King of the Mountain

Although there are some death scenes, this movie captured the LA culture of the late '70s, early '80s spot on.

The movie captures the freedom and the energy America had some years ago before it started to shift to more of a beehive mentality. It also features the pre Gen-X culture when the ME generation ruled the world.

One thing I can say about the ME generation is that they can party like nobody else. Music was big part of it, and the music in this movie is great.

The women of this movie are also great. I'm sure some women would say the same about the men in this movie too.

What this country lost in terms of the car culture seems to be still going in parts of Asia, especially Japan. Initial D is almost a transplant of this movie to the hills of Mt. Akina.

The good old days. I like this movie better than the Easy Rider. It really brings back the good times.

You'd probably think by judging the cover of this old action flick, it's average. And you'd be dead right. This film actually even had a book too, if you can believe. What this film is basically about, is about petrol heads racing each other on the snaking high top road, above the twinkling lights of L.A known as Mulholland Drive. Everyone wants to be the fastest, hence claim the title of this film. Good luck to to them. We have an array of known actors. Even Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty gets in on this one, as an older and wiser mechanic who gave up being a petrol head, cause he knew it was his time. He lectures Hamlin, the new wannabe winner, to mull his future if continuing to race, and where is it leading. This is basically the message: Do you wanna keeping racing cars or make something of yourself. Some of his friends too play in a struggling band, Hamlin's new love (Van Valkenberg) a singer. Some of racing scenes at night are impressive, I must admit, but what this story rides low is any real kind of story, which here is devoid of plot, yet near the end, racing nutter Cal (Hopper) challenges Bottoms to a race or vice versa, where he accepts, this leading to tragedy, where Hamlin becomes the avenging racer. Really a film for speed freaks.

I am currently trying to find this film on vhs. If anybody knows of it, or has a copy they would like to sell. I am willing to purchase it. Please email me with the details... about the movie, I saw it about 20 years back, right after it came out, I immediately identified with it, and has stayed with me. It is a real movie, about real street racing, before the days of neon and tuners. This film makes The Fast and The Furious look like The Slow and Ridiculous. In case anybody thought Dennis Hopper plays a goofy rogue character in Speed, they need to see this one (love his beater corvette in the movie). Like all car movies it is not inept to at least a little cheesy-ness. Although I would say it is a little more realistic than most.

I saw King of the Mountain on HBO in the 80's. Hamlin plays a street racer with a dark mysterious side, and the current King of the Mountain. Hopper plays the former King, a ruthless drunk racer. The film comes across as low budget and has a slow plot, but its one of those movies that for some inexplicable reason you like. It also has a decent soundtrack.

I first saw this cultural time capsule while working as a movie usher when it first came out in 1981 ... and a few dozen times since then on fuzzy, edited TV broadcasts and VHS. Was finally excited to see it again in high resolution widescreen on Amazon Prime last night ... check it out while it's up! I just love the song and performance of "Dangerous Strangers" by Deborah Van Valkenburgh.