Savage Dawn (1985)

Rough'n'tumble, laconic, no-nonsense former Green Beret Vietnam veteran Stryker (a typically fine performance by Lance Henrikson) goes to visit his old soldier buddy Tick Rand (the always affable George Kennedy) in a small Arizona desert town. Unfortunately, a gang of ferocious bikers led by the vicious Pigiron (William Forsythe snarling it up with his customary rip-snorting brio) are terrorizing the community. It's up to Stryker and Rand to put a permanent stop to these nasty no-count hooligans. Competently directed by Simon Nuchtern, with polished cinematography by Gerald Freil, a decent smattering of gratuitous nudity, a funky, syncopated score by Pino Donaggio, well-developed main characters (there's a nice chemistry between Kennedy and Henrikson), and a handy helping of raw violence, this grungy biker version of the classic Western "Shane" makes for an entertainingly scrappy affair. The cool cast of familiar B-feature faces helps matters a whole lot: Karen Black as two-bit floozy barmaid Rachel, Richard Lynch as lecherous weakling priest Reverand Romano, Claudia Udy as Tick's tough hottie daughter Katie, Leo Gordon as the gruff, but ineffectual sheriff, Mickey Jones as evil Harley hound Zero, and wildman stand-up comedian Sam Kinison in a funny bit part as an obnoxious born again Christian barber. Good, low-brow fun.

I saw SAVAGE DAWN -- for the first, and, sadly, last time -- when I was 14 years old (I'm 32 now); my cousin and I rented it on tape from Southern Star (a cool, now-defunct video store that featured movie rentals and, in the back, a couple of pool tables, a pinball machine, a couple of arcade games, a jukebox, and some tough-looking, pool-playing locals (who were not unlike the bikers in the film) -- and it was a place that turned a blind eye when a horny, gore-obsessed teenager wanted to rent an R-rated picture). SAVAGE DAWN was cheaply made (which was one of the things I liked about), featured lots of guys on motorcycles (another thing I was crazy about) and one bike in particular -- a cool-looking, silver-gray Suzuki GSP1000. I remember a fantastically gory scene -- maybe it wasn't visually gross, but in my mind it was -- where a guy is (taken off his motorcycle, I believe, and) impaled on the teeth of a huge hay-rake. I recall a couple of seedy scenes that really warmed my pubescent loins: (1) where two slutty-looking gals approach a guardhouse (to a trashed-out, post-apocalyptic fenced-in compound) and commence to entertain the guards with very vulgar, yet sexy, forms of distraction; and (2) where the wayward (maybe alcoholic) priest (was this Henriksen?) succumbs to the beautiful, naked upturned breasts of a young temptress. Sadly, I loved it all!

The evil bikie gang in this movie were called the Savages, hence the title, but Minor Nuisances would have been a better name for this sorry mob of weak actors trying to look dangerous. Whenever they wanted to kill someone, they generously rode their bikes very slowly so that their intended victim could easily avoid them or push them off their bikes. Their leader had a bad limp, but still thought he could take on the hero and win. As for Karen Black, she didn't seem to know where she was for most of the film.

This is the typical bad late night movie you would expect to see on cable. The movie is about a man who comes to town to save it from a bunch of bikers who have taken over. Some parts were pretty comical, but as far as biker movies go there are a bunch of them out there that are far better than this garbage. You know it's bad when you actually start rooting for the bikers.