Savage Dawn

This is the typical bad late night movie you would expect to see on cable. The movie is about a man who comes to town to save it from a bunch of bikers who have taken over. Some parts were pretty comical, but as far as biker movies go there are a bunch of them out there that are far better than this garbage. You know it's bad when you actually start rooting for the bikers.

"Savage Dawn" is a major disappointment and I can't possibly recommend it. But of course, you'll ignore this statement, as well as the low rating, and watch it whenever you have the change. And I don't blame you; - I would to. Everything about "Savage Dawn" just seems so damn cool! It's biker-exploitation from the mid-80s, with a terrific small-town setting and a downright phenomenal ensemble cast, so how can it possibly be bad, for crying out loud? Well, in all honesty, I don't understand myself. In spite of the enormous potential and all the right ingredients present, Simon Nuchtern's film is an underwhelming and incompetent mess. The director somehow continuously undercuts the pacing himself, Lance Henriksen's tough-guy character is made out overly and unnecessarily enigmatic, most of the iconic B-movie stars are sadly wasted, the action & violence footage is dull and - quite frankly - the symbolical "hell" never breaks loose. Henriksen is supposed to be a former Green Beret. George Kennedy, his old and crippled buddy, manufactures rocket launchers in his basement. Richard Lynch is a priest but primarily a sexual deviant. Karen Black is a treacherous tramp. The town's deputy is a bare-chested cage fighter and has a dwarf as sidekick. What a wonderfully twisted range of characters, and these are just the townspeople, mind you! How can a film, in which people are run over by tanks and blown off their bikes by missiles, be so tedious? Cult/exploitation fanatics can only get frustrated by this type of films.

Ben Stryker an ex-green beret stops off at a little town called Agua Dolee to visit an old friend Tick Rand. Soon after riding into town on his Suzuki and settling in. A motorcycle gang known as 'The Savages' who's led by tyrant Pigiron invade and finally take over the place. Stryker doesn't want to get involved, but that changes when he friends become the actual targets.

Is there anything good to say about this scuzzy item? Tough call, as the only fundamental reason to watch this low-budget car wreck is for the tremendous b-cast the crew managed to get hold off for this project. While I don't think it's a complete botch job, it's not terribly good either. Now what a cast! Lance Henriksen (being the main character, he strangely doesn't have top billing, but the final one), Karen Black, George Kennedy, Richard Lynch, Bill Forsythe, Mickey Jones and Leo Gordon. Now what went wrong with this scummy low-budget bungle. The shallowness of the material is too one-dimensional that it heavily borrows ideas from better movies (namely Mad Max) and comes up with a complete mess of ideas that just don't gel and could have been better thought out. The clichés that are used can be manipulated into a good viewing, despite being predictable, but "Savage Dawn" seems to let it skimpily rush all by without letting the viewer soak it all up. The cast are mostly wasted in nothing roles. A bleached-blonde Henriksen is capably solid and even with his commending presence that provides an enigmatic glow to his character. He doesn't get up to hell of a lot and sometimes goes missing in action. Too much sideline action, but when he did kick some bikers' ass, the good times flowed. Karen Black's hissing performance is a very odd one and is all about the screaming and cursing. Although she does get into one memorable catfight with Claudia Udy's flirtatious vixen character Katie. A wheelchair bound George Kennedy roams around aimlessly until the final assault and Richard Lynch looks embarrassed as a wayward priest / town mayor in a very redundant role. An on edge Bill Forsythe simply chews it up as the head honcho of the notorious biker pack.

The junky story (written by William Milling and Max Bloom) has that cheesy comic book getup and very much is influenced by the western genre. Just look at the villains for that. How they came up with their names is mystery. Maybe they drew them out of a hat. It's pretty second rate material that more often moves onto one lacklustre scene after another. Unfunny comical elements are chucked in and as well a bit of sleaze. Tacky exploitation that doesn't get gritty enough and the deaths are quite laughable. A clumsy script is filled convoluted details and unbearable trite. Simon Nuchtern's spotty direction was by the numbers and tepidly laid out. One or two intense scenes can't makeup for its tortoise-like pacing and many cack-handed stunts. The cardboard sets had down 'n dirty look, but lack that organic sense. The gravel-like cinematography by Gerald Feil was better handled when the main focus wasn't on the town, but on the desolate backdrop (like the beginning and ending climax of the film) with some neat camera touches. Pino Donaggio's clunky music choices are drowned out by its own incompetence.

"Savage Dawn" is a forgettable quickie midnight movie that's a definite misfire for most part. There are better and more convincing exercises of the same ilk out there.

I saw SAVAGE DAWN -- for the first, and, sadly, last time -- when I was 14 years old (I'm 32 now); my cousin and I rented it on tape from Southern Star (a cool, now-defunct video store that featured movie rentals and, in the back, a couple of pool tables, a pinball machine, a couple of arcade games, a jukebox, and some tough-looking, pool-playing locals (who were not unlike the bikers in the film) -- and it was a place that turned a blind eye when a horny, gore-obsessed teenager wanted to rent an R-rated picture). SAVAGE DAWN was cheaply made (which was one of the things I liked about), featured lots of guys on motorcycles (another thing I was crazy about) and one bike in particular -- a cool-looking, silver-gray Suzuki GSP1000. I remember a fantastically gory scene -- maybe it wasn't visually gross, but in my mind it was -- where a guy is (taken off his motorcycle, I believe, and) impaled on the teeth of a huge hay-rake. I recall a couple of seedy scenes that really warmed my pubescent loins: (1) where two slutty-looking gals approach a guardhouse (to a trashed-out, post-apocalyptic fenced-in compound) and commence to entertain the guards with very vulgar, yet sexy, forms of distraction; and (2) where the wayward (maybe alcoholic) priest (was this Henriksen?) succumbs to the beautiful, naked upturned breasts of a young temptress. Sadly, I loved it all!

In SAVAGE DAWN, Lance Henriksen stars as the mysterious Ben Stryker, drifting righter of wrongs. Returning to his old stomping grounds, Stryker reunites with his friend, Tick Rand (George Kennedy).

Oh no!

Serendipitously, a hellish biker gang, including the gigantic "Meatrack" (Charles Hyman) and "Pigiron" (William Forsythe) rolls into town. They're called The Savages, and they're one of the most colorful, hyper-violent gangs since Billy Jack took on the Born Losers!

True to form, The Savages start bullying the locals right away. Can Stryker and Tick defeat these unwashed ogres before they wipe out the entire populace?

When Stryker opens up his arsenal of kung fu, the war begins!

Action-packed and sublimely bananas, this movie delivers the goods! Henriksen is at his best in this nearly non-stop fight fest!

Co-stars Karen Black as Rachel, and Richard Lynch as the slimy Rev. Romano...