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CAST Robert Blake-John Wintergreen Billy Green Bush-Zipper Davis Mitch Ryan-Harve Poole Jeannine Riley-Jolene Elisha Cook Jr.-Willie Royal Dano-Coroner David J. Wolinski-VW Bus Driver Peter Cetera-Bob Zemko Terry Kath-Killer Lee Loughnane-Pig Man Walter Parazaider-Member of Chicago Joe Samsil-Sergeant Ryker Jason Clark-L.A. Detective Michael Butler-Truck Driver Susan Forristal-Ice Cream Girl PLEASE CLICK BELOW FOR PURCHASE INFORMATION
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Robert Blake plays John Wintergreen, a motorcycle patrolman on the highways of the northern Arizona desert in this 1973 film that sometimes defies description. It could be called a crime film because a crime does take place and is a central part of the story. It could also be called the study of a culture and the conflicts between the opposing forces in that culture because the movie begins and ends with Wintergreen stopping a hippie for a minor traffic violation on a deserted Arizona highway. There is much of the drug culture of the sixties and early seventies intertwined in this story along with the reactions of the police to that culture. I suppose you can decide for yourself what you think the movie is depicting, even though I think that maybe we try to read too much into the movies of today that sometimes were just meant to be entertaining. In most movie guides, Electra Glide In Blue is listed as and action/adventure film but that category is way too broad. I looked at the film as a character study of a lonely Viet Nam War veteran who's caught between the hippie culture he identifies with and the police culture he's trying to be a part of. He's in a part of police work he despises and his main ambition in life is to get off his Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle and into a more respectable line of police work. "I hate that motorcycle they make me ride," he says at one point in the film. He eventually gets his wish and is assigned to the homicide unit as a detective, which is an assignment that turns out to be not much more than a driver and an errand boy for the chief detective, Harve Poole who is played by Mitchell Ryan. When Wintergreen embarrasses Poole, he's demoted back down to his motorcycle and patrolling the roads with his friend Zipper Davis (played by Billy Green Bush). Zipper, in contrast to John Wintergreen, loves the job of motorcycle patrolman. John can usually find him somewhere along the highway, sitting in the shade, munching on snacks and reading comic books. The ending of this movie is unpredictable and is one of the more memorable endings I've ever seen. Robert Blake puts in a compelling performance in this movie. It's difficult for me to say whether I liked his acting better in this movie or in In Cold Blood because his performances were excellent in both films. Other actors to look for in this film are Elisha Cook as the hermit, Willie, and Royal Dano as the coroner. The movie is rated PG because of its violent content but it's one I'd highly recommend.
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| Apocalypse Now | (1978) An army Captain searches for a renegade Colonel In Vietnam. |
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| Blackboard Jungle | (1955) A story of juvenile delinquency at an inner city school. |
| Bullitt | (1968) A San Francisco police detective searches for gunmen who killed an informant. |
| Cool Hand Luke | (1967) An ex war hero is sentenced to a chain gang for cutting the heads off parking meters. |
| Deliverance | (1972) Four friends go on a canoe trip where they encounter unforeseen terrors. |
| The Day of the Jackal | (1973) A sophisticated assassin is hired by a French group to kill President de Gaulle. |
| Electra Glide in Blue | (1973) An Arizona motorcycle patrolman tries to become a detective. |
| Fahrenheit 451 | (1966) Ray Bradbury's futuristic tale of book burning and mind control. |
| Fail-Safe | (1964) Cold War thriller where U.S. bombers are unleashed upon The Soviet Union. |
| Fargo | (1996) Car salesman hires two inept criminals to kidnap his wife. |
| Glory | (1989) Colonel Robert Gould Shaw commands the Civil War's first all volunteer black regiment. |
| In Cold Blood | (1967) Adaptation of Truman Capote's novel about the murder of a farm family in rural Kansas. |
| Inherit the Wind | (1960) Account of trial of John Scopes for teaching The Theory of Evolution in Tennessee. |
| Jeremiah Johnson | (1972) A veteran becomes a hard fighting mountain man. |
| Logan's Run | (1976) A policeman of the future tries to prevent escapes from the city. |
| The Lords of Discipline | (1983) Control of classmates at a southern military school by a group known as "The Ten". |
| The Ox-Bow Incident | (1943) An out of control posse sets out to avenge the death of a local rancher. |
| Patton | (1970) A famous general commands armies during World War II. |
| Platoon | (1986) An idealistic soldier learns that idealism doesn't exist in Vietnam. |
| The Right Stuff | (1983) Story that covers the breaking of the sound barrier through the Mercury space program. |
| Seven Days in May | (1964) Senior military officers plot to take over the government of The United States. |
| Son of the Morning Star | Fairly accurate account of Colonel George A. Custer leading up to the Battle of the Little Big Horn. |
| Southern Comfort | (1981) Louisiana National Guard on maneuvers in a swamp meet up with local opposition. |
| The Taking of Pelham One Two Three | (1974) A gang hijacks a New York subway train and holds the passengers for ransom. |
| Witness | (1985) A Philadelphia detective hides in a rural Amish community from corrupt police . |
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| Airplane! | (1980) Story of dysfunctional crew and passengers on board a Chicago bound flight. |
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| American Graffiti | (1973) One night in the lives of teenagers in 1962 |
| Animal House | (1978) A run down fraternity's members cause chaos on campus. |
| Arsenic and Old Lace | (1944) Two elderly matrons poison lonely men and bury the bodies in the basement. |
| Cat Ballou | (1966) An outlaw and her gang rob trains to try to break a town. |
| The Cheyenne Social Club | (1970) A cowboy inherits a brothel called The Cheyenne Social Club. |
| Dr. Strangelove | (1964) Insane base commander sends his B52 bombers into the Soviet Union. |
| Harvey | (1950) Quiet, unassuming man has a giant rabbit for a friend. |
| The Mouse That Roared | (1959) Smallest country in the world declares war on the U.S. and wins. |
| On Golden Pond | (1981) Elderly couple spend a summer at their cottage on a lake. |
| The President's Analyst | (1967) A prominent psychoanalyst becomes the psychiatrist for the president. |
| Raising Arizona | (1987) An ex-con and a policewoman kidnap a baby to raise as their own. |
| Support Your Local Sheriff | (1969) A drifter on his way to Australia takes the post as sheriff of a western boom town. |
| Waking Ned Devine | (1998) Villagers try to collect a dead man's lottery winnings. |
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