CISCO PIKE is a nice, nostalgic time capsule for us Baby Boomer types, and very typical of the films oriented towards the youth culture in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Kristofferson is quite effective and natural, and in this first film establishes himself as one of the iconic images of the cinema during this period. Another iconic actress of the period, Karen Black, gives a warm, believable performance as Pike's girlfriend. Hackman is terrific as the cop-turned-narc who becomes more emotionally unhinged with every scene. Also giving an excellent performance is Harry Dean Stanton, credited here as H. D. Stanton, as Pike's former music partner who has more than enough serious troubles of his own.
Kristofferson does a little singing in the film, but his songs are heard mainly on the film's soundtrack. "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again") and "The Pilgrim" are both featured on his LP "The Silver Tongued Devil And I", released the same year as this film.
Also featuring Viva, Allan Arbus, Roscoe Lee Brown, Joy Bang, Antonio Fargas, and musician Doug Sahm. The director was Bill L. Norton.
This sounds good, Mike....I will check it out! , Jay from FB and YT
ReplyDeleteHi Jay! I think you will like this one. Thanks for visiting my humble blog!
ReplyDeleteI had not heard of this before, but that cast is exceptional! The '70s was a high water mark of more intimate, realistic dramas of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations, or simply struggling in dramatic ways. Maybe with the collapse of blockbuster superhero movies, we'll see a new era of smaller, human-interest dramas. Nah.... :)
ReplyDeleteHi Brian! I think you would like this movie. One of the best things about it is seeing how charismatic and natural Kris Kristofferson is as an actor. But the rest of the cast is also excellent. Do you really think the superhero blockbuster genre is collapsing? It's hard for me to tell, since I never go to see any of them. Who knows? Maybe the smaller human-interest dramas could make a comeback. Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteI don't go to them either, but I've always been an inveterate industry watcher. The era of superhero movies being automatic moneymakers is certainly over. It seems a no-brainer that streaming is the logical medium for smaller scale dramas, but so far nobody except Netflix seems to be able to make it profitable. These are certainly interesting, chaotic times we live in!
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