Film Review: HIGH-BALLIN' (1978, Peter Carter)

Stars: 3 of 5.

Running Time: 97 minutes.

Notable Cast or Crew: Written by Paul F. Edwards (V, NORTH AND SOUTH), Richard Robinson (PIRANHA, KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, and Stephen Schneck (INSIDE OUT, WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY).  Starring Peter Fonda (EASY RIDER, THE LIMEY), Jerry Reed ("Cledus" in the SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT films, GATOR), Helen Shaver (OUTRAGEOUS!, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE PARK IS MINE!), Harvey Atkin (MEATBALLS, ATLANTIC CITY), Leslie Carlson (VIDEODROME, THE DEAD ZONE), and Michael Ironside?

Tag-line:  "Truckin' is one thing, high-ballin' is another, and the way they do it is something else!"
Best one-liner:  "You're a trucker?"  –"Well, I'm not a Go-Go dancer!"

HIGH-BALLIN' is not just a mediocre 70s Canadian trucker movie.  It's also a travelogue, an occasional EASY RIDER pastiche, and a bona fide Junta Juleil mystery.  Allow me to explain.

Netflix Streaming has a whole mess of films expiring tomorrow, many of which never made it to DVD.  One of these films is HIGH-BALLIN', and it has been on my watch-list for a long time, owing mostly to the fact that it supposedly features a role from a young Michael Ironside, as "Butch."  Research on the subject was hazy because apparently not that many people have seen HIGH-BALLIN', but cursory investigation revealed that Ironside's role was "unconfirmed."  I'll come back to this.

Unlike your average escapist truckin' fare, HIGH-BALLIN' has a surprisingly pessimistic tone to it, even in the midst of a twangy opening song by co-star Jerry Reed (country singer and zany trucker movie veteran), the fact that it's low-budgeted American International Picture, and the matter of its release abroad as a faux-sequel to CONVOY.  The bad guys aren't blundering meatheads being hilariously cold-cocked by orangutans like in EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE– instead they're vicious hijackers murdering honest truckers and leaving their bodies on the side of the road.  Plus, the movie's got that whole Canadian seasonal depression thing going on, as I described in my review of THE DEAD ZONE.  I kinda like the idea of a depressing trucker movie.  

The plot follows our motorcyclist/trucker hero Peter Fonda, his truckin' buddy Jerry Reed, and Fonda's quasi-trucker/wannabe-trucker/trucker groupie girlfriend Helen Shaver as they fight back against a corporate trucking firm who's sending men in pickup trucks to hijack honest trucker's semitrailer trucks, steal them, and store them in an enormous trucking warehouse.  May I also recommend: LOTS AND LOTS OF TRUCKS.

HIGH-BALLIN' = EASY RIDER for the 70s?  

The action highlight of the piece is probably the chase scene whereupon Fonda releases racecars from a double-decker transport truck and flings them into the road at pursuing hijackers,

Peter Fonda, ready for some Canadian action– and appropriately dressed

but this film isn't really about the action.  It's about atmosphere, and the roads and scenic byways of 70s Ontario provide a nice, unusual spin on the genre.

We are treated to a nearly endless parade of scenic truck stop diners and nostalgic, down-home country western bars,


most of which are locales where you'd be happy to grab a Labatt or a Canadian Club on the rocks and spend some time hangin' out with David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, or whoever your favorite Canadian happens to be.

We also get a bit part from Leslie "Barry Convex in VIDEODROME" Carlson,

a Canadian character actor who really made the rounds with Cronenberg, and with Canadian films in general.

Finally, we come to the mystery of Ironside.  For those of you who don't know, a large, hearty chunk of this website is devoted to Michael Ironside, even to the point of fanfiction.  So I watched the movie– looking for him the whole time– and couldn't quite spot him.  I was expecting him to show up as a henchman, so I kept pausing the hijacker scenes in the hopes of a glimpse of Ironside.  The movie came to a close and I could barely contain my disappointment.  Perhaps the "unconfirmed" status of Ironside's appearance in HIGH-BALLIN' was true...  Then my mind sparked, and I remembered back to a scene where an ambulance arrives on the scene to tend to a freshly murdered trucker.  In the scene, a bearded doctor walks across the screen, pokes his head in the vehicle, and says nothing.  He is never seen or heard from again.  It is my belief that this bearded doctor is Ironside.


He eluded my gaze the first time around because I was looking for a villain shouting threats, not a throwaway doctor without any dialogue.  Now, you can click on the pics for a larger view, but I'm 90% sure this is Ironside.  A waste of the man's talents, I say!  I realize that this is kind of anti-climactic, but hey, it's another Junta Juleil mystery (mostly) solved.

Three high-ballin', high-rollin', truckin' buddy stars.

–Sean Gill

Film Review: THE DEAD ZONE (1983, David Cronenberg)

Stars: 4 of 5.

Running Time: 103 minutes.

Notable Cast or Crew:  Starring Christopher Walken (THE DEER HUNTER, KING OF NEW YORK), Brooke Adams (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS '78, DAYS OF HEAVEN), Tom Skerritt (ALIEN, CHEERS), Herbert Lom (SPARTACUS, EL CID), Anthony Zerbe (STEEL DAWN, THE OMEGA MAN), Martin Sheen (APOCALYPSE NOW, THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE), Geza Kovacs (MEPHISTO, SCANNERS), Peter Dvorsky (VIDEODROME, THE PARK IS MINE), Les Carlson (VIDEODROME, THE FLY), Jackie Burroughs (MORE TALES OF THE CITY, HEAVY METAL).   Screenplay by Jeffrey Boam (THE LOST BOYS, LETHAL WEAPON 2), based on the novel by Stephen King. Cinematography by Mark Irwin (VIDEODROME, SCREAM).  Music by Michael Kamen (LETHAL WEAPON, DIE HARD).  Produced by Dino de Laurentiis (DUNE, BLUE VELVET) and Debra Hill (HALLOWEEN, THE FOG).

Tag-line: "In his mind, he has the power to see the future.  In his hands, he has the power to change it."

Best one-liner:  "The ICE...  is...gonna... BREAK!!!"

THE DEAD ZONE is not a flashy film.  It possesses a muted quality, it proceeds at its own pace, it relishes its understated, tragic plotting.  As such, it's often a forgotten (or at least marginalized) film, both in the David Cronenberg and Stephen King canons.  Hell, both of them had more elaborate (King's CHRISTINE and CUJO) and ballsier (Cronenberg's VIDEODROME) films come out the very same year (1983)!  THE DEAD ZONE is more of a psychological study: its monsters are not rabid St. Bernards, nor hellish Plymouth Furies, near-immortal Walkin' Dudes, demonic clowns, nor possessed industrial machinery– THE DEAD ZONE's monsters are men, and the perversions of human minds.  It's a strong film, and an artful one.  Here are eight reasons to visit THE DEAD ZONE:

1.  Melancholy Horror.
Readers of the site have heard me pontificate at length on the joys– er, I suppose I mean sorrows– of melancholy horror, which is probably my favorite of all the horror sub-genre classifications that I've pulled out of my ass across the years.  While this is a touch late in the game to qualify as Golden Age Melancholy Horror (1969-1981), it sure fits.  The mood is pensive, our hero unravels in misery.  The soundtrack, by Michael "LETHAL WEAPON & DIE HARD" Kamen even follows suit– it's downcast and quotes Tchaikovsky on occasion.

The imagery is wintry and despondent (as Canadian locations are wont to be).  The color palette is delicate, the spaces vacant, the trees barren.


I might just have Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as "SAD," or "winter depression." I think I'll mount a one-man campaign to have it colloquially renamed "The Dead Zone Blues."


2.  Kronenberg Kronies.
This one could easily also be called "The Villains of VIDEODROME Reunion Tour."
We got Les Carlson ("Barry Convex" from VIDEODROME) as a man being politically intimidated by Martin Sheen.  (And behind him is Géza Kovács, who played an assassin in SCANNERS.)

And then there's Peter Dvorsky ("Harlan" from VIDEODROME) as a sleazy reporter named Dardis.

An interesting side note is that in the novel, it's a sleazy reporter from fictional rag mag INSIDE VIEW named Richard Dees who comes to harass our hero, and he later shows up as the protagonist in a Stephen King short story called "The Night Flier," hunting down an exclusive about a Cessna-piloting vampire.  This short story was later made into a 1997 film starring Miguel Ferrer as Dees, which I'll review one of these days.  Miguel Ferrer (ROBOCOP, TRAFFIC, "Albert Rosenfield" on TWIN PEAKS) made for a fantastic sleazebag, but I'm going to go ahead and pretend that Dvorksy here is also playing Dees, as I feel like there's a spiritual connection between the unsavory acting choices of Dvorsky and Ferrer.


3.  The Collars.
How ya like your collars?  Popped?  I sure hope so.

We could probably call this thing "THE POPPED COLLAR ZONE."  And I'd be fine with that.


4.  Shit-Eatin' Sheen.
It doesn't happen often these days, but I love Martin Sheen as a villain.  He gives a brilliant, disturbing performance as a child molester in another melancholy horror flick, THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE, and here he taps into the same realm of performance as a sociopath enamored by the power he lords over others.

Kind of prefiguring his far more benevolent politician on THE WEST WING, he imbues the role with an incredible polish.  He probably could have been a real politician.  Gone is the immature, animalistic villainy called for in BADLANDS, this character's a far darker, rational fellow.
He's got a pretty fantastic crazy-eye, as well:


5.  Strong Imagery.
I revisited THE DEAD ZONE this week, but I had seen it once previously, probably around the age of ten or eleven.  I didn't remember a great deal about it, but what stuck in my mind (and vague spoilers follow) was the vivid, haunting imagery of some of Walken's psychic episodes.  I still remembered, as if I had seen it yesterday, the shots of children breaking through the ice and plunging into frigid waters:



and the scenes of Sheen in his presidential bunker, contemplating World War III:



It's understated, but incredibly well done.  Cronenberg can play ya like a piano even without the sensationalism of flesh pods and Brundleflies and VHS vaginas!


6.  Walken's Psychic Episodes.

I already mentioned the strong imagery which accompanies them, but when Walken's in the midst of it, uttering something like "The ICE...  is...gonna... BREAK!!!," you are there with him.  It's nearly "overacting," but Walken is so present, so connected to the material that you simply have no choice but to believe his performance.
Also, though I usually am not the greatest fan of parodies, Walken's lampooning of his DEAD ZONE role re-imagined as "Ed Glosser, Trivial Psychic" on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE is well worth your time.

7.  George Bannerman.
In the novels of Stephen King, much attention is paid to the details of the fictional community of Castle Rock (among others), and one of the markers for chronology becomes the succession of sheriffs in the town.  Bannerman is only a Constable back in THE BODY (the basis for STAND BY ME), gets promoted to Sheriff, plays large and memorable roles in THE DEAD ZONE and CUJO, and he's mentioned in passing even in novels that take place after his time.  Then he's replaced by Alan Pangborn (who's been depicted on screen by Michael Rooker and Ed Harris) who plays a major role in THE DARK HALF and NEEDFUL THINGS.  Anyway, what I'm saying is that King lends great verisimilitude to his fictional locales, and he does it so well, that you're looking forward to seeing how even minor characters will be depicted.  Bannerman was portrayed the same year in CUJO by Sandy Ward (THE ROCKFORD FILES, POLICE ACADEMY 2, THE PERFECT STORM), and while he does a fine job, Tom Skerritt is sort of exactly who you'd imagine from the page.

It's a fairly minor role here, but he lends it a genuine credibility.  We find Walken's psychic nature far easier to swallow as an audience because it plays so realistically off of Skerritt's skepticism (and eventual belief).


8.  The SLEEPY HOLLOW connection.
Early in the film, when he's still a (relatively) carefree schoolteacher, Walken assigns his class to read Washington Irving's THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.


Little did he know, I'm sure, that some sixteen years later, he'd be playing the Headless Horseman himself.

Note the popped collar, however.  Some things never change, I suppose!  Four stars.

-Sean Gill

Film Review: STREET SMART (1987, Jerry Schatzberg)

Stars: 4 of 5.
Running Time: 97 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Morgan Freeman, Christopher Reeve, Kathy Baker (EDWARD SCISSORHANDS), Andre Gregory (MY DINNER WITH ANDRE), Jay Patterson (MCBAIN), Rick Aviles ('Rat Man' in THE STAND), Erik King (Doakes on Showtime's DEXTER), Mimi Rogers (WEDLOCK, THE RAPTURE), Leslie Carlson (VIDEODROME). Music by Robert Irving III and Miles Davis.
Tag-line: "Everything you say can and will be held against you."
Best one-liner: "I will show you the streets, man."

Whenever Cannon pulls off a genuine prestige picture, I feel as if it's like your zany kid brother inexplicably made the Honor Roll and you're like 'How the eff did he pull that off?' cause he spent all semester breakdancing in the lunchroom, eating Charles Bronson's ice cream confections, and palling around with Michael Dudikoff. The only real 'Cannon elements' are the sheer audacity, the number of references to shoving objects up asses, and the (Miles Davis + slap-happy bass synths) soundtrack.

And maybe a few of the costumes.

Regardless, Palm d'Or winner Jerry Schatzberg (SCARECROW, THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK) and writer David Freeman (THE BORDER) assemble a first-rate critique of modern journalism, which, with uncommon evenhandedness, eloquently tackles issues regarding race, sensationalism, the educated elite, and the justice system. The performances are top-notch: Christopher Reeve as the wanna-be muckraker whose high-horse is a bit shorter than he'd like to believe;

Morgan Freeman as "Fast Black," the volatile pimp who'll affably share a Yoo-hoo with you one moment,

then smash it and jab its shards into your neck the next;

Erik King as Fast's quiet, brutal lieutenant (in a belly shirt and visor sunglasses); Andre Gregory as Reeve's douchey, elitist publisher ("Your moral courage sells magazines!" is his patronizing reassurance); Kathy Baker as a likable, defiant hooker (in a nuanced and astonishingly realistic performance);

Jay Patterson as a determined District Attorney; and a macabre bit part by Rick Aviles as Solo, the pimp ("I'm the only man you're gonna need...Don't lie to Solo."). There are all sorts of wonderfully orchestrated awkward moments, both in terms of comedy (Reeve's worlds collide when Fast attends a high-society soiree) and suspense (Reeve trapped in a car beside Fast as he threatens to slice up one of his ladies),

and the denouement (involving a descent into manipulation and 'Gotcha!' journalism) does not disappoint. Four stars. To the Go-Go boys, I say: Fine work.


-Sean Gill