In the USA between the wars a gang of war veteran bikers led by Whizzer (Keith Carradine) and including a young Gary Busey and a nearly fresh-faced Scott Glenn rides through the Midwest, purportedly on their way to California (where else?), in truth just moving to not to have to stay somewhere. A little mass brawl doesn't make them a lot of friends in a small Nebraskan town.
They hide themselves on the farm of the sisters Rio (Christina Rains) and Cacia (Hilary Thompson), without asking properly, of course. Still, their first evening goes comparably well, especially the part where the sisters introduce the men to the art of weed smoking (of which Gary Busey does not approve).
Sadly said non-weed-smoker Busey later tries to force himself on the younger sister Cacia. To the happiness of B-movie friends everywhere he doesn't succeed. The rest of the gang is not all that bad, you see.
Alas Rio can't let the thing rest and puts a hex on Busey. Well, at least it will probably be the only owl-induced death in his career.
Busey won't be the last victim of Rio's interesting code of morals, of course. It doesn't help the health of the bikers either that Rio sees killing off Whizzer's friends as the best way into his heart. Whatever happened to love potions? But who am I to criticize methods that lead directly into one of the stranger happy ends I have seen?
Hex is the kind of silently (if you can ignore the kazoo-based soundtrack) weird movie that was only possible in the Seventies. It's one of these small one-off projects made by people who would go on to work exclusively on television; as far away as possible from the one interesting moment in their careers, I sometimes think.
I hesitate to call Hex an artistic success. After all, I am not at all sure what the film was supposed to achieve. It is very definitely not a horror film, although it has two or three scenes that are effectively horrific. It's not a comedy, either. There are quite a few funny moments on screen, but just as many moments that are just inexplicable. Hex also features some very typical early Seventies sentiments, ranging from the ironic pot-smoking to a romanticized love for "the simple life". The latter is nicely undermined by the way the simple life turns out not to be all that simple and some strangely poignant moments when life in a place that hasn't changed much since the days of the Old West and the undeniable modernity of motorcycles and airplanes come together.
All in all it's a very confusing, but also a very interesting picture. Just don't go in and expect it to make sense.
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2 comments:
Busey gets killed by an owl? Hahaha. That's almost worth the price of admission.
Yeah, that's one of the finest scenes in a career full of fine scenes *coughs*.
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