American Way

I've been collecting Dennis Hopper films for some time. Tonight I decided to watch "Riders of the Storm" and I'm happily impressed! I bought a VHS copy of it on line for less than $2.00, and a DVD version is over $30.! This movie falls in the category of "Off Beat" or beyond.

Hopper played a Vietnam vet in "Apocalpse Now", but this one is much, much closer to one of my all time favorites, "O.C. & Stiggs".

My first reaction (and it's still playing), is that it's a combination of "Max Headroom" and "Pray TV".

Wonderful entertainment if you like the style.

Hope you can find a copy.

'The American Way' is a curious movie, half zany comedy, half political commentary. Sixties survivors Dennis Hopper ('Easy Rider') and Michael J. Pollard ('Bonnie And Clyde') lead a band of Vietnam veterans who broadcast from a pirate TV station located in a B-29 bomber. While negotiating some kind of amnesty/media deal they continue to circle the globe and beam down their programs which mix subversive hijinks and rock'n'roll. Hopper, "The Captain", becomes increasingly irritated with Mrs Westinghouse (Nigel Pegram), an ambitious warmongering politician who aligns herself with the Moral Majority. The Captain decides that he and his comrades last mission will be to discredit her and foil her plans to run for the Senate, and possibly the Presidency. I can't honestly say that this movie is actually all that funny, but it's certainly more entertaining than say 'Rude Awakening', the lame Eric Roberts/Cheech Marin vehicle that similarly deals with 60s idealists encountering the Reaganite 80s. The main reason to watch this is for Dennis Hopper's spirited performance, which is actually much better than the uneven material he has to work with. 'The American Way' is an interesting failure that may appeal to fans of 60s music and pop culture. I wish I could say it was a lot better than it is but even with its many flaws (i.e. it's variable soundtrack which ranges from Hendrix, The Kinks and Alice Cooper to Godawful generic 80s MTV schlock rock) it has quite a few amusing moments and therefore I say it's still worth a rental.

Riders of the Storm is a little known film starring Dennis Hopper, featuring him as the captain of an ex-USAF electronic warfare aircraft, now dedicated to filling the airwaves with pirate TV broadcasts. Politics, TV evangelism, the USAF, Transvestisism, public access TV: none can escape the cutting observations of this must see film.

The film dates from the time when Reagan was supporting the fundamentalist Christian movement. In the story the candidate woes support from a religious group, which has a strong resemblance to the style of Jehovah's witnesses and their publications. Quite hilarious especially if you are familiar with witnesses.

Dennis Hopper creates a great performance as mad captain and he's not the only mad character in this movie. The captain's crew is formed by Vietnam veterans who fly B52 bomber-converted to pirate TV-station plane. They decide to start their own campaign to expose a candidate whom they know to be a war monger planning to take the nation to another war.

I may have been one of the few people to have actually seen this movie in the theaters in the 80's. I was living in Houston,TX at the time, and had heard of it because some of the filming was done in the Houston area (I was very familiar with the shopping mall and downtown scene locations).

This movie is a strange mix of Classic Rock, Science Fiction, and Social Parody/Commentary. Anyone interested in at least two of these three genres MUST see this film.

I was lucky enough to be rooming with a fellow in Houston who enjoyed the movie as much as I did, and didn't mind watching it dozens of times. Over the course of 5 years, we introduced at least a couple of people a month to this film, and almost always had positive feedback.

I consider this one of Dennis Hopper's best roles. When I state that his "Captain" character is one of the most sane of the plane crew, that should make clear what an eccentric group of individuals he is surrounded by.

I'm a little disappointed that this movie didn't get more recognition than what it did. As far as I know, there has been no DVD release for it. With a soundtrack of its caliber, this movie screams for a DVD with a remastered audio track.