Australia 1975. Gas station attendent Cosy Cool has had enough of his dead end job, his boss and living in a country town. He hooks up with his old biker buddy Gracious Grytt, leaves town an... Read allAustralia 1975. Gas station attendent Cosy Cool has had enough of his dead end job, his boss and living in a country town. He hooks up with his old biker buddy Gracious Grytt, leaves town and the straight life, and heads for a car show in the city. With their winnings they decide... Read allAustralia 1975. Gas station attendent Cosy Cool has had enough of his dead end job, his boss and living in a country town. He hooks up with his old biker buddy Gracious Grytt, leaves town and the straight life, and heads for a car show in the city. With their winnings they decide to hit the road, and look for kicks. However they don't realise that some sinister rednec... Read all
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story line all over the place,,but Very Aussie!,
very EasyRider.. no where near ''Stones'' class..... but captures the culture,&the Comancheeros at the end......like Ghosts!! kinda Ironic eh?..... I'm sure i have seen Gary Young in bit parts in various Australian soaps, John Wilson is very believable, its a pity they didn't write a better script,could've been a lot better, seems very backyard,homemade, I'm guessing its a very Rare piece of Australian film culture tho, its in the Stone category,very dated,but a film a fan would enjoy, featuring a nice old Harley chopper and a Triumph, lots of on the road fun&scenery which kicks it along, the acting very amateur though, and the story line is confusing,
First this is a time capsule,great seventies feel about it. Its a bit rough here and there and its obviously not a huge budget but it does get hooks into you.
The music is great, John English's "shotgun" is a mean piece of music and that "red green and yellow" thing does rattle around the old brain box for days.Basically its a rock and roll road movie and the music is good, even if the acting is a bit patchy here and there.There is plenty of gore,blood and action just when its needed to make you jump.
It starts a trifle slow,and obviously has some padding in the form of a series of hot cars at a car show, but by the time the action starts around 10 minutes in its a mover. I like this picture and would have rated it higher if it had a bit more "polish" but nevertheless its a picture you don't mind seeing over.We screened it twice and lots of interesting things seem to pop out the second time that we just skipped over the first time. I had a few "looseners" by the time the second screening was on and its a much better movie seen like that.
The movie has never been seen on TV apparently because it was the cause of the Fathers Day Massacre in Australia, or at least thats the industry rumor according to my friend.
Showtime DVD in Perth Western Australia are rumored to be closing a deal to release the picture.Thats where my friend got the copy to look at,its an industry copy for distributors to look at When the Fathers day massacre occurred the co star John Wilson was there with his girlfriend. Apparently according to the news reports she was the first person shot dead. Pretty weird coincidences here The last scene of the movie is a massacre involving the Commenchero bikers. Maybe it was the cause of the massacre because these were the same bikers involved in the actual real life massacre. Maybe the bikers just wanted to bring cinema to real life.
Its a movie I would recommend to see. Its almost impossible to get a copy and there are widespread rumors about it all through local biker clubs but if you read the net about the Fathers Day Massacre and then see this movie I can certainly see a connection.
Unlike 'Stone' this movie isn't about biker clubs (though the Commancheros do appear towards the end). The two protagonists, Cosy Cool and Gracious Grytt, are disenfranchised "space cadets" (their description) who don't fit in with either the biker scene or the straight world. Cosy packs in his job pumping gas, reunites with his old mate Grytt, and the pair hit the road heading for a car/bike show. After they win some prize money there they decide to continue on in search of kicks. Along the way they run across bigoted country folk, "friendly" girls, and other freaks. What they don't realise is that some sinister rednecks are keeping track of them, and are planning on ruining their good time.
This movie is obviously a labour of love for director/star Gary Young. The movie is far from sophisticated (in Australia we'd call it "rough as guts"), technically shaky, unevenly acted, and with many unintentional laughs, but even so, it has a raw unbridled energy and enthusiasm very rarely seen. Cosy and Grytt are uncliched Aussie characters that ring true. You wonder if Young and Wilson aren't just basically playing themselves. Wilson in particular as Gracious Grytt is one of the most memorable screen bikers. Hopper or Fonda he isn't, but his catchprase "negative waves, negative waves" will hopefully one day ensure him of undying cult status!
Today the words that start this movie are more prophetic than ever. Something like "...people who are different are tolerated until society needs someone to blame.." The movie follows two bikers who call themselves "Space Cadets" and who upset someone who seems to be connected to some group with a kind of "black mass connection.." They want a human sacrifice...and they need scapegoats..sounds like 9-11 and Bin Laden..or Terry Hicks and the others held with no trials at Guantanimo Bay.
The movie has a slow start but just keeps getting faster. The dialog is very uniquely Australian and I'm amazed that many of these "sayings" ..the slang...did not make it to the public use of language.
Its a time capsule from a time when people still thought for them selves AND with the prediction that a "lynch mob" attitude was coming..and IT HAS I like this movie and I went back and purchased the rental copy [$15.00]
Did you know
- TriviaThis is one of a handful of mid-late 1970s Australian feature films that were road movies. The pictures include High Rolling (1977), American Happy Day (1977), Oz (1976), Cosy Cool (1977), In Search of Anna (1978) and Backroads (1977).
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- Runtime1 hour 7 minutes
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