Electra Glide in Blue

"Electra Glide in Blue" is a powerhouse of a movie. Robert Blake hits the ball out of the park with his performance. He's never been better. It's an Oscar caliber performance. The rest of the cast is also very good. The movie flows very well to it's heartbreaking conclusion. The only demerit is that the concert scene goes on a bit too long but that's a minor gripe. "Electra Glide in Blue" is a classic of the greatest decade in cinema history, the 1970s.

An incredible piece of film making, this beautifully shot movie really is about as poetic as it's possible for cinema to be and still have a coherent, gripping narrative. It feels like a western with its dramatic monument valley backdrop and masculine themes, but plays more like a European movie, with it's dark characterisations and existential mood . The soundtrack is fantastic and the feeling the movie imparts is unique. I always recommend this film to people because so few have ever seen it. I think it's a tragedy that James Guercio didn't make more movies because this was his first (and only) film and it's up there with the best of Peckinpah/Leone/Boorman/Seigal (whose work is similar). I'll never forget this film and the ending will live with me forever. If you like movies you need to see this film, This is real Cinema.

The seventies was a decade so overpopulated with great films that hundreds of truly great films went unheralded, and "Electra Glide in Blue" is one of these, sadly the singular film directed by the former Chicago manager, who penned the superb "Tell Me" sung by Terry Kath that plays at the end of the film. Like many late sixties/early seventies film the plot is insignificant, but rather a vehicle for lots of character development and social commentary. Blake is great as Wintergreen and the Conrad Hall cinematography is simply stunning, with the haunting lyricism of the ending beholding one of the finest closing shots in the history of cinema. Somewhere between the poetry of "Zabriskie Point " and "Easy Rider" (which it is frequently compared to but in many ways is the antithesis of) and the downbeat cop dramas that would follow during the decade like "The New Centurions" exists "Electra Glide in Blue", a gem certainly worthy of being rediscovered.