EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

k-thomas I saw this movie when it came out in 1974. At this time after Straw Dogs, there was a lot of these revenge movies released such as Death Weekend, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc and i thought this was one of the best. At this period of time in America there was a lot of this type of crime going on and i believe that Hollywood were trying to send the message across not to lie down and take it, but stand up and fight. Ernest Borgnine and Michael J Pollard gave fine performances and both may i add have never been given the recognition they deserve as actors. Ernest Borgnine can give a fine performance in a sympathetic role such as Marty and at the same time can give a chilling performance in such films as From Here To Eternity and Emperor Of The North. Michael J Pollard of course in Bonny And Clyde and Hannibal Brooks. The DVD version i have bought is a little disappointing. It looks as if it has been an old video transfered to DVD. Therefor i think it is best to wait awhile before buying this film on DVD. Kevin Thomas.

beades Our Canadian government doles out piles of money on really, really awful "feature" films. If you attract a has-been star like Ernest Borgnine, you get even more money. Which is how disastrous messes like this movie get made. No other reason. Plot: absurd. Acting: abysmal. Production values: non-existent. This dismal "Death Wish" wannabe is an embarrassment to everyone involved. Our Canadian government doles out piles of money on really, really awful "feature" films. If you attract a has-been star like Ernest Borgnine, you get even more money. Which is how disastrous messes like this movie get made. No other reason. Plot: absurd. Acting: abysmal. Production values: non-existent. This dismal "Death Wish" wannabe is an embarrassment to everyone involved.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Pulling off a number of bank robberies that resulted in the deaths of two bank tellers this trio of ruthless gangsters run into two local youths on the side of the road in the open countryside. Needing a different car, with new license plates, the three bank robbers Dineili Ackerman and LeRoy, Louis Zorich Cec Linder & Michael J. Pollard, cold-bloody gun down the driver Timmy Peterson, Ralph Endersby, and his girlfriend Jennifer Logan, Susan Petrie, and then head for the open highway. Finding that all the roads out of Field County are blocked by local and highway police the three take off on foot looking for a place to stay until the heat's off and then make their escape. Seeing this farm in, what seems like, the middle of nowhere the three killers descend on it like a pack of wolves first cutting the phone lines and then pompously walking up to the front door to make their grand and murderous entrance; they didn't know it at the time but they'll find out soon enough that they walked right into the teeth of hell.Disturbing and violent vigilante-like movie that leaves you in a state of shock with Ernest Borgnine as the peaceful and church going farmer Adam Smith. Adam uses his own brand of biblical justice, to avenge the blood of those who these three murderers spilled, that in a way made him far more vicious then his gangster victims. At home with his grand daughter Lucy, Hollis McLaren, Adam spots through the window the killers moving in on his house and, knowing who they are and what they did from radio reports, sets a trap for them. Blasting the #1 man, Dineili, of the trio almost in half with his shotgun as he was allowed by Adam to entered the house Adam takes the other two, Ackerman and LeRoy, prisoner and puts them through such a hell that in the end they wished that the police got to them before Adam did. Even though Adam Smith is well within his rights to defend his home and farm from the three criminal desperadoes what he did to them makes you wonder just who's more of the villain and psychopath in the film him or they. Instead of holding the two remanding bank robbers captive until the police come to take them into custody, like his grand daughter Lucy wanted him to do, Adam put them though the ringer by almost hanging them in his basement, with only their tip toes keeping them for getting strangled. Later Adam has Ackerman run for his truck, to drive back to town and get the police to come over, as he turns his two dogs Peter & Paul on Akerman who tear him to pieces. LeRoy the most vicious of the three who Adam really wanted to do in gets saved by the police, whom Lucy got to come over, but later carjacks the patrol car killing the two officers. It's then when LeRoy comes back to the farm to get even with what Adam did to him that turned out to be the biggest, and last, mistake he was ever to make.Even though Adam Smith is the avenging angel in the movie it's hard to really like him even though he saves everyone, himself his grand daughter Lucy and farm hand Luke (Vladimir Valerta), from the three killers. I just wondered how many people watching the movie would want him as a next door neighbor!

katyzone The movie moves through its plot in subtle ways- no big explosions or car chases, not even any prolonged suspense- you know exactly what is going to happen as it happens, yet I found myself glued to this movie.The atmosphere was really gritty and things... just happen. Almost like being a cab rolling through unfamiliar territory with a cabbie who is speaking about unpleasent things, the movie takes you on and on but you just can't get off.Ernest plays a charactor that is rare in a sincere form- an American with backbone combined with wisdom willing to take action.Unfortunately, his daughter is (forboding of what is coming down the pipeline?) jelly spined and totally with out active morals. She is content to sit back and judge everyone, breakdown emotionally, and then ignore the situation completely by running off with yet another man/support system. She couldn't be blamed, that is until her father sought to teach her an important life lesson, and... she still didn't get it. Yes, Ernest's charactor goes too far and his daughter practices inconclusive thinking. So the charactors are way too extreme- it turns into a situation that just wouldn't happen with real people. This can be explained that the movie was made in the seventies, when a lot of movies tried to "preach at us" (as opposed to today's movies which now "show us a lesson"). They seem to try to make Ernest's charactor into some kind of bizarre villian, when to me he comes off as an okay guy living in a bizarre world thrown into a situation he never made in the first place.Everyone says the acting is poor- I don't think so, maybe just a little over played, but I think it is fine for this genre.I give this movie a 10 because I have watched 15 movies this week that have come out recently and this one is better than all of them, and:It's watchable.You want to see how everything comes out.No where in the movie does someone say "your other left".It doesn't try to explain much, just lays it out there.