If there was a film that deserved status as cult comedy favourite it would be long-forgotten Canadian road trip western Road to Saddle River.
Released in 1994 in it's home country, my own personal journey with Francis Damberger's oddball yarn started way back as youngling in the late 90's when the film was screened at regular intervals on Australian pay-TV.
Since those original viewings the film has stuck with me all these years as a memorable, bizarre and totally unique slice of independent filmmaking that has been near on impossible to track down on any service or physical media, until now when I discovered the film had been made available on a prominent online platform.
Taking a trip down memory lane has reacquainted myself with the joys of the story of Paul Jarrett's European Canadian butcher The Cowboy Kid, whose obsession with the Wild West takes him on a road-trip unlike any other with his quest to find Saddle River, a quest that will introduce him and us to the golf loving ringworm suffering Sam, Berlin Wall obsessed Dieter and the lovable tobacco and Elvis fan Norman Manyheads.
To say that River has a plot in the typical sense of the word would be a lie but across the films close to two hour running time we are gifted a vast array of comical highlights from run-ins with Japanese business tycoons, campfire tape listening sessions, farmland delicacies and odd spirt visions, ensuring this is a trip that is rough around the edges and DIY in nature, but also one that does a lot with the simple tools at its disposal.
There's even a segment involving the KKK that I am sure Quentin Tarantino must have seen somewhere along the line, inspiring his much-talked about sequence in Django Unchained involving the Klan.
Throughout the journey of The Cowboy Kid our main collection of actors all bring something to the table, including highlights from Eric Allan Kramer's underdressed Dieter and the scene stealing Sam Bob as Norman, who one would hope is still shaking his caboose thanks to Mr. Presley's kind request, ensuring that this is an all round package that includes a rollickingly good soundtrack from composers Michael Becker and Darcy Phillips and some fantastic Alberta scenery that's captured by River's cinematographer Peter Wunstorf.
With many involved in the film heading on to create quietly stable if far from high-profile careers, River is the little film that time forgot on many participants C. V's but it's a film that I am sure many involved with look back upon fondly as will many viewers who caught the film in its screening runs in the 90's, with a chance available now for many to relive this bizarre little road trip once again or jump on board for for the first time.
Final Say -
An obscure Canadian curiosity that has stood the test of time as a wonderfully oddball western road-trip hybrid unlike anything else, Road to Saddle River walks to the beat of its own drum and is all the better for it, warts and all.
3 1/2 prairie oysters out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)
