1968, New Mexico. Marjoe Gortner gives an incredibly intense, commanding, and charismatic performance as Teddy, a bitter, crazed, and disgruntled Vietnam veteran hippie drug dealer psycho who along with his loyal, but scared girlfriend Cheryl (nicely played by the adorable Candy Clark) terrorizes a motley assortment of people in a remote roadside diner at gunpoint. Teddy forces the folks to own up to ugly truths about Vietnam, America, and, most of all, themselves. Director Milton Katselas, working from a biting and incisive script by Mark Medoff, cranks up the seething tension to an almost unbearably nerve-wracking fever pitch and milks the protracted diner confrontation sequence for all its worth. The bang-up acting from a tip-top cast qualifies as a substantial sterling asset: Hal Linden as pathetic weakling Richard Ethridge, Lee Grant as Richard's fiery, fed-up wife Clarisse, Peter Firth as surly greaser short order cook Stephen Ryder, Stephanie Faracy as sweet, dumpy waitress Angel Childress, Pat Hingle as amiable, crippled, and lonely old man Lyle Striker, Audra Lindley as Stephen's sad burn-out mother Ceil, Bill McKinney as macho local hot shot Tommy Clark, and Anne Ramsay as Angel's shrewish mom Rhea. However, this picture still rates as Marjoe's show all the way: Whether he's suffering a painful and humiliating rectal search from a border official or trying to get Stephen to act on his swaggering false bravado, Gortner's electrifying portrayal of a cruel and dangerous sociopath remains strong and riveting from start to finish. Jules Brenner's sharp, agile cinematography, Jack Nitzsche's rattling, throbbing score, and an excellent soundtrack of mournful country ballads and groovy 60's rock songs are all likewise smack dab on the money. However, it's the way this film reveals the darker aspects of machismo (Teddy talks with an affected drawl and has an obsession with rugged cowboy heroes of the past), the disillusionment of the 60's Vietnam generation, and the hypocrisy, complacency, and emptiness existent in everyday American lives that really gives it an additional shattering impact. Although a bit too stagy and overlong, this movie still packs one extremely powerful and lingering gut punch all the same.
Review of When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?
