Spent most of the weekend at the William Lustig-curated macho, violence-orgy film fest at the Film Anthology Archives. A mix of B-movie actioners, no-nonsense gritty revenge pictures with tough guy misogynist lowlifes and sleazebag leads, this collection of under appreciated lost gems from the ’70 felt like a retrospective that Quentin Tarantino might have put on (and indeed he’s a huge fan of “Rolling Thunder” and named his erstwhile DVD company after the Vietnam payback film). “They’re wonderful, unpretentious, pure action films,” Lustig told TONY recently. “To the people running the studios, film history begins with “The Godfather” — and they ignore these movies altogether.”
Here’s a quick rundown:
“The Outfit” (1973) – Directed by John Flynn, starring Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker and with an incredible supporting cast of of superb character actors, Robert Ryan (one of the last performances before his death), Timothy Carey, Richard Jaeckel, and Joanna Cassidy (in her prime who is just crazy hot in this thing; and yes, more attractive then her role as the replicant Zhora in “Blade Runner”). Aside from a typical, freeze-frame cop-out ’70s ending, this film is on par with “Bullit” (than again, we totally prefer Duvall to McQueen).
“The Outside Man” (1973) Directed by Jacques Deray (known for his Melville-like French noirs with Belmondo and Delon), starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, a busty and smoky Ann-Margaret and Roy Scheider as a silent assassin. Imagine if Melville’s “Le Samourai” character was transported to sunny Southern California tasked to complete a hit only to find he’s been set up and double crossed.
“Sitting Target” (1972) – Less successful was this decidedly cheap, British B-movie picture marred by bad blue-screen driving scenes (for example) and directed a little psychotically by Douglas Hickox. However Oliver Reed is pretty fierce in the picture as essentially a caged animal in prison that wants violent reprisals on a wife that has strayed. Still, a young, charming and arch Ian McShane steals the show.
“Rolling Thunder” (1977) – Easily the most well-known picture from this group, John Flynn’s Vietnam Vet-gone-malevolent pic was written by Paul Schraeder, then seemingly obsessed exclusively with dark and depressing pictures. Only Schraeder (three years after having written “Taxi Driver,” a movie he admitted came from an ugly, bilious place inside) would inordinately stack up the grim circumstances of a returning hero POW and have his wife and kids senselessly murdered simply so he could have him yield ruthless retaliation. That strong plot conceit seems like a little much, but then again, Schraeder was always using the most brutal of situations to make what he felt were statements (in this case, a quasi socio-political one, though, let’s face it, it’s about pure vengeance). Tommy Lee Jones and William Devoe star, plus one gets supporting roles of cult character actors like Luke Askew and the greasy of greeazyiest James Best (best known for playing Rosco P. Coltrane on “The Dukes of Hazzard” who plays the oily antagonist).
All in all it was like a character-actor lover’s heaven and a fantastic weekend, despite the fact that retrospectives like these always attract the brightest and best of New York’s skeevy creeps and oddballs all appearing like they’re in town for a child molester convention.
