War is a Hell of a Good Time
There is an interesting thing when life has you working a regular job that gets in the way of your movie watching. You end up being tired after a long day then having to get home through all that traffic and then you have to cook yourself some dinner and then clean some dishes. Just all this shit stacking up higher and higher on a never ending to do list and then 9:30pm comes around and you realize that you still have to do laundry. So you do laundry but in this small space of time that has been created where one must wait comes opportunity and what else can come out of this opportunity but to watch a movie? So I watched a movie.
It took a little time when it came to picking out a movie though since I have so many options to choose from. The problem of buying more movies than you can get around to watching. There is a Lucio Fulcio film by the name of The Psychic that I bought nearly a year ago that I haven't seen. There was a fire I had to deal with so cut me some slack. There are also some Jess Franco films I gotta get around to but I was planning on giving those a watch when I start working on my lesbian vampire story so no dice for tonight. Gathering dust was a Peter Strickland box set that I only managed to get through 25% of and to be honest I should have committed and watched The Duke of Burgundy but I didn't. Instead I chose a film that I could only half remember; the 1970 classic The Losers.
The Feature Presentation
It's an exploitation film of the greatest sense. The Vietnam war rages on and the CIA brings in a biker gang of veterans to come in and conduct a rescue mission for a person that can bring peace, or something worthwhile, to end the war. Five bikers going by the name of Link Thomas, Limpy, Duke, Speed, and Dirty Denny make up the gang of The Devils Advocates that are set on completing this mission.
The movie mostly following their characters get involved in various situations all the while they modify some bikes for the final mission. Then the final mission happens and they succeed in the end of pulling off their assault/rescue mission though none of the gang members come back while the important intel VIP guy survived. Having nothing but disdain for the gang that saved him and could care even less about the fact they sacrificed their lives to save him.
The 1 and Only
Some years ago, I had written a post on this very blog about some biker movies I saw. Actually the director of this film, Jack Starrett, directed Run Angel Run! which I should re-watch as well as the awesome Warren Oates and Peter Fonda film Race with the Devil.
Back to that previous review though, I remember one or two were good and the rest were cool with I believe only one of them being just bad. A complete misfire from beginning to end and it was the Larry Bishop joint Hell Ride. I still think about that film from time to time and can't fathom what could be done to turn it into a good movie. I don't want to talk about Larry Bishop though as I got William Smith on the mind.
There is a certain charisma that can be seen in an instant when it comes to an actor. You see Charles Bronson and say 'I see you amigo.' or if you see Franco Nero you'd think 'I believe you amigo.' When I see William Smith, that same feeling instantly comes to be whenever he walks into frame.
In all honesty, he doesn't give much of a performance here since he is just so cool to begin with. Containing an aura seen here that one can see easily in the Mickey Rourke's early films except if you see Bill Smith in any of his later films, you can easily see that he still got it compared to Rourke's later movies. Except The Wrestler which can be considered Mickey Rourke's true swan song.
Case in proof is his small role in Conan the Barbarian. You watch him play as Conan's father who in the beginning moments of the film breaks down an entire belief system to young Conan. And in listening to him saying this monologue with such conviction and gravitas, it sets the tone for what the movie could have been. This absolute brutal revenge story of a child growing to be a goddamn barbarian but ultimately this falters as the film is just fantastic until the moment when Arnold speaks that lamentation speech which then follows is a clumsy story that doesn't do much of anything but in that speech, the world was limitless.
The Overall Film
You know, I wouldn't call myself an expert in biker films nor would I put myself as a war movie expert but as far as films dealing with a biker gang going to fight in the Vietnam war, I could call myself an expert off of this 1 film.
Watching this for the second time in a long time, I remember very little of it. There were some key parts in my brain but the overall mood was not within reach of my memories. There is a true ebb and flow where some members of the gang, Sleepy and Dirty Denny, are shown getting themselves into mischief. The two of them hanging out with prostitutes and fighting dudes for most of their screen time.
Then you get the love story side with Limpy and Duke dealing with the power of love with this suicide mission hanging over there head. Limpy hooking up with a woman that has a GI baby already and Duke most likely only coming back to Vietnam just to find the love of his life. The two of having the same goal of wanting to bring them back to the United States.
Link, the leader of the gang, is just going through the motions. Doing his own thing but not enough of one where he does anything remarkable for the first part of the film but starts to liven up when the assault commences.
In all honesty, there is no real motivation in the movie for these dudes to be going on this mission. As seen in various other movies dealing with men being sent on a suicide mission like The Dirty Dozen or The Devils 8 where there's a set up as to who they are and what they gotta do. With a small budget like this movie, there ain't not time for a set up. Low budget and shot in the Philippines to substitute Vietnam. The true blue Roger Corman route of bigger visuals on a small budget.
Can't Forget The G.O.D Men on a Mission Movie
We got these bikers showing up and they got shit to do. I personally like to think that the real reason that these veterans came back is that they had nothing better to do state side except for Duke who came back for love. But the other guys, they were bored out of their minds back in the USA. Getting shitted on by the public and just traveling down the endless highways on their choppers trying to find meaning until they get the chance to come back for a suicide mission. Though this is all speculation and more effort on the viewer having to connect the dots than the film doing the work.
Even with the lack of plot or those other machinations that keep a movie going, I truly enjoyed just watching these characters exist. None of them are paint by number cliches when it comes to these movies, remember I am an expert on biker war films, and even though they all seem like thundering assholes when they first show up; I fell for the stories they ended up getting involved with. Even Dirty Denny, played by wild man Houston Savage, who just runs around screaming racial epitaphs and beating up anyone and everyone.
What was really interesting watching this is was the sense of impromptu physicality to each scene. I don't know how else to explain it but nothing that these characters do in this film feels stiff. There's a natural rhythm to them existing where it seems like they just are in the scene and not playing the scene. It brings a real energy to the movie that kept me engaged to keep watching.
The movie running without a plot for some time until the last 20 to 25 minutes of the film which turns it from something cool to something pretty great. The bikers managed to build themselves some modified Yamaha's with machine guns as well as a 3 wheeler with a mortar launcher and pull off the assault to this guarded village to rescue some important guy.
This guy they gotta save has to be the weakest part of the movie. He's just some dude with some murky reason as to why he needed to be rescued where he rambles about how he could end the war with China and blah blah blah. If they just tweaked this guy to be something more then I think the ending of this would have fucking hit. I mean really fucking hit. Making the bikers getting knocked off one by one feel much more of a downer than what it is now.
Duke gets it first before the assault and sets up the tone of hopelessness for the rest of the film to follow. He tries to ride off with his girlfriend into the Vietnam sunset but they cross a Vietcong booby trapped bridge that launches them into the water below. The Vietcong stand on the bridge and shoot him and his girl down but Duke, played by Adam Roarke, gives the greatest face of despair and the shot itself is just so fantastic. The sun shining on the water and its all in slow motion while looking as though they zoomed in optically in post production to create this real strange visual of him center stage. Just such an amazing shot right when he catches all these bullets and bites the big road rash.
That's another thing about this fucking movie. There are just some really fantastic shots done out in nature where the guys are just existing. There's a certain mood and in the future I would like to pull all these shots together and make a montage of vibes. Obviously because I'm an old man I would have to play Nightcall by Kavinsky when putting a song to the images but I digress.
So Duke gets killed and then Dirty Denny gets killed in the assault leaving the remaining three members to get caught but they make their escape only to end up dying. Limpy gets killed due to an accident with the 3 wheeler that actually almost killed the actor Paul Koslo. Then Link Thomas gets killed going after the VIP then Sleepy gets killed when he tries to get revenge and kill the VIP by getting shot by an American soldier.
The title song of The Losers starts playing with everyone who got killed throughout the movie being shown in these small windows. The entire moment giving us the audience to have to come to the conclusion that war itself is the loser. Or something like that.
The Verdict Starring Francis Booth
Look, this ain't masterpiece theater. This is a exploitation film that has pieces of conversations that will make your eyes pop out of your head. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this film immensely from start to finish that I will wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone needing something that feels antiquated with a rusty edge.