When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder

Most descriptions of this movie read something like "psycho Vietnam veteran terrorizes roadside diner patrons" or "bad movie adaptation of Medoff's stage play" and though these may be accurate surface descriptions, the movie deserves far more comment than that. As the movie progresses, each character's deepest motivations and fears are revealed and what is exposed is the shallow values, ignobleness and dark fears of mankind.

Marjoe Gortner's youthful rage manifest's itself strikingly as he rants on a each of the diner patrons. His cynism is directed at pretentious city intellectuals (Hal Linden and Lee Grant), small town folk (Stephanie Faracy), self-righteous do-gooder (Pat Hingle), bad-ass-wannabe (Peter Firth) and even the protagonist's girlfriend (Candy Clark). The film gives a whole new meaning to the American perception of machismo and much of this can be difficult as well as fascinating to watch.

The most interesting thing about this film however is that it has gone virtually unnoticed since the day it was released. It lasted in the theaters only a few weeks and the edited versions, which have only rarely appeared on non-cable TV, truly ruined the entire effect of RR. The movie was overlooked by the critics and the public for several reasons.

The critics labeled the movie "better as a stage play" and "it's been done before" and "overacted". For reasons that I have never completely understood, movie critics typically dislike stage plays made in to movies unless a lot of flashy camera work and new spirited locations make the play-now-a-movie fit more conventionally into the film art form. What critics fail to realize is that the general public does not have access to good theater and even if a movie is literally a play shot on film, one can now get the subtle nuances of close-up facial expressions and the quality dialogue that stage plays require and movies often go without. Some critics said the film was similar to other films such as The Petrified Forest yet these same critics can never seem to get enough gangster movies, boxer movies or movies about Hollywood professionals. Red Ryder has about as much in common with Petrified Forest as Platoon had in common with Green Berets. And the criticism that Gortner overacted ...... my god that WAS the point !!!

The public overlooked the movie mainly due to the marketing. A long non-descriptive title stunted audience draw and RR lacked the graphic exploitative violence that so often the public looks for in a movie that was touted as "he is getting even with every woman who slapped your face and every man that ....". A more accurate title (possibly "Unexamined Lives") and a descriptive byline like "he is here to prove to you that there is really nothing decent about anyone" may have at least got the right people in the movie house. Of all the mind pap available on video these days, such as Armageddon, it is a crime that this masterpiece has been lost to history.

A greasy diner at the apex of a one-horse New Mexico town is the primary setting for one of the most unfairly critically savaged movies of the 1970s. Within this diner, a dangerously impetuous drifter reeling with post-'Nam hostilities(Marjoe Gortner)and his acquiescent, unassuming girlfriend(Candy Clark)subdue a number of people at gunpoint, and proceed to emotionally and physically terrorize them.

A raw and disconcerting rural American nightmare, RED RYDER was a target for much critical assault upon its initial theatrical release. While its certainly not without its peccadilloes(the supine staginess of its exposition, for instance), it does impart potent moments of nerve-rattling discomposure, and puts forth some penetrating and incisive character studies which are dramatically vitalized by an able cast.

All things considered, this is a blemished film which warrants reinvestigation, and deserves some long-withheld acknowledgments.

6/10.

I recall thinking this movie would be uninteresting when I first saw it on HBO back in 1984, but this in not the kind of movie I could forget about a month later. No wonder so many stage recreations have been done. The many characters are so identifiable, so authentic in their behavior. I have to wonder where the writers got their material. As one who was born and spent many years in west Texas, this is like a compressed version of many years of my life. Thank God, the extreme bad guys like Teddy are rare, but they do exist. I recall a guy like him who started a serious fire at the school during the summer. It's too bad that this movie is not available anywhere or ever shown these days.

It's been over 20 years since I've seen this movie and it's every bit as good as I remember it. Marjoe Gortner is most convincing as a sociopath tormenting small town folks and passersby with a touching love story in the background. Great soundtrack too! When You Coming Back Red Ryder? deserves to be rereleased on DVD.

I first saw this film when I was fifteen. Again it's cover appealed to me as well as it's story. I bought the video at the end of that year and watched it again and again as if I had an addiction. I can't believe some of the really negative reviews this movies got. People have labelled it "Trash" or given it nothing. But we're all our own critic, it's our right just like democracy. We have an embittered ex Vietnam vet, played with utter brilliance by evangelist turned actor, Marjoe Gortner who really found he's calling. When you see his performance, you'll see why. We see a naked Candy Clark, washing herself down in a stream, and we see stranger Gortner, watching approvingly through a set of reflecting shades, standing from a mountain top high above. In this first forty minutes that succeeds, we see life through the lives of some quite pathetic types, in this small Texas town that almost ceases to exist, we have Gortner who's pushed his van (no help from the police) into the gas station/cafe/motel. This cafe's frontage holds a lot of history and provides a great location setting, that's memorable, where inside there's even more history, with it's black and white checkered floors and old coffee taps. From here till the end of the movie is the real meaty heart of it. Marjoe creates trouble the moment he and his girl, walk through the louver doors, his facetious manner which itself is a little frightening. What starts from here becomes a claustrophobic nightmare of intimidation, where almost the rest of film takes place in the diner. Gortner begins his own sick game of vengeance, especially towards a rich couple, (Hal Linden, and Lee Grant, superb in this) staying in the back motel of this cafe, Grant, a gifted violinist, who becomes the worst victim of humiliation here, when exposed from the waste up. The tension mounts when Linden tries to defy Gortner and gets shot in the arms for his troubles, so he's not going nowhere. Then low and behold we intercut to a church scene of singing townfolk. Why? So now we have a Key Largo sort of situation, the diners now hostages, Gortner making them do some really out there s..t as seen mostly in role playing, a really interesting angle here. Wannabe tough guy, Peter Firth who's name is of the title, is involved greatly in this, where Gortner brings out this boy's real inner and killer self as seen later, where Gortner grandly states that he really is a chicken s..t. Firth delivers an amazing performance, the second best, with a first rate American accent, you'd truly think was ligit. He's aged amazingly as compared to his role in Eqqus only a few years earlier. He so much wants to vacate this town with a dream that comes true at the end, as he becomes the hero of our torrid violent tale. The movie really builds up to an intensity, that's terrifyingly real in it's last twenty minutes, that ends with a classic showdown in these sandhills. The exterior surrounds of this movie are superbly chosen, one pre cafeteria scene with Gortner in his van, head sticking out the sun roof, as his girl blazes it along, playing to a stones track, rules. Gortner is given a lot of awesome and thought provoking dialogue, funny and shocking, the makings of sheer writing brilliance which he exorcises through a brilliant performance, one again, I stress, must be witnessed. Pat Hingle as the old crippled attendant, and Stephanie Farracy as a fat ugly duckling, the only female waitress here are two examples of pathetic types, they convince us of so well. I love the wide Texan scenic shot of Firth walking to his trailer, where he and his poor suffering mother live. She's the prey of men who just use her for you know what, including the local copper who's heart is as big as his ego. Her latest flame, has taken off with her car, so she too is going nowhere. I guess the really sad thing about this tale, is at the end of it, where Farracy and Firth go driving off into the dust covered distance, the remainder of these pathetic types just go on about their business as usual. And that's what's really sad.