Rooster: Spurs of Death!

Cool film of chicken fighting (filmed in Pittsburg Kansas) Very Unique not many films about cock fighting. Would watch again, hopefully will come out on TV someday.

I found this video in a stack of soon to be Goodwill donations. I watched it that night and actually became quite a fan of this extremely low budget classic. I think the acting is terrible, but you can tell that they used probably locals and ex- moon shine runners to play leading charachters. These people arent acting - there just actually being them selves. The score is a hilarious 4 track recording out of someones basement, and the camera and editing work look like some of the stuff i did in highschool for class projects. I look at this movie as a time capsule piece that states where independant film makers were at that time. Only in the pre 90's could you get away with such corny material. But that is why we love the 80's.

You can't get much better than roosters fighting in extreme slo-mo while a dwarf (Tommy Maden as Chicken) looks on in eager anticipation. Such was the grand climax of this film! It's been years since I saw it but as I recall, the dialog was lame, the acting stiff, and character development non-existent. For all this, though, there was a laudable moment near the end where the roosters are fighting (again, in slow motion) with the typical early 80s sound effects. In a precursor to "Babe", the roosters are actually talking to each other as they fight. The lines I remember are "There's hippos in the kitchen" and "Wax the cat, Joel". I KID YOU NOT! And then there was this flashback sequence concerning the "conception" of Chicken, the dwarf, where his mother is attacked by a flock of roosters while browsing a selection of pigeon books in a local adult book store.

Cockfighting...a most inhumane sport, has played a significant part in some of the most important chapters in history, and continues to do so, silently, within the modern political arena...or so this oddly conceived little film would like you to believe. We are given a rare glimpse into the daily lives of "cockers"...breeders of roosters prized for their courage and aggressiveness.

70s/80s teen heartthrob Vince Van Patten is the son of one such "cocker"(his hair more feathered than any of the fowls of this picture), and this is sort of his "coming of age" story. Too, it is the story of his affection-starved mother's plight, a midget's desire to "fit in", a good girl's descent into prostitution, and the odyssey of a mute black man. Seriously...this movie has more points of departure than Heathrow International Airport. Set all this important social commentary in agrestic "middle-of-nowhere" environs, along with the exciting, barbaric, and often cut-throat world of careerist cockfighting, and you've got yourself one divergent little movie. It even tries for arthouse ennoblement with some unexpected moments of clodhopping surrealism. Hot damn, this flick is a trip.

As much a slapped-together oddity as this is, Miss Ruta Lee glides through the proceedings with far more professionalism than the material deserves, pushing the film slightly above the "schlock" mark on the quality meter. Still and all, it'll be a test of patience for any but the most sworn enthusiasts of gonzo 70s cinema.

3.5/10. Inferior to COCKFIGHTER(1974), but at least a bit better than SUPERCOCK(1975).