The Hard Ride

One of the few motorcycle themed films that tried for something different than the usual approach, and largely failed because of it. Most of these biker gang films were action films with an occasional dose of romance (or more likely, pure lust), to fill the time between scenes of rumbles or long rides across the California desert. This is really a romantic drama with occasional action scenes to break up the emoting. Clearly, this is the wrong approach to take in a motorcycle film, "Easy Rider" aside.

Robert Fuller (of "Emergency" and many other roles) is a Vietnam vet who returns home. His buddy Lenny has left him his totally tricked out cycle and he is supposed to take charge of it and bring his "friend" Big Red to Lenny's funeral. Fuller hooks up with Lenny's ex-squeeze Cheryl, and goes in search of Big Red. He also runs afoul of a local bike gang and a few pill popping punks in a beat-up hot rod (some kind of super obscure car that I could not recognize...I think it was a foreign number, possibly a Hillman). Plenty of time is spent on long romantic rides and deep philosophical discussions...all to the detriment of the viewer.

If you're making a motorcycle gang film, you've got to let the sleaze come to the fore. Sure, there were some fights, conflicts, tension, and menacing, dirty, unshaven bikers on view here. So I can't rate this film TOO low. But, overall, I'd have to say: guys, nice try, but, it didn't work out how you hoped it would. Some people may like the change of pace here, but for me, I felt somewhat disappointed.

"The Hard Ride" is a decent film---not especially good but they people who made it tried to make a competent movie and it is watchable. However, for folks who LIKE sleazy biker pics, this one will be a HUGE disappointment! Had they infused it with the typical crap you'd find in films like "Satan's Sadists" or "Werewolves on Wheels", it would have been worse but a lot more fun.

The film is about an ex-G.I. (Robert Fuller) who has come to a desert town to take possession of his dead buddy's chopper nicknamed 'Baby'. Unfortunately, all kids of nasty folks want the bike and Fuller isn't about to just give it to these jerks. However, this is only part of the film--much of it consists of Fuller and a lady driving around cross country looking for 'Big Red' as well as making out. While all this COULD have been great sleazy fun, it's all played very straight and is non-exploitation all the way. A somewhat dull time-passer and that's about it.

It's a good thing that Robert Fuller got himself a long running gig in Emergency for six years after this film got inflicted on the movie going public. I'd hate to think of this as his career epitaph.

The former star of Laramie plays a Marine Vietnam vet who accompanies his dead buddy's body back to his small California town for burial. He also has been willed 'Baby' his late friend's motorcycle .

It's quite a machine. In fact the local bikers who the late friend rode with don't think it should go to an outsider. Therein lies the plot of this silly epic.

I mean if you're into motorcycle movies with curvaceous women than you can't go wrong here. Marlon Brando or James Dean wouldn't have been caught dead in this film.

For a "B" film, it is not too bad. Controversial for its time with themes of interracial love, illegal drug use, free love, liberated women and Viet Nam. Some decent music and a surprise ending in a relatively "tame" biker flick, make it entertaining enough if you like Robert Fuller.

While the two leads here are adequate for this type of bottom-of-the-bill movie, one has to admit that this is the kind of film one would find at a drive-in in 1971 -- a drive-in occupied entirely by couples far too busy making out in their back seats to ever glance at the screen or even hook the speaker to their car windows. It's hard to figure what's worse here -- the lousy script and direction, idiotic soundtrack music, the cheapo production techniques, the poor editing, the badly choreographed fight scenes ("heightened" by inexplicable slo-mo) or the stupidly clichéd plot and characters. The motorcycle sequences are almost laughable. The childish dopes the movie tries to typify would have been just as awesome on bicycles with training wheels. What an embarrassing waste of film.