE GETAWAY'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4b6xpueFjRRCYKM4hojOyL15gAnXgfdmA5WGl-ujZ-Ylwaa9rVFnjGFuiMBw1KCDQein_KffAFx3y801tWF0kl7r9Kcjcv6CtDz_TdfQ6-_UstwLNxQ8vuNgchMkiiF177gEsE9vU8VflrCH-OaULQBMtNwmNGsekcJoShFfg_yiGpLLEoi0IYC2cr35/s1189/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-02%20at%204.13.12%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="1189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4b6xpueFjRRCYKM4hojOyL15gAnXgfdmA5WGl-ujZ-Ylwaa9rVFnjGFuiMBw1KCDQein_KffAFx3y801tWF0kl7r9Kcjcv6CtDz_TdfQ6-_UstwLNxQ8vuNgchMkiiF177gEsE9vU8VflrCH-OaULQBMtNwmNGsekcJoShFfg_yiGpLLEoi0IYC2cr35/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-02%20at%204.13.12%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE GETAWAY Year: 1972 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>The machine-pounding prologue/montage of Sam Peckinpah's THE GETAWAY embodies caged hopelessness of prison life better than most entirely-set-in-prison prison flicks... plus it's the only sequence centered solely on Steve McQueen as career criminal Doc McCoy sans the uninspired acting of ingenue/partner Ali MacGraw...During a pivotal meeting — tempted by Texas millionaire Ben Johnson after having sex to get Doc paroled and then tortured with envy — she has a vacant expression as opposed to McQueen's sharpened countenance...

action, al bright, al lettieri, ali macgraw, ben johnson, bo hopkins, crime, exploitation, heist, modern western, post-heist, road movie, sally struthers, sam peckinpah, steve mcqueen

STEVE MCQUEEN LITERALLY STEALS SAM PECKINPAH'S 'THE GETAWAY'

Title: THE GETAWAY Year: 1972 Rating: **** The machine-pounding prologue/montage of Sam Peckinpah's THE GETAWAY embodies caged hopelessn...

STACY KEACH TRUCKS THROUGH RICHARD FRANKLIN'S 'ROADGAMES'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgSU2JoI0ZH_Yv-HWE7vbrItt_nGxP1MkLUcYDeNZTHhBXl_Hqch5qOn6x145gjNezsRMxRHfZL0UUQrQsndv-9s-lst9KkMN4pr3uDzgBPkKWi7_-zNMFHhTfb1a6msv37tq55qRVjkAJlf1oV6k01x3n3wS_vCpPcTkad76-BtoS5-AAV5jSvW3gA/s2175/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-03%20at%207.17.24%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="2175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgSU2JoI0ZH_Yv-HWE7vbrItt_nGxP1MkLUcYDeNZTHhBXl_Hqch5qOn6x145gjNezsRMxRHfZL0UUQrQsndv-9s-lst9KkMN4pr3uDzgBPkKWi7_-zNMFHhTfb1a6msv37tq55qRVjkAJlf1oV6k01x3n3wS_vCpPcTkad76-BtoS5-AAV5jSvW3gA/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-03%20at%207.17.24%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stacy Keach in ROADGAMES aka ROAD GAMES Year: 1981 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Australian exploitation director Richard Franklin was picked for the daring task of making <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2015/10/psychos.html">PSYCHO II</a> as a student of Alfred Hitchcock, particularly for his Down Under-set vehicle, ROADGAMES, known as a REAR WINDOW on wheels when it's actually Steven Spielberg's DUEL in reverse... Where a carefree trucker follows and is followed by a killer in a passenger vehicle, and an otherwise optimistic Stacy Keach as Quid, who proudly states "just because I drive a truck doesn't make me a truck driver," also narrates, either in his mind or, for the most part, talking to himself out loud, like Dennis Weaver did in the groundbreaking Spielberg TV-Movie, both also winding up in a diner loaded with possible suspects...

eighties, exploitation, horror, jamie lee curtis, modern western, richard franklin, road movie, robert thompson, serial killer, stacy keach, thriller

STACY KEACH TRUCKS THROUGH RICHARD FRANKLIN'S 'ROADGAMES'

Stacy Keach in ROADGAMES aka ROAD GAMES Year: 1981 Rating: **** Australian exploitation director Richard Franklin was picked for the daring ...

JOCELYN LANE IN MAURY DEXTER'S BIKER FLICK 'HELL'S BELLES'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD36raTNHqqlfr0DAWRsTluM8bYERc55_v8XurrCTdLkmFJWapX1uKovYG6chPo5pE1_i1fYfYXoXUpMiIeAOyJQ6ZOCESmWg2C8_MzgGAJqNwpqyieQmB3hRXiJyNCJMEpm6J0Fevmsh3PNk0eUaIJbsFe-rZ4voHz5aRAe5Gu4U3RzDX5CW801DSlQ/s1975/Screen%20Shot%202022-06-02%20at%204.38.57%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1975" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD36raTNHqqlfr0DAWRsTluM8bYERc55_v8XurrCTdLkmFJWapX1uKovYG6chPo5pE1_i1fYfYXoXUpMiIeAOyJQ6ZOCESmWg2C8_MzgGAJqNwpqyieQmB3hRXiJyNCJMEpm6J0Fevmsh3PNk0eUaIJbsFe-rZ4voHz5aRAe5Gu4U3RzDX5CW801DSlQ/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-06-02%20at%204.38.57%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: HELL'S BELLES Year: 1969 Rating: ***</td></tr></tbody></table>The late-60's biker sub-genre take on the James Stewart Western, WINCHESTER '73, which is about a cherished gun, won in a contest then stolen from the winner before winding up in several different hands... Only here it's a motorcycle that modern cowboy type Jeremy Slate loses the night of the race by his jealous rival, who then loses it to the token gang led by sixties' biker staple Adam Roarke, fresh from HELL'S ANGELS ON WHEELS and THE SAVAGE SEVEN...

action, biker, jeremy slate, jocelyn lane, maury dexter, modern western, sixties, william lucking

JOCELYN LANE IN MAURY DEXTER'S BIKER FLICK 'HELL'S BELLES'

Title: HELL'S BELLES Year: 1969 Rating: *** The late-60's biker sub-genre take on the James Stewart Western, WINCHESTER '73, whi...

RICHARD RUSH DIRECTS ADAM ROARKE IN 'THE SAVAGE SEVEN'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUsPXRFQOGdvc7k8ZCXhmgEqO-M8qWVwLWoMnrTTGlXdWHZ1UnF6zFtFfn1bsoQtdUHLPanCLVQc-hdccDB-tQG3zeHNqdlEopQkCPJ9Iwb2kZvaBNng5Mli2HVG7mVNSkcYJVvlR3ANJt1rs79tsDSW3crSa-FSsW3PPu5_Bm39oDRz0CDZ5ma924Pg/s2642/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1197" data-original-width="2642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUsPXRFQOGdvc7k8ZCXhmgEqO-M8qWVwLWoMnrTTGlXdWHZ1UnF6zFtFfn1bsoQtdUHLPanCLVQc-hdccDB-tQG3zeHNqdlEopQkCPJ9Iwb2kZvaBNng5Mli2HVG7mVNSkcYJVvlR3ANJt1rs79tsDSW3crSa-FSsW3PPu5_Bm39oDRz0CDZ5ma924Pg/s16000/0.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE SAVAGE SEVEN Director: Richard Rush Year: 1968 Score: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Perhaps the reason most 1970's Westerns played like violently marauding, town-taking-over biker flicks is that biker flicks from the 1960's were in fact fully-charged/revved-up modern Westerns... Especially with Richard Rush's THE SAVAGE SEVEN about a rural, dilapidated Indian Reservation resembling a ghost town slum where white actors Robert Walker Jr and John Cardos, along with half-black Max Julien, play the Indian residents, initially dealing with that titular gang led by an otherwise polite, handsome and helpful Adam Roarke...

action, adam roarke, biker, charles bail, exploitation, gary kent, larry bishop, max julien, modern western, penny marshall, richard rush, sixties

RICHARD RUSH DIRECTS ADAM ROARKE IN 'THE SAVAGE SEVEN'

Title: THE SAVAGE SEVEN Director: Richard Rush Year: 1968 Score: ***1/2 Perhaps the reason most 1970's Westerns played like violently ma...

MICHAEL NESMITH PRESENTS FRED WARD AS 'TIMERIDER'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEKV5FKA8OyhCN6O8fd58BTUY30EzAoSJcSGGAFmtxVSI6y0v87E3alfXDFvddhQrzRguKBRNZg7O0tb4sQmyufcUAWtJwMvHt68Nm8Dyk4mLCqo-UcesX355RJ2cP6ywVjZZ1l3cKZ9dkrvFbl3ayDWFBp-BramOiWdXqOrLB433yBnnuyH5iGpAniw=s900" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="900" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEKV5FKA8OyhCN6O8fd58BTUY30EzAoSJcSGGAFmtxVSI6y0v87E3alfXDFvddhQrzRguKBRNZg7O0tb4sQmyufcUAWtJwMvHt68Nm8Dyk4mLCqo-UcesX355RJ2cP6ywVjZZ1l3cKZ9dkrvFbl3ayDWFBp-BramOiWdXqOrLB433yBnnuyH5iGpAniw=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: TIMERIDER Producer: Mike Nesmith Cast: Fred Ward, Belinda Bauer Year: 1982 Rates: **</td></tr></tbody></table>Before executive producing REPO MAN, Micheal Nesmith not only produced but co-wrote and composed a crunchy rock guitar score for a low-budget time-travel flick TIMERIDER: THE ADVENTURE OF LYLE SWANN, starting out with titular dirt-bike champ Fred Ward's perspective of a desert race course that we learn... cutting to and from the interior of a nearby scientific center... has a metallic device set up to...Long story short, Swann winds up a hundred-years back in the 1870's post-Civil War, making TIMERIDER that Western with a dirt bike movie co-starring Belinda Bauer as the Arizona past's tough Mexican firebrand Claire Cygne, who, less than an 
hour after seeing our muscular hero skinny dipping, gets his clothes off again for a literal roll in the hay...

action, belinda bauer, chris mulkey, cult, ed lauter, eighties, fred ward, l.q. jones, michael nesmith, modern western, peter coyote, science-fiction, time travel

MICHAEL NESMITH PRESENTS FRED WARD AS 'TIMERIDER'

Title: TIMERIDER Producer: Mike Nesmith Cast: Fred Ward, Belinda Bauer Year: 1982 Rates: ** Before executive producing REPO MAN, Micheal Nes...

ROBERT MITCHUM IN 'THE WRATH OF GOD' WITH KEN HUTCHISON

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNrt6a2udwOZKXljjU4056YgEPo4uSQTs6NViNoVkOHqdx6rj9FHM0umJeTJwica_fus4xXjsIiCJTvwkcr71VzXXvwW0l9gIXUwtswY3oh0VIYr6TJwm3jKbiM2UlW7Ht1P0PyRGtEAz/s923/Screen+Shot+2021-06-17+at+6.22.27+AM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="923" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNrt6a2udwOZKXljjU4056YgEPo4uSQTs6NViNoVkOHqdx6rj9FHM0umJeTJwica_fus4xXjsIiCJTvwkcr71VzXXvwW0l9gIXUwtswY3oh0VIYr6TJwm3jKbiM2UlW7Ht1P0PyRGtEAz/w400-h310/Screen+Shot+2021-06-17+at+6.22.27+AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: The Wrath of God Year: 1972 Rating: ***</td></tr></tbody></table>British actor <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2017/11/SWEENEY2.html">Ken Hutchison</a>, from intimidating Dustin Hoffman in STRAW DOGS to beating up GANDHI, played mostly villains except THE WRATH OF GOD opposite Robert Mitchum; the latter a foul-mouthed priest to Hutchison's feisty/fun Irish rogue, all taking place in Central America. And the best scenes have the trio, including likable con man Victor Buono, pursued by antique cop cars, involved in various shoot-outs and almost getting executed, right down to the black eye-mask... Then given a mission to kill dictator Frank Langella, a role he underplays... Split by Catholic mom Rita Hayworth and a personal hatred of religion, especially priest Mitchum, he's not evil enough for our heroes to spend so much time preparing a revolution by training ill-prepared townspeople for battle. So what works AND fails are the sub-genres ranging from Spaghetti Western Revenge; Classic Gangster involving Mitchum, a Tommy-gun and an attempt to smuggle prohibited booze; and a barrage of Sam Peckinpah style slow-motion firing squad deaths in the opening credits. And since a world-weary Mitchum and rambunctious Hutchison (the latter romancing gorgeous mute local Paula Pritchett) are always game to either fight or run away, it's a shame things got so serious halfway through.

frank langella, ken hutchison, mexico, modern western, rita hayworth, robert mitchum, seventies, spaghetti western, victor buono

ROBERT MITCHUM IN 'THE WRATH OF GOD' WITH KEN HUTCHISON

Title: The Wrath of God Year: 1972 Rating: *** British actor Ken Hutchison , from intimidating Dustin Hoffman in STRAW DOGS to beating up GA...

KIRK DOUGLAS IN HIS PERSONAL FAV OF 'LONELY ARE THE BRAVE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kirk Douglas is a cowboy battling copters in LONELY ARE THE BRAVE Year: 1962</td></tr>
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The late Kirk Douglas's favorite movie, that he starred in, wasn't SPARTACUS but LONELY ARE THE BRAVE, beginning like a TWILIGHT ZONE episode would end: A man seeming like a  genuine-article cowboy, from the actual 1880's genuine cowboy era, awakes in the craggy desert with his faithful horse, when something catches his eyes, and our ears... 
 
Streaks across the sky from echoing jet planes, and now the audience learns we're in modern times (an introductory misleading-device later used in Sam Peckinpah's BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA also involving planes): Something Douglas's character isn't quite used to despite having reluctantly lived it all these years...

action, adventure, drama, gena rowlands, jailbreak, kirk douglas, michael kane, modern western, prison, sixties