Great little underground movie with a great kick
just saw this on TCM last night, wow, what a great underground flick. Big John's major and ultimately fatal flaw was that he put himself ahead of his trade. He was so hell bent on getting ahead and getting the promotion to detective that he forgot what got him to the brink of his possibly realized potential and it destroyed him. It represents to me a metaphor for the corruption in us all once we see that we can achieve something great, something better and we let it undo us which we saw in the Enron fiasco and other scandals in all facets of life feom politics to entertainment to sports. This was such a great little symbolic film and yet my old VHS tape ran out...damn it, only got 70% recorded.ARGH...
This movie also has a great battle played out between the stark contrasts of the extremes on the right and left wing. In my minD it tells us to be aware of falling into the trap of being too much on the "fringe" of anything, rather play things honestly and more in the middle and treat all people within the boundries.
I also think that most of the characters and the setting itself were in a surreal and bizarre way representative of many things, from the old John Ford Monument Valley setting to the sidekick cops and the right wing superior, to the hippie who gets his revenge. The setting was like an anthem to pay tribute to the a time long gone but the beauty of the time was still present in a much more volatile world. It was a tribute and a put down all in one.I do not think it was a really sinister condemnation of that era in which the great Ford lived and worked , but sort of a left handed salute and a comment to say that those times were over but the one source of continuity was the beauty of nature itself.
The cops were like well meaning but somewhat immoral old west sheriffs that like Wyatt Earp go too far to further there cause-and like with Earp they pay a heavy price.
As for that hippie, well he is to me the victim we all are at one time or another who exacts a justice for being mis-treated earlier which we all wish we could do but have the restraint not to.
Damn wish I could buy this.
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