Firewalker

Firewalker

United States – 1986

Director – J. Lee Thompson

Video Treasures/Media Home Entertainment, 1987, VHS
Run Time - 1 hour, 46 minutes

If ever there was a cheap - and I do mean cheap - knockoff of the Indiana Jones franchise – and I assure you, there weren't ANY, not one - this would probably be, if not the best cheap knockoff, then maybe the worst good one. If there were such a thing as a Heroic Pantheon of Legendary Norris Films - and there isn't - Firewalker might just be one of the best. In fact, even as I shook my head at the simple, crude script, I was laughing right along with it, an intoxicated dopey grin spread over my face. The thing is, this movie really took me by surprise. That devious right-wing ginger ideologue pulled out a good performance on me. It's almost as if this is actually the role that he should have played all along, his perfect match.

I might also say the same of his buddy Louis Gossett Jr., who compliments Norris' reckless charming white-guy lead with a stellar performance as a skeptical, fast-talking black-dude accomplice. Once again, a Norris film that isn’t challenging any stereotypes, but it ‘works better’ (or is less offensive) than many iterations and is far less grating.

Together our color-coded-combo consistently screw up and botch their various treasure seeking adventures: Max (Norris) dutifully getting them deep in the shit, then barely pulling them out in the nick of time, making it seem completely accidental, while Leo (Gossett) curses and berates him with practiced consistency. As if on cue, (as if) the beautiful blonde Patricia shows up with vague clues promising a plethora of potential wealth at great risk of life. Consulting Tall Eagle, a cynical but campy Native American stereotype, they learn the legend of the Firewalker, for whatever it's worth and are off to Central America followed by an evil Apache shaman (Sonny Landham.)

 

Unsurprisingly, Central America is full of overeager loudmouthed revolutionaries with big bottles of tequila and a love for blonde gringo women. John Rhys-Davies pops in for a quick (Norris-requisite) 'Nam reminisce, and an almost uncomfortable philosophical discussion. Don’t get too carried away now, Firewalker gingerly walks the triple line between campy, dramatic, and crappy, without totally botching any of them, but narrative depth is not on the menu. The essential Norris staples are still there, but the big fella actually manages to squeeze out a little human emotion and warmth this time out.  But that might just be the secret of the firewater, er…Firewalker.

Still image credits from top to bottom are:
listal.com
theworstmovie.files.wordpress.com
masternorris.com

I borrowed this UK VHS sleeve from Cannon Rank

Dr. Who & the Daleks

Dr. Who & the Daleks

United Kingdom - 1988

Director - Gordon Flemyng

Goodtimes Home Video, 1989, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 18 minutes

Band of the Hand

Band of the Hand

United States - 1986

Director - Paul Michael Glaser

RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, 1986, VHS

Run Time -1 hour, 49 minutes

Band of the Hand is a somewhat forgotten classic of the mid-80's. Having been conceived as a television show by the creators of Miami Vice, the pilot went on to become this film when the idea wasn't picked up.Wikipedia has more to say about this than I care to add to, it should be noted however that it features an early performance by John Cameron Mitchell the writer,director and star of Hedwig and The Angry Inch, and a relatively early appearance of Laurence Fishburne (when he still went by Larry.)
As noted before, Band of the Hand is also an instance of a couple of notable phenomenon rolled into one; the Vietnam Vet and the Medicine Man. And look, one of those cool side-loader boxes from RCA/Columbia!

Bimbo Movie Bash

Bimbo Movie Bash

United States - 1996

Director - various

Cult Video, 1996, VHS

Run Time -1 hour, 30 minutes

Not really a movie in its own right, just a compilation of clips from various low budget T&A flicks of the Corman/Olen Ray school. Unfortunately, or not depending on your point of view, this copy was trashed and unwatchable.

Rental Store - Towne Video

The Young Master

The Young Master

Hong Kong - 1980

Director - Jackie Chan

Magnum Video, 1996, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 32 minutes

The Wraith

I kinda suspect that this box is fudged. The front doesn't match the back (and not just because of the U.K. "18" mark)
 Since I don't have a copy myself, this will have to suffice.

The Wraith

United States - 1986

Director - Mike Marvin

Lightning Video,198?, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 34 minutes

Regarded as a classic in some circles, The Wraith is the only supernatural/possessed car movie to my knowledge that has in which the driver is visible and actually a character. On the other hand, a couple of months before in the same year, star Charlie Sheen's brother Emilio Estevez was starring in his own truly possessed car film Maximum Overdrive in which all the machines explicitly lack operators.

This Spanish box scan comes from todocoleccion.net

These two both come from Movie Poster Database

Christine

Christine

United States - 1983

Director - John Carpenter

RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, 1984, VHS

Run Time -1 hour, 50 minutes

The Car

The Car

United States - 1977

Director - Elliot Silverstein

Anchor Bay Entertainment, 1999, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 36 minutes

Nobody I know seems to love this movie as much as I do. Nobody I know (except one person) seems to have seen it. Granted it is kindof a lower quality spin on Speilberg's '71 film Duel, but the underlying crisis has a different dimension. If that made for TV film was a semi-clever riff on the changing dimensions of masculinity in the wake of the 60's, The Car was a more conservative, blunt instrument. Both protagonists are menaced by mysteriously evil vehicles, but their circumstances are different.

In Duel, protagonist David Mann is a modern man, (that is, technically, post-traditional/post 50's) an urban electronics salesman whose 'new' masculinity is challenged by leaving his comfort zone for the rural, physical and isolated setting into which he travels. His is a crisis of the terms of masculinity, terms that changed in the 60's thanks to a number of factors.

Sheriff Parent (Brolin) on the other hand is in his element in The Car's rural Utah town. His position confers upon him the responsibility for safety, order and law, but the Car undermines his ability to provide any of these. Parent's faltering masculinity is a crisis of authority. What with his inability to relate/communicate with women (girlfriend and daughters) the death of his elder mentors and his own repeated declarations that he just doesn't know what to do all suggest his impotence. Not sexual impotence, but a lack of physical potency, but the ability to enact or effect his will on his environment. In a post Nixon/Watergate world, authority (especially institutional) was no longer seen as omnipotent (it was impotent!) Parent's is a crisis of the means of masculinity.

In the first case it is a question of what the definition of a man is and how changing that definition is troublesome or threatening. In the latter case, the traditional definitions remain in place, but the ability of men (a man, Parent) to live up to them is troubled. That the Car seems to come from the city (as suggested by the post-film credits) may be a philosophical reversal of Duel's modern-man-in-danger-scenario, but both films end on a positive note with the destruction of the vehicle and the victory of the man. Despite troubling ripples in the fabric of normalcy, our masculinity, our men, still triumph. Or do they? The last original evil car movie for almost 2 decades, 1990's Wheels of Terror aligned the car with male sexual terrorism.

In any case, in the subsequent decade both films would be overshadowed by a number of evil-machine Stephen King pictures, but the 70's and 80's was a good era for vehicular possession that reflects to some extent the ambivalence about technology that pervaded culture at that time. One possible and partial explanation for the first is above, but in any case, I think it's sad that The Car kinda got buried by the second.

This image I got from TVTropes looks like the cover of a novel.

I do love some Japanese poster design. This one and the one above it come from Movie Poster Shop which has a whole bunch of other posters for The Car.

Duel

Duel

United States - 1971

Director - Steven Spielberg

The VHS box insert above came from Vestron Dan
There are lots of posters for Duel out there, these are just some of the better ones.

 This poster came from Denver Westword

This one came from Moviegoods

This Swedish one came from About.com

Raid on Rommel

Raid on Rommel

United States - 1971

Director - Henry Hathaway

Goodtimes Home Video, 1996, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 33 minutes

Pumpkinhead

Pumpkinhead

United States - 1988

Director - Stan Winston

MGM/UA Home Video, 1989, VHS

This 1989 VHS release with the painted cover, the first home video release of this film I suspect, is far superior to later, photo covers.
Just sayin.