Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Justin C This film is basically a self-indulgent early 70s "rugged American white male" fantasy story that tries too hard to be a classic and fails. Overacting everywhere, but Blake is good. Lots of boring dialogue filler and poor characters and a plot that tries to go in too many directions. The large middle part of this film meanders so much and has so much overacting that it was hard to watch. It seems like the director was trying too hard to make a film that would be an "American classic," but fails. However, the cinematography is excellent with beautiful, expansive desert shots and striking visuals. After slogging through the muddled, overacted first 4/5 of the film, the hyped-up ending was predictable (for me, anyway) and overrated. No wonder this movie has mostly been forgotten.

Ronnie_Barko The film follows 'Big' John Wintergreen (Robert Blake), a diminutively statured highway patrolman based in the deserts of Arizona. John takes pride in his work and does his job fairly and efficiently but also yearns to be promoted to the rank of detective and see some real police work. When he discovers the apparent suicide of an eccentric loner and, rightfully, suspects foul play, his opportunity arrives and he is taken under the wing of no-nonsense Detective Harve Poole (Mitch Ryan). This sets John off on a journey that makes him question justice, authority and his own sense of identity.I really enjoyed the film. From an era in which Hollywood was seemingly torn in half by rebellious counter-culture movies such as 'Easy Rider' and hard-boiled Cop dramas like 'Dirty Harry', Electra Glide In Blue makes a bold step in placing itself somewhere in between these two camps. The film, like John himself, views both authority figures and free-spirited hippies with an even-handed face value, with neither side being demonised or exalted. The influence of Easy Rider looms heavily over the picture, not only in the stylised photography of the American landscape and the depiction of the motorcycle as the modern day outlaw's 'steed' but also with some knowing references to 1969 counter-culture classic, the film's ending cleverly mirrors that of Easy Rider but Guercio is quite blatant in showing that his film has a different agenda entirely (one scene features Wintergreen and his other officers using a poster of Hopper and Fonda as target practice at the shooting range).Although Wintergreen is depicted as the films 'hero', he is clearly a flawed and complex man. He seems to be driven to achieve greater things by a kind of Napoleon syndrome, as his height (or lack of it) is referred to throughout the film, not only is he jokingly referred to as 'Big' John, there are barely any scenes in which he stands eye-to-eye with another character. It's only when he's perched upon his motorcycle does he feel equal with the rest of the world. This, ultimately, becomes his undoing as he clearly begins to resent the fact that, when away from his bike, he lacks the confidence and grit to be an able detective. At one points an exasperated Wintergreen says (about his motorcycle) "I'm here to tell you there ain't nothing' in the world I hate worse than that elephant under my ass." The film is ultimately about loneliness, escapism, aspirations and a yearning to find one's true self. The murder investigation that ties the film together simply acts as a macguffin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin- for those who aren't in the know) to base Wintergreen's journey of self discovery around. Another theme of the film is the ambiguity of justice and the middle ground between right and wrong as Wintergreen learns the difficulty of upholding the law without breaking a few rules, and his career aspirations become tainted as he fights against the apathy and corruption of his fellow police officers. This is a film which has neither good guys or bad guys.As well as having a strong narrative structure the film is wonderfully photographed and it's a shame that, to this date, this is the only film that John William Guercio has directed as he shows a real flair for film-making. He establishes scenes by focusing on peripheral information as opposed to putting the main action right up front. The story unfolds at a gradual pace and Guercio uses the breathtaking Arizona landscapes as a character itself to highlight Wintergreen's isolation and loneliness (both of these aspects reminded me strongly of the work of Terrence Malick). The film also uses some wonderfully stylised sequences to set up the scenario and the opening credit sequence, in which Wintergreen meticulously puts on his highway patrolman's uniform seems to fetishise the appearance of the motorcycle cop (surely referenced by the T-1000 in James Cameron's Terminator 2- Judgement Day?) I thoroughly enjoyed Electra Glide In Blue and can find only a handful of flaws with it. There are a couple of sequences that seemed out of step with the rest of the film- There is a frenetic stunt-laden chase scene that, although it impresses individually, seems to jar with the philosophical nature of the rest of the film. Another scene, in which a waitress is revealed to be the object of affection of both Wintergreen and Poole seemed to drag a little and could have easily ended up on the cutting room floor without greatly affecting the structure of the film.But all-in-all a very well made and interesting film. Robert Blake gives a brilliant performance, the pacing of the film and the dialogue hold up well and the cinematography is superb. It also features an exceptionally memorable final shot.9/10Now, I know James William Guercio has never made another film but has Robert Blake done anything interesting lately?.......

BaronBl00d This film is of interest for a variety of reasons: its surreal feeling through the Arizona desert, its ambiguous story, its thematic threads of honesty, integrity, and corruption amongst the police, its humanizing lust for meaning in an otherwise meaningless world, OKAY, it is getting deep but this film COULD be said to meander in all those areas. Does that make it a good movie? No, not necessarily. Nor is it a bad movie. It is certainly an interesting movie. Robert Blake plays Officer Wintergreen - a short, dedicated motorcycle cop out to become detective. He works with his partner Zipper who is happy just to have a job and get paid and have little work to do. Here the film explores goals and what life is like with and without them. We get more of this through other characters' eyes: Harv the eagle detective Wintergreen initially impresses but later is stripped of all manhood in front of him by a wildly over-acting Jeannine Riley. Riley's Jolene sees life as despair basically loveless and pimped out to Harve I think. We get some hippie characters caught up in life anarchy in communal life and a trucker and Wintergreen himself having just returned from Vietnam. The film has a lot going on in subtext - perhaps too much. I still am not sure what the film is trying to achieve. Is it a mystery of an old man being shot through the chest that may or may not have had some money? Is it a battle of integrity in Wintergreen(played rather decently by Robert Blake) versus corruption as in Zipper's character or Harve's police brutality. Is it meaning versus nihilism with the whacked out ending that leaves one scratching one's head. I honestly don't know. I do know that film will make you think, is evocatively filmed, and generally well-acted. Robert Blake is good - perhaps one of his best roles. The supporting characters are interesting with character stalwarts Royal Dano(great as a coroner in a brief sequence) and Elisha Cook faring well. And what about Jeannine Riley? Sure she overacts, but she is still beautiful. You might remember her as Billie Jo from the first few seasons of Petticoat Junction. Well, it's ten years later - but Jeannine is still sexy and still fills out a sweater wonderfully. Electra Glide in Blue is a strange film by a one-time director. It is definitely worth a look. Then you can figure out what you think everything means.

jjoreilly This movie, like a lot of movies of that time are just way too cool...remember Vanishing Point or The Last Detail? Stuff like that...cool script...trippy music...strange characters...great locations...weird lighting...not too pretentious...very realistic while strange at the same time...you are laughing one minute, shocked the next...and usually very original...a lot of the music then was the same...let's see, Cinderella Liberty, Carnal Knowledge...I guess you could go on and on...but strange, cool little movies that you can't forget...and unlike many modern movies, not overdone...just right...usually has you walking away kinda scratching your head...Technically, I guess heavy duty film critics could find a million things wrong with them but even the flaws make the quality happen too...weird...I love movies like that...I guess because they don't spoon feed you like all too many of the movies of the last fifteen years or so do...again...just right...let's see, Serpico, The Lords of Flatbush...Midnight Cowboy ('69?)...on and on...