14 Comments
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Decarceration's avatar

I disagree with this take (I love this movie) but there are a lot of interesting observations made here. Cheers!

Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com

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Ray Banks's avatar

Consider yourself warned, I will brook NO disagreement.

I kid, I kid. For what it's worth - and what probably didn't come across above - I don't dislike the movie, and I've seen it a bunch of times so there must be something there, but I've always struggled with it.

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Debbi Mack's avatar

I've never seen this. Thanks for saving me the time. :)

I already lived the 70s. Thank you! :)

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Ray Banks's avatar

Enh, it's worth a gander if it comes your way. But it is VERY '70s.

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Mat Colegate's avatar

I was absolutely out of my mind when I eventually watched this film, way back when, so I've always wondered whether it was as profound as I thought it was trying to be, or whether I was as profound as I thought I was trying to be, or, in fact, whether neither the film or myself were very profound at all. I'm guessing it's probably the latter.

Don't do drugs, is what I'm saying.

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Ray Banks's avatar

DON'T do drugs? But life is pain, Mat. How am I supposed to get through the working day without huffing glue?

I think it's worth saying that I first caught Electra Glide on Moviedrome on BBC2 (according to Wiki, I would have been 11) so it DID have a profound effect on me - as did that entire Alex Cox-fronted run - but the more I delve into these movies, the less it works.

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Mat Colegate's avatar

Switch to paint thinner.

I didn't catch it until way after it was on Moviedrome, but, yeah, Alex Cox was, is and shall always be a major mensch.

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Ray Banks's avatar

Paint thinner? SOMEONE'S doing well. Cox is a true legend and gets a pass for Moviedrome and 10,000 Ways to Die. Seeing him pop up in Mad God was a Dalton-points-at-the-telly moment, for sure.

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Mat Colegate's avatar

Yep, and Perdita Durango as well.

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Jamie Ward's avatar

That cameo isn't out of place at all.

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Timber Fox's avatar

"a jumble of performances and incidents with no obvious point" sums it up for me. Robert Blake looking sad worked in In Cold Blood, but here it mostly bored me.

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Mark Kureishy's avatar

It had cult status for us in the mid-70s, mainly, I think, because of that great title. And of course, we had no idea what an Electra Glide was...ha-ha! But it did sound great.

Eventually saw the film in my early 20s in the 80s, and, of course, was slightly disappointed by it. And by then, it was hard to shake off Baretta from Robert Blake, so whatever its previous status might have been in my mind in the 70s, the TV cop Baretta dissipated it all away.

And the Electra Glide is an ugly beast of a bike!

Thanks for the memories of when I was more stupid than I am today, Ray!

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Bartholomee's avatar

I saw this way, way, way, way too young when foster siblings got to choose movies and didn't maybe care about age appropriateness. Saw it again as an adult and I was not impressed, beyond it being a great title. Your opening paragraph is fascinating. I had no idea but it finally explains the Peter Cetera cameo.

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Ray Banks's avatar

I wouldn't know most of Chicago if they stood up in my soup, but I think a majority (if not all) of the band are in there somewhere as various dirty hippies. I suppose they were cheap?

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