Electra Glide in Blue (1973)

American music producer James William Guercio's one-off dalliance with filmmaking, ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE is made when he is only 28-year-old. It stars Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop Johnny Wintergreen who patrols rural Arizona highways and aspires to be a homicidal officer.The movie opens with a promising panache hardly betrays that Guercio is a greenhorn, conjecturing through its voyeuristic close-ups, audience would soon realize a face-unshown man prepares to kill himself, yet, Guercio's camera also cunningly suggests that he is cooking beef streaks at the same time. Then, boom! He blows himself dead through a shotgun, which unusually aims to his chest rather than the usual easy target, the head, it compellingly sets a paradoxical situation that one immediately knows there is something fishy about the whole act.Also, before the title card, Guercio takes a tongue-in-cheek tack to introduce our unlikely hero, big Johnny, the camera lurks and swirls in the apartment where Johnny expertly gratifies Jolene (Riley) in bed, before revealing that Johnny is small in stature. When a man's masculinity is stunted by his appearances, it gives audience an idea why he is so eager to achieve something, to compensate the ingrained inferiority complex is a shoo-in. So the apparent-suicidal case becomes his stepping stone to be recruited by detective Harve Poole (Ryan) for his astute observation that it is indeed a murder underneath the hatched facade.But the ensuing police procedural dampens Johnny's driving enthusiasm, especially after witnessing Harve hectors physically abuses and a group of hippies to milk information about their prime suspect, a drug dealer Bob Zembo (a cameo of Peter Cetera, one of the four CHICAGO members who take on acting roles here apart from their contribution to the picture's soundtrack), and the final straw is an awkward confrontation between him, Harve and Jolene, the latter turns out to be Harve's lover, and spitefully lambastes Harve's incompetence to make her contented and laments her ill-fated destiny, working in a barrelhouse after a dashed Hollywood dream, Johnny and Harv fall out afterwards.Unambiguously Guercio conducts a half-hearted approach to solve the murder mystery, after trifling with a biker-chasing set piece to keep the action moving, the movie falls back on Johnny's "inner voice" for an expedient epiphany to realize who is the murderer at the end of a MADURA concert, with reasons unexplained, but that is not enough, ultimately there would be another revelation later, to further muddle the water and leave the opening scene ever so ambivalent when one retraces back, before reaching its chilling coda, completely hits viewers like a cold shower, willful but symbolic, overall, it is a loner's world against the canvas of a vast Arizona landscape, everyone in the story is either indolent, disillusioned or corrupt, only the hippies' community stands in as a getaway from the unpleasant reality, but their guarded world is defiant towards the mainstream values, Johnny represents a tragic hero who is doomed because of what he represents, an authority figure, cannot be saved by his amiable personality and all-too-well intentions.Performance-wise, everyone on board is on a par with excellence, Elisha Cook Jr. is heart-rending to watch in his committed lunacy, Mitchell Ryan expertly imbues a certain degree of passing diffidence in his bombast mannerism and Billy Green Bush is so organic as Johnny's shade- hogging partner and nails his big scene with a flourish, so is Jeannine Riley, manages to steal some limelight even with a role riddled with platitudes. And our leading man Robert Blake, ever so self- reliant as a pipsqueak trying rather hard to chase his dream, only to get short-changed by a cynical world.ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE, also bolstered by a symphonic soundtrack produced by Guercio himself and its striking wide-screen landscape sensation shot by DP Conrad L. Hall, is an astonishing debut feature, if it intends to be more of a zeitgeist-capturer than a gripping detective story, then I must give my whole-hearted congratulations to the crew, mission grandly accomplished!

Electra Glide in Blue is a Palme D'Or nominated film and the only one directed by James William Guercio who used to be the manager of the rock group Chicago. Several band members have small appearances in this film and the band's then lead singer provides a memorable song in the end credits after a fatalistic conclusion. (The song was reused for the final episode of the television series, Miami Vice.)Recent accounts suggests that the filming was chaotic due to Guercio's inexperience and a lot of work was done by Cinematographer Conrad Hall and star Robert Blake.From the long opening shot you can see that this film benefits from Hall's cinematography who makes good use of the location in Monument Valley in Arizona. Robert Blake deliver a wry, offbeat performance as John Wintergreen the diminutive by the book motorcycle cop who wants to be a detective. When he comes across a homicide which others first thin is a suicide he gets his chance to partner with a more experienced detective. His enthusiasm soon changes when he realises that the detective is not all who he seems to be and prepared to fit up a hippie for the crime.The film has been viewed as the establishment's response to Easy Rider.That is an incorrect view in my opinion. Wintergreen is an affable, honest guy who tries to see the good in people and the film highlights issues on both sides, the counterculture and the cops. Here the cops are not seen as squeaky clean and film portrays cops in a rather sceptical light.The film is more of a character study that a crime thriller. The plot after a promising set up starts to meander, we even end up in a music concert at one point and I never really understood who really killed the victim and why.This is Blake's film, he plays Wintergreen in a low key way and brings out a lot of humour such as dancing with his cowboy hat, stetson but no pants or chatting up ladies who are much taller than him by likening himself to Alan Ladd.The Electra Glide is a motorcycle from Harley Davidson and there is a wild and violence chase scene when the cops chase a bunch of motorcyclists.Electra Glide in Blue is an uneven film that has acquired a cult reputation. It is a lot better than the vastly overrated Easy Rider.

What a quirky thing this film is, and mostly in an irritating way. Best parts first. The scenery and filming are excellent, especially the hypnotic ending with mesas receding in the background. Robert Blake is as endearing and eager here as he was playing Little Beaver in the Red Ryder films. His extended monologues are often great, and point towards his role in Baretta. But there's no sensible dialog, and the supporting cast - barfly, mentally disturbed desert wanderer, and police detective - aren't as good as Blake with their monologues. They chew a lot of scenery and are painful to watch. The whole thing gives off a whiff of Chicago, with the Guercio score and and even band members Cetera and Kath in the cast. When the film was made in 1973 Chicago was rapidly becoming a pop hit machine. Their energetic performances from the late 60's were receding from memory as fast as the hippies/communes/psychedelia shown in the film. Easy Rider was made in the 60's and captures the feel. Compared to it Electraglide in Blue seems like a wannabe that arrived 5 years too late.

I first saw this film, either with my Dad, or possibly at a local theater with my brother while Mom shopped nearby. The reason I remember it, quite frankly, is the magnificent cinematography described by almost every previous poster. Absolutely stunning, words really won't describe.If anyone chooses to view this flick after reading through some reviews here, be sure to watch it on a big screen, full wide. I didn't like this film when I was a kid, but I did like Blakes character. I tried watching it again about 10 years ago, and, for whatever reason, I found some of the disjointed scenes distracting. I didn't really care for the somewhat surreal scenes featuring Elisha Cook, the waitress, or the Zipper character at his mobile home. I also still believe the Bob Zemko character could have benefited with a real actor playing him, although the guy from Chicago was adequate. He just didn't have much film 'presence'.OK, all of that said, I viewed the film yesterday, and it worked for me. It really, really did. The reason I gave it a 7 as opposed to an 8, is because It took three tries to really 'get it'. But it finally took, and I was able to get involved with the Wintergreen character, and why the more disjointed scenes weigh heavily onto his character development.The waitresses scene is awesome. The Zipper scene showed the desperation of that character, and how much he looked up to Wintergreen. It almost reminded me of Harvey Keitels confessional scene in "Bad Luitenant", as in, he'd like to do the right thing, but he was just too weak. I found the 'Harve' character operates more as a benchmark for how 'big' the Wintergreen character is.....and always was. And without spoiling too much, it was just a story choice to give it the ending which speaks of the uselessness and randomness of it all. The film (as I interpreted it today) would have even worked with a 'nothing special' ending wherein Wintergreen could have split the force, become a great detective, whatever. It wouldn't have effected the 'meat' of the story for me.But is was well filmed.