Disclaimer: The version of this film that I watched came included in
Savage Cinema: 12 Movie Collection
, and as such I cannot comment on the transfer or sound quality of this VHS tape. The quality on the disc included in the collection is fair but grainy, and the soundtrack somewhat overpowering at times. The rest of this review is concerned only with the entertainment value of the film.
Far and away the best film included in the 'Savage Cinema Collection', this documentary follows along with a group of teenage motorcycle stuntmen as they tour the county fair circuit across the country in 1975. Most of my enthusiasm for this film comes from its archival nature - I was about seven years old when the footage of this film was taken, and it is simply incredible to me to see this time and its people from the perspective of an adult 35 years later. It's like playing your voice back from a tape recorder and then asking, 'Do I really sound like that?' In this case, it's, 'Did people really look like that back then?' or, 'How could anyone have ever thought it was a good idea to put a group of 18-19 year old stuntmen together, and blow them up, crash their cars, run motorcycles through burning cages, or, most of all, allow them to get members of the audience to lay down on the ground while they jumped over them with their bikes?' It hardly seems like such a thing was ever possible.
Yet that is essentially the movie, along with the typical padding of a documentary film where we see an 'unrehearsed' portrayals of daily life on the road. I've become so jaded since watching
Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?
that I question the veracity of almost all documentaries anymore. Like many others, this one also uses illusion to tell the story, and many of the scenes that had to be set up and framed for the camera lens are still presented as spontaneous. I suppose that is the great hurdle for documentarians - it's like quantum physics, where the very act of observing a phenomenon changes the reaction of the thing being observed. The greatest hurdle for those watching a documentary is ignoring the conventions once the veil of illusion has been pierced.
But those are gripes about documentaries in general. On that level alone, 'Death Riders' is probably a three star effort - viewers are likely to be disappointed in the quality of its images, or, in comparison to contemporary films, its lack of sophistication. Or, quite possibly, they may even think 'ho-hum'. But, as an historical artifact, there is another layer entirely, one that records a glimpse of the 70's social zeitgeist, and even makes a comment about the state of documentaries from that time. This isn't a retrospective, or a collection of sincere but flawed recollections - this is a portrait of what these people thought was the best representation of themselves at that moment. Approached in that way, it makes the film far more illuminating now than the filmmakers may ever have dreamed possible.
I'm not sure I'd say that 'Death Riders' is a film that people need to seek out - it seems to me that it works better when it catches someone by surprise, and on those who are most open to the peculiar sort of nostalgia this footage brings up. That, and in the context of what I've described above, makes it an enjoyable film, and if one were to meet all those criteria, then it would definitely be worth hunting down a copy, or else getting it bundled together with other films of its time. I will say that its the only one in the Savage Cinema collection that I have a chance of ever watching again.
While I never went to see any traveling stunt shows as a youngster, like everyone else at the time I did go to my share of fairs and oddball traveling events. During 'Death Riders', I stared intently at the screen while the camera lingered on the greasy, sweaty faces of the summer crowds. Holy cow, did I ever look like that?
Best bizarre B-movie moment - the group performs at a nudist colony. Skillful manipulation of the cameras make it non-offensive in an exclusively bare-bottomed way, but otherwise just plain weird.
Best quote: "I really don't remember who thought it up, but the idea of making a dog shit sandwich for Henry (the group's roadie/driver) just seemed like a natural."