Directed by:
James William GuercioScreenplay:
Robert BorisCinematography:
Conrad L. HallComposer:
James William GuercioCast:
Robert Blake, Billy Green Bush, Mitchell Ryan, Jeannine Riley, Elisha Cook Jr., Royal Dano, Hawk Wolinski, Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Nick Nolte, Michael Butler (more)Plots(1)
The only thing good-hearted motorcycle cop John Wintergreen (Blake) wants is to become a detective to wear a big Stetson, smoke fancy cigars and be paid to think. So when he stumbles upon a dead body, he takes on the case and proves his stuff! But as soon as he's promoted, the corruption he must tolerate makes the Stetson not fit so well and the cigars not taste so good. Forced to confront his own disillusionment, Wintergreen heads out on his bike, the Electra Glide, where he makes another shocking discovery - one that could cost him his life! (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (1)
With its atmosphere, The Blue Electra Glide is open about its relation to Easy Rider, explicitly referring to that film in a scene. It acts as the other side of the same coin when it looks at the era of the flower children movement through the eyes of police officers, who have a significantly more conservative idea of the American dream and freedom, often closely resembling the attitudes of guard dogs. The failure of the utopian ideas of the hippies was already exposed in Easy Rider, but Hopper's piece maintained the illusion of crushing the dream with a brutal attack from the hostile environment. The Blue Electra Glide goes much further in this disillusionment: it shows the degeneration of ideals corroded by drug addiction, trafficking, passivity, and inability to face problems. Guercio's film evidently struck a chord with the 70s generation and received decent acclaim. Since I don't have, and won't have, the opportunity to follow his development as a filmmaker, I'm not completely certain about the extent of his talent, and I don't accept his film without reservations. With its aesthetic of violence, it closely resembles the approach of Sam Peckinpah, as evidenced, for example, by the scene of the wild chase by the motorcycle gang. At times, the film doesn't bother with logic, and if I wanted to dig deeper into it, I would find many flaws. However, the positive impressions still persist, and they are enough to give the film an overall impression of 70%.
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Gallery (55)
Photo © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
![Electra Glide in Blue - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/159/702/159702125_bcb56a.jpg)