Skinheads

Greydon Clark will never learn. The man has written and directed a slew of thoroughly awful films, gaining some slight notoriety in the late seventies for Satan's Cheerleaders and The Return. Rest assured this particular piece of horse hockey is no better than the films he made at the "pinnacle" of his career.

Skinheads (I'm sure you can guess the plot, theme, and overbearing moralization from the title alone) is notable solely as a turning point-- well, okay, maybe an S-curve-- in two careers. It's one of the last films of Rifleman star Chuck Connors, as the grizzled hermit who takes a stand against the Evil Skinheads(TM), and it was the first big-screen role for Brian Brophy, who's since gone on to be a solid character actor in "serious" films (The Shawshank Redemption, White Man's Burden, et al.). Comparisons with American History X are inevitable, and will be uniformly unfavorable; where Tony Kaye gave us a band of halfway intelligent skinheads with a truly dangerous and thoughtful leader, Clark's bunch of halfwits are incapable of anything but the kind of moral posturing one might expect from a band of chimps exposed to nothing but reruns of That Girl for years on end.

The one bright spot in this film, ironically, is the late Dennis Ott as Brains, the slow-on-the-uptake skinhead who provides the group's muscle and the overwhelming majority of the film's levity. Sadly, Ott, who passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1994, never got another role this big. It's worth a free rental to watch him here. **

Chuck at his best. This is one of "The Rifleman's" last films. He plays a good guy who helps some kids being chased by skinheads. Chuck is by far the most believable character in this less than good film. It would be terrible if it didn't have Mr. Connors acting.

A must see for any Chuck Connors fan.

I purchased this at a VHS sale in the video store for .99 cents and it was worth it. This movie cannot be liked on merits of good acting , scrip , and direction..it is indeed a terrible film , but hey I like bad films as long as they're funny and entertaining which is what Skinheads:The Second Coming Of Hate is. So it turns out some "skinheads" decided to go on a killing spree at a diner , and soon follows a long chase through the woods til good ole Chuck Conners of Roots fame comes to the rescue in a bravo hammy performance. Speaking of over the top performances..the golden ham award goes to Brian Bophy's who's insane performance will have pretty much anyone rolling on the floor laughing. This isn't your Romper Stomper or American History X type movie , this is basically just "lets put people in danger..ooh let's have skinheads go after them" obviously a lifestyle the writer and director knows nothing about..so therefor this movie is surely going to offend the anti-rascist SHARP skinheads..and even the neo nazi skinheads because it puts them in such a moronic light (which by the way they are anyway so i guess justice was done). See it if you like bad movies

While it may be a stretch to call Skinheads: The Second Coming of Hate the greatest American film of all time, it's much of one. This film tackles the troubling questions that Neonazism posed to our culture in the late 1980s in an unblinking fashion that throws fear completely aside. Unlike later films that dealt had skinhead-related subject matters such as American History X, Skinheads: The Second Coming of Hate does not try to preach to its audience. It simply portrays Skinheads as the ruthless Hitler-loving killers they are. Skinheads: The Second Coming of Hate also features what is probably Chuck Connors' finest performance. Connors was an American treasure and without a doubt the greatest film actor this nation has ever produced. To say that this film contains his finest performance is to say that this film contains what may very well be the greatest acting tour de force ever caught upon film. It is a modern tragedy that Skinheads: The Second Coming of Hate is rarely, if ever, mentioned as one of the great films of the 1980s let alone one of the great American films of all times.

In this lame thriller, a group of half-wit skinheads kill four people at a diner then chase a deeply uncharismatic couple into a forest. It's all really quite amateurish. The skinheads could be OK villains if only they weren't so moronic and the plight of the heroes would be a lot better if only they were in the least bit interesting. But alas, no. What we end up with is an extended and somewhat tedious pursuit through a forest. There are a couple of cameos courtesy of an old grizzled woodsman and an extremely tame grizzly bear. It's not really all that entertaining but sadly I have seen much worse.

The soundtrack is provided by someone called Elvis Hitler and given the neo-nazi subject matter here, I sincerely hope that this is an ironic name. But in a film where the supposed most stupid member of the skinhead gang, 'Brains', is clearly only the second most stupid, anything is possible.