Electra Glide in Blue (1973)   Starring: Robert Blake, Billy "Green" Bush and Mitchell Ryan Optimum Home Entertainment RRP: £15.99 OPTD1584 Certificate: 18 Available 22 June 2009

Although he is diminutive in stature, John Wintergreen, a motorcycle cop, feels that he is a big enough man to become a detective. When a woodsman is murdered, he gets his chance and starts working with Detective Havre Poole. But Wintergreen’s dreams of becoming a righteous law enforcer, like the detectives he so admires, is twisted with the realities of their lives, including corruption and senseless violence. Having come so far from his innocent roots can Wintergreen ever go back...?

Electra Glide in Blue (1973 - 1 hr, 48 min, 19 sec) is a real slice of alternative Americana, in the spirit of Easy Rider (1969), directed by James William Guercio from a script penned by Robert Boris. The film was nominated for both a Golden Globe and a Golden Palm, for James William Guercio and Robert Blake.

The director, in the introduction to the film, voices some bemusement that when the movie was shown at Cannes, it was accused of having a fascist undertone. I can see why this was levelled, but I think it was misplaced. Certainly there is an attention to detail when Wintergreen dons either his motorcycle uniform or the clothes of a detective, but at heart this is a twisted Western, and the languid fetishist shots of this ritual, has more in common with the long tradition of dwelling over the moments a sheriff or gunman attaches the emblems of his profession, the gun, the boots, coat and badge prior to some inevitable confrontation. The film’s opening sequence should have been a dead giveaway with wide angled vistas that wouldn’t look out of place in a John Ford film - it’s a western and a road film rolled into one.

The film has more to do with the examination of innocence lost. Wintergreen (Robert Blake) starts the film, bored with his job, handing out tickets on a dusty highway. Admittedly, he takes the letter of the law to the extreme, but at heart he is an honest cop, with a desire to exercise his intellect instead of his arse. An odd thing happens to Wintergreen when he gets his big chance to work on a murder case. When we see him dress in his motorcycle cop uniform, it obviously empowers him; he behaves with easy confidence. But, having made his Faustian pact with Poole (Mitch Ryan), Wintergreen is a man out of his depth and his easy swagger is soon replaced with unease. He moves from being a sexual predator to prey, especially around Jolene (Jeannine Riley) who sexually taunts both Poole and Wintergreen, sending Poole off the deep end, exposing him for the sexually impotent sadist that he is.

When Wintergreen finds himself torn between two worlds Zipper (Billy Green Bush), his partner, stands as the counterpoint to Poole, although both men share violent traits and a disregard for the common man. The solving of the crime is almost incidental in the film as this is really a story of Wintergreens fall from innocence and eventual redemption.

I’m not really sure why this film has been given a cult status and not accepted as a mainstream feature. The cinematography of Conrad L. Hall is as good as anything he produced for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) or Marathon Man (1976) and even though this was Guercio’s first and only directorial outing he handles the film with an assured hand. Following this film he returned to his first profession, music, for which he is a mutli-Gram my winner. For fans of the film he provides a sparse but thoughtful full length commentary, though in his own defence he admits that talking is not one of his strong points.

The film is presented with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with a clear stereo 2.0 audio track.

7

Charles Packer