Hell Ride

Roadshow Entertainment

R4 DVD

Quentin Tarantino loves exploitation cinema, he talks about it, raves about it and sings its praises. In Not Quite Hollywood he told us about his love of Ozploitation, while in Baadasss Cinema he raved about Blaxploitation. So many of his films have been homages to cult cinema, from Jackie Brown to Grindhouse. Now we have Hell Ride, a true celebration of the biker movies of the Sixties and Seventies. Produced by Tarantino and directed by Larry Bishop it offers everything we have come to love in such classics as Easy Rider and Stone. Bikers, drugs, sex, nudity, violence and more violence...

Two rival biker gangs, the Victors and the Six-Six-Sixers, have been at war for years. It all began many years ago on July 4th, 1976. Cherokee Kisum was not only the lover of Pistolero, head of the Victors, but was dealing drugs for the Deuce (played rather nicely by a rather wizened David Carradine). It seems she was a very wild woman and was putting some cash away for a rainy day skimmed off the top, so to speak. However, it all catches up with her and her throat is cut and she is burnt to cover the crime. Her son survives but nobody knows where he has gone, until now. The Deuce also knows she has hidden a large deposit of cash but has no idea where it is, all he has is one key of three which open the safety deposit box.

Pistolero is older but not wiser and remembers what happened to his woman. He is accompanied by the Gent and Comanche, a young recruit who we later find is Kisum’s son. Pistolero is noted for his strange moustache, while the Gent speaks in strange riddles and with faux profundity.

The Six-Six-Sixers are lead by Billy Wings who is covered in tatts and kills via an air powered cross-bow, he is cruel and brutal. His team are not especially significant and simply follow his lead.

Between them is Eddie Zero, an ally of Pistolero and an old member of the Victors. He regularly fakes his death and seems old and foolish but is sly and manipulative. He is superbly portrayed by the wily Dennis Hopper.

Hell Ride is filled with biker clichés, lots of tits and nudity (including baby oil wrestling babes), gun fights and as many exploitation motifs one can fit within a 90 minute film. The music is superb, evoking the feel of old westerns as well as biker films and rocks throughout the film.

Sure, it could be argued Hell Ride is the victory of style over substance but that is what biker exploitation films were all about. As would be expected Hell Ride has holes in the plot you can drive a bike through but it doesn’t matter. The feel, look and sound of the film transports you back to the heyday of classic biker cinema and it is an experience you will find utterly exhilarating.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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