Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Scott LeBrun Robert Blake has one of the best roles of his career as John Wintergreen, a dedicated motorcycle cop who yearns for more in life. What he'd really like is to be a detective - to wear a suit, a Stetson, and "get paid to think". He gets his chance when he discovers what first appears to be a suicide, but which John determines had to have been a murder. When John shows that he's got what it takes for the detective business, a charismatic hotshot named Harve Poole (Mitch Ryan) takes him under his wing, hiring John as a driver. What happens is that John becomes quite disillusioned watching Harve at work. John strives to be a good, kind, honest man, and doesn't like Harves' approach to law enforcement. A revelation regarding his colleague and good friend "Zipper" (Billy Green Bush) only adds to his dismay."Electra Glide in Blue" marked the filmmaking debut for James William Guercio, a veteran of the music industry who, with the help of ace cinematographer Conrad Hall, brings a lot of visual poetry which is not the action-packed murder mystery that some viewers might expect, or hope, it to be. That aspect of this film is never heavily stressed, as the movie clearly functions much more as a series of character vignettes. It's got a very deliberate pace to it, as it gives a number of its major players opportunities to tear into some meaty roles. Blake and Bush have fine chemistry and are quite engaging; you believe them as buddies. Ryan commands the screen whenever he's around; he's an excellent character actor (whom you may know best as the villain in "Lethal Weapon") who gives his role some real nuance. Royal Dano is a little under utilized as a grumpy coroner with whom John butts heads, but Jeannine Riley is wonderful as the barmaid Jolene, and Elisha Cook Jr. is as delightful as ever in the role of sad old sack Willie. Considering Guercios' background, it's not a surprise that some of the supporting players come from the music business - screenwriter Hawk Wolinski as the van driving hippie, and Peter Cetera and Terry Kath from the band Chicago; Cetera, amusingly, plays a scruffy biker. Keep a sharp eye out for Nick Nolte, uncredited as an extra in the commune scene.The film turns out to be a moving meditation on personal ideals and loneliness, and leads to a shattering conclusion. This conclusion is much in line with films of this time period, and takes its time to play out. It's the kind of thing you don't easily forget.It's not hard to see why this would have a following. It's interesting and it's entertaining, and well worth a look.Seven out of 10.

homestar_is_cool Electra Glide in Blue, a 1973 film notable for being director James William Guercio's debut film, stars Robert Blake and Billy "Green" Bush as two cops who attempt to fulfill their own dreams: John (Blake) - a promotion; Zipper (Bush) - a bike. This film has recently gained critical praise, despite the original derision towards it and the dismal box office numbers for a film of this caliber. It's also notable for being the beginning of the short-lived acting careers of many Chicago members (all four of them play minor-role hippies).For the plot: in a nutshell, John wants to get a promotion while Zipper wants the best bike in the world. John gets his promotion (to detective's driver), but with an added price: either conform to what detective Harve says or to write tickets on a motorcycle. John, seeing what Harve does for confessions and to solve murder cases quick, gives up his dream to find another one, leading to his own death. As for Zipper, he steals something viable towards the case and buys his dream bike out of his childlike naivete.For the actual critique itself: the film has some of the most inspired cinematography I have ever seen. Using wide shots to show how isolated John, Zipper, and Harve are, it also uses zoom outs to show how the soul leaves the body, not caring about its former life. With that, it overshadows the hokey acting and the deliberately loose plot (patterned after "Easy Rider") - making Guercio seem like a master of the camera on his first try.The sound quality varies on the copy I watched: at points, the film seems so crystal clear while at other points, Zipper sounds muffled (1970s muffle) whenever he speaks his innermost fears. Is that deliberate on the sound crew's behalf, knowing Guercio's production work with Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire? As for other parts of the film, it worked good as a clash between the real and the fake, while being a tale against being a manchild.Overall, I give the film an A- for trying so hard and working about 95% of the time. This film has to be seen - due to its obscurity, nobody gets why too much freedom can make somebody fake or make somebody real due to loneliness. Oh, and there's some good dry humor in here: Bob Zemko playing the man who doesn't know who Bob Zemko is; John displaying his skills as a conservative-really-liberal cop; and Zipper's obsession with comic books, especially "Pogo". It, to me, predicted the rise of Chicago's mediocrity (John is Guercio, Zipper is Chicago - as Zipper becomes dumber to get his dream, John matures astoundingly - and he's killed by Terry, who killed himself in 1978). Yeah, after some bad things, this film becomes quite symbolic of many things.

dougdoepke The movie's first half sets up an intriguing situation with an intriguing character. John Wintergreen (Blake) is a diminutive highway patrolman stationed along a lonely stretch of Arizona desert—(notice how he insists on his full impressive name, as though that might compensate for a lack of height). He's ambitious, but unsure of himself-- a little man in a big man's world. Nonetheless, he's looking for an opportunity to get off the motorcycle and into the suit of a detective. He gets that chance when he successfully second-guesses the apparent suicide of a desert rat found dead in his shack. Suicide, says the coroner (Dano, in a rare conventional role); murder, says patrolman John, since suicides don't shoot themselves in the chest. This brings him to the attention of big man and cop honcho Harve Poole (Ryan) who appoints the perceptive little man as his new driver. Now Wintergreen gets to dress up in a sharp suit and ten-gallon hat, lovingly shown in a 3-minute sequence by director Guercio. Now, he is a somebody on his way up if he can make good. But will he. At this point, we've got an appealing character to root for with an interesting and unpredictable future.The trouble is that the screenplay doesn't really know where to go from here. Thus, we get a succession of unconvincing scenes that lose the credibility and coherence of the first half. The nightclub scene is badly over the top (Riley), (wasn't there a less florid way of discrediting Harve); also, Zipper's (Bush) last scene appears a forced instance of violence for the sake of violence; while the movie's final scene comes across like a shameless rip-off of Easy Rider, foreshadowed by a picture of Fonda that John riddles with bullet holes. Then there's the slow 5-minute fade-out of vacant road that left me, at least, feeling as though someone's artistic pretensions had turned up empty. Too bad, because the movie was promising in so many ways.Blake plays John Wintergreen's character beautifully. Few actors could convey wistful dreams or wounded sensitivity more effectively, as his role here and in In Cold Blood demonstrate. Basically John is an honest cop trying to get along in what amounts to a dishonest world, where his patrolman buddy Zipper thinks nothing of framing a hippie van driver or picking up a wad of money just lying around. Blake's little man knows he can't change the world, but at least he can earn the dignity that can come to any man regardless of size. It's a fine performance that holds the disparate halves of the film together. Bush is also effective, as John's unpredictable sidekick, Zipper. However, Mitchell Ryan as the arrogant cop honcho overplays to a fault. Then again, maybe it's the fault of the screenplay, but either way, Harve comes across as something of a caricature.There are a number of memorable scenes—John trying to throw the cools on two hippie chicks who tower over him; crazy Willie (Cook) coming even more unglued on the porch of a convalescent home; John sizing up his new spiffy look in a mirror like he's a matador ready for the ring. Despite its strengths, however, the movie still shapes up as a flawed installment in what was then the ongoing saga of the cop vs. hippie wars.

Maciste_Brother I always wanted to see ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE for a very long time. I've always been intrigued by the title, the star and the desert but for some (now pretty clear) reason, this film is never shown on TV or I've happen to miss it if it's ever shown. Well, after watching the DVD, I now know why the movie is rarely shown: it's because it's not that good. In fact, I'd say it's pretty much of a mess.ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE was made by a first time director and it shows. The film is mainly a series of vignettes with absolutely nothing holding it together. More like a collection of short movies haphazardly strung together. The movie can be boiled down to this: intro (murder); cop and girlfriend together; intro credits; cops going to work; crazy guy tells story; cop finds dead body; cop and chief and girlfriend at bar; chase scene; etc. The scenes just don't flow together. They're very distinctively independent from each other and because of this the characterization is weak, borderline amateurish. The scene at the bar with the girlfriend, the scene at the farm with the hippies, the scene with Big John and the Chief yelling at each other were cringe worthy. I almost stopped the film during those (awful) moments.The film-maker's lack of experience is in evidence throughout the film. The style, like the 1970s, is all over the map. The intro credit scene makes the movie look like a commercial for law enforcement. Then it tries to be a buddy film (Big John and Zipper) then a murder mystery; then a melodramatic love story; etc. A film doesn't have to have one particular style in order to be successful but I'm afraid the style in ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE was confused. You can clearly see that the director had no idea what he was doing or where he was going with it.The film is not a complete disaster. While the content of ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE is almost amateurish, the look of it is extremely (and deceptively) professional. The cinematography is stunning. Every frame is worthy of an exhibition at an art gallery. Or, because the first (and last) time director was involved in the music business, worthy of an album cover. The beautiful look of the film gives more credence to the finish product than it really deserves. And thanks to Robert Blake's acting (of a really badly written character), the film maintains a certain level of realism, even though nothing else makes much sense. What's remarkable about the look and composition of the film is that it's been copied and duplicated a million times over. The intro credits reminded me of something like TOP GUN, which was made 13 years later. Scenes of Johnny dressing up, with his clothes on the bed, reminded me of American Gigolo. Strangely enough, ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE has a very contemporary feel to it, due to the stunning visuals, even if the story and the philosophy behind it are hopelessly outdated.So, ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE is, on one hand, a remarkably underrated and overlooked film because it obviously influenced a lot of future filmmakers out there when it comes to the look and composition. Very few films can claim to have achieved this and legendary cinematographer Conrad Hall should take full credit. But, on the other hand, EGIB is also deservedly forgotten because the poor characters, confusing story, and muddled direction, none of which are worth of remembering.