Best friends embark upon an easy ride that turns out to be their funeral procession. Jack Starret’s classic B-film gem sports one of the best tag lines ever: If you're going to race with the devil, you've got to be as fast as Hell! Peter Fonda and Warren Oates take their wives (and dog) on the best damn vacation ever, a cross-country journey from Texas to Colorado in their new $36,000, 32ft Villa Grande RV: that’s over $200,000 in today’s money! Somewhere in Texas, they pull of the road for the night and set camp in an isolated clearing. After racing their motorcycles and drinking beer, they settle down to relax and witness a satanic orgy…that ends in a bloody sacrifice. And the chase begins. The remaining 50+ minutes is a mixture of suspense and outright terror as the Deliverance-like cultists seem to be everywhere: from the local sheriff to the tourists at a campground!
From the dark, watercolor splash of the opening credits to the final ring of fire, the ubiquitous sense of unease is truly unnerving: every smile, glance, or greeting seems to have ominous undertones. The score by Leonard Rosenman is brilliant, light and airy one moment before descending into subtle, paranoid creaking minor keys. His music perfectly underscores the action without becoming overbearing. Rosenman would score Kubrick’s BARRY LYNDON the same year and win the Academy Award, then win again the following year for Hal Ashby’s wonderful BOUND FOR GLORY! How’s that for a resume! DP Robert Jessup’s photography captures the action in violent and brutal intensity with close-up camerawork in the narrow confines of the RV. His action sequences are predatory, like obligate ram ventilators that must always move forward for sustenance. The twisted metal, careening cars, explosions and road-rage mayhem looks dangerous, and though we can see rollbars in a few of the stunt cars, this verisimilitude of smashing real vehicles on real highways ramps-up the tension. A film like this makes obvious the restrictions of modern-day CGI! Though this is a chase movie, the screenplay really focuses on the sense of dread and abandonment, as our protagonists become strangers in a strange land. When the action sequences happen, you have a personal connection and can feel the fear dripping from their pores. My only serious complaint is that Loretta Swit and Lara Parker are mostly relegated to the roles of stereotypical screaming women, though the film allows them some active participation. Otherwise, a great 70’s B-movie that outruns many contemporary action flicks!
Final Grade: (A)
