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1.0 out of 5 stars
Misogynistic Biker Garbage And The Cello Recital Of Death, November 23, 2011
This review is from: Wild Riders [VHS] (VHS Tape)
It's for very good reason that "Wild Riders' is unavailable on DVD (except for the "Savage Cinema" 12 pack from Mill Creek.) It opens with the murder of a woman. The two perpetrators, Pete and Stick, are such bad news they are disowned by their biker gang (!) and sent out on their own. Pete is the evil mastermind of the two, while Stick is a brutish moron who can't control his impulsive behavior. Pete finds a pair of rich women living in an isolated mountainous retreat, and the last two thirds of the film becomes nothing more than a sadistic home invasion exercise with mental and physical abuse galore.
The film is slow and talky, and is filled with lots of early 1970s brooding, Echoplex enhanced sound effects, terrible music, awful dialogue ("Hey dude! Now we're gonna' get it on!"), and more than a few oddball storyline shortcuts (black market art deals, a climactic battle between bikers and an orchestra composer, a girl named Gemini, etc.) Don't miss what is perhaps the stupidest foiled escape attempt in movie history. The entire film is very dark and borders on being unwatchable from a visual perspective. From a moral or entertainment perspective it is clearly worth a one way trip to the garbage can. Bizarre depravity abounds (like when Stick stamps one woman's thighs with a postal stamp reading "fragile" ("If you don't want people to think you're an animal, don't behave like one!"), though it fails to further the plot.
To sum up, this is a movie entirely devoid of value on any level. It's poorly acted, no characters are sympathetic (though I'm unclear if director Richard Kanter intended the audience to sympathize with the ostracized bikers or not.) The film is an exercise in tormenting women, and has no larger social context to justify the violence (and vileness.) I cannot imagine why this film was made or who would actually enjoy seeing it. If someone actually liked this film, I would surely not want to know them.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Unredeemable Exploitation, September 23, 2010
This review is from: Wild Riders [VHS] (VHS Tape)
DISCLAIMER: I watched this film as part of
Savage Cinema: 12 Movie Collection. As such, I can only comment on the entertainment value of the film rather than transfer value.
I had always expected to write my first one-star review about a product that out and out failed to work, or in the case of a book or a movie, one that was so bad that I could not watch or read it all the way through. I did manage to make it all the way through 'Wild Riders' - barely - but the one-star rating has more to do with the filmmaker's colossally poor taste and attitude rather than any faulty technique or lack of abilities.
Rather than give a detailed synopsis of the film, which begins badly and never gets any better, I'll just say that my problem lies with the presentation of the two main characters. Kicked out of their gang after accidentally murdering a young woman (viciously portrayed in the opening moments of the film), Pete and Stick then move on to more victims - the rich housewife Rona and her visiting friend Laura. The two men spot the women at their backyard pool, and invite themselves in. At first, Rona, bored by her kept existence, is intrigued by Pete, but the gorilla-like Stick ends up assaulting Laura when the other two are off on a liaison.
At this point, the movie turns into a home invasion flick, and I have to admit that I absolutely hate these kinds of movies. I can accept that some people like them, and that there may be legitimate points to make with them - I just don't want to watch them. Usually I have enough warning to avoid them, but I missed it this time.
With 'Wild Riders', I don't think there are any larger points - at least, I can't see anything here other than a movie that was designed to titillate those who are titillated by violence against women. If that's not slimy enough, Pete and Stick are similar to Steinbeck's George and Lenny, and through the use of cinematic techniques, it is subtly intimated that Pete is some kind of anti-hero rather than complete villain. Ambiguity in a film is fine - in fact it can elevate a film past stereotype - but to mix this ambiguity in with exploitation implies intent on the part of the director and scriptwriter, an intent that comes dangerously close to approval for the violence. I cannot even imagine the level of talent and delicacy it would take to put across the inherently offensive ideas that 'The Wild Riders' touches on in a way that was thought-provoking rather than crude and tasteless, nor would I want to watch it even then. As it is, the film, for the most part and rightfully so, appears to have been consigned to the compost pile. Let's hope it isn't resurrected too often.
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