everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Robert Blake has one of the best roles of his career as John Wintergreen, a dedicated motorcycle cop who yearns for more in life. What he'd really like is to be a detective - to wear a suit, a Stetson, and "get paid to think". He gets his chance when he discovers what first appears to be a suicide, but which John determines had to have been a murder. When John shows that he's got what it takes for the detective business, a charismatic hotshot named Harve Poole (Mitch Ryan) takes him under his wing, hiring John as a driver. What happens is that John becomes quite disillusioned watching Harve at work. John strives to be a good, kind, honest man, and doesn't like Harves' approach to law enforcement. A revelation regarding his colleague and good friend "Zipper" (Billy Green Bush) only adds to his dismay."Electra Glide in Blue" marked the filmmaking debut for James William Guercio, a veteran of the music industry who, with the help of ace cinematographer Conrad Hall, brings a lot of visual poetry which is not the action-packed murder mystery that some viewers might expect, or hope, it to be. That aspect of this film is never heavily stressed, as the movie clearly functions much more as a series of character vignettes. It's got a very deliberate pace to it, as it gives a number of its major players opportunities to tear into some meaty roles. Blake and Bush have fine chemistry and are quite engaging; you believe them as buddies. Ryan commands the screen whenever he's around; he's an excellent character actor (whom you may know best as the villain in "Lethal Weapon") who gives his role some real nuance. Royal Dano is a little under utilized as a grumpy coroner with whom John butts heads, but Jeannine Riley is wonderful as the barmaid Jolene, and Elisha Cook Jr. is as delightful as ever in the role of sad old sack Willie. Considering Guercios' background, it's not a surprise that some of the supporting players come from the music business - screenwriter Hawk Wolinski as the van driving hippie, and Peter Cetera and Terry Kath from the band Chicago; Cetera, amusingly, plays a scruffy biker. Keep a sharp eye out for Nick Nolte, uncredited as an extra in the commune scene.The film turns out to be a moving meditation on personal ideals and loneliness, and leads to a shattering conclusion. This conclusion is much in line with films of this time period, and takes its time to play out. It's the kind of thing you don't easily forget.It's not hard to see why this would have a following. It's interesting and it's entertaining, and well worth a look.Seven out of 10.

The film opens with an unidentified old man, preparing pork chops in a frying pan. He places two sterodents into a glass of water holding his false teeth. The man then proceeds to take his filthy socks off. This entire time, we are never exposed to his face (hence the unidentified part..). He then seemingly appears to tie string to his big toe, fastening the other end to the trigger of a shotgun, aiming the barrel to his heart and pulling the trigger.John Wintergreen is a short-a**e motorcycle cop with dreams of becoming a homicide detective. He is unhappy with patrolling the desert roads (filmed in the Arizona deserts made famous in the John Ford westerns). He is a charming man with the ladies, an effort he seems to have to make due to his lack of height. he has lofty allusions that he may never adhere to, but that is something that does not stop his determination. His partner, Zipper (Billy 'Green' Bush), is perfectly happy with his duties; he particularly enjoys the thrill of harassing hippies (hey, who wouldn't have?). But this life just isn't what John thinks he wants.They soon discover the body of Frank, the apparent suicide victim, in his lonely shack in the desert. This is signalled by a local crazy, Willie (Elisha Cooke), who's wild ramblings lead them to the body. John is immediately struck by some inconsistencies at the scene, particularly the fact the the pork chops were consumed. this seemed to him as though they had been eaten after the incident occurred. This is much to the chagrin of the local coroner (Royal Dano), who states insistently that it is a straight suicide. These cries from Frank are overheard by Detective Harve Pool (Mitchell Ryan), who agrees with him, then hires Wintergreen as his driver (bizarrely he sees this as a major step up, and dresses himself in the same fashion as Harve, with the stetson and cigar).Harve takes john to a bar to introduce him to Jolene, who he believes is a very innocent girl. However, we have met her before at the beginning of the film, in bed with john. This causes a major problem between john and Harve, and he is back to motorcycle duties.This is a slow burner. Whilst it is enjoyable to a degree, it really seems to go nowhere. John does have a story arc, but one that just changes his by-the-books attitude to police procedure. John is played by Robert Blake. who I know from his incredibly scary role as Mystery Man in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997). He is very good in this film, and has a certain charm to him. He certainly seems to have a way with women (something that he seems to have to do to compensate for his lack of stature).It also seems be be trying to be an almost authoritarian version of Easy Rider (1967), with its role reversal of highway drifters. In this case the drifting biker procedural of police work. Maybe I'm just reading into that due to it's era and the open desert roads. It's not a bad film, it just seems to drift. There is of course a conclusion, but it only seems to anchor on John's story arc (as I stated before, it simply shows that he no longer wants to work in homicide, as this is seeming full of corruption and ineptitude, and therefore he simply does not follow the proper police procedural). Well, I am certainly repeating myself here, so I will end. A kind of fruitless movie really. On the upside, the cinematography is stunning - but this would not be difficult in the surroundings it was shot.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

I first saw this film, either with my Dad, or possibly at a local theater with my brother while Mom shopped nearby. The reason I remember it, quite frankly, is the magnificent cinematography described by almost every previous poster. Absolutely stunning, words really won't describe.If anyone chooses to view this flick after reading through some reviews here, be sure to watch it on a big screen, full wide. I didn't like this film when I was a kid, but I did like Blakes character. I tried watching it again about 10 years ago, and, for whatever reason, I found some of the disjointed scenes distracting. I didn't really care for the somewhat surreal scenes featuring Elisha Cook, the waitress, or the Zipper character at his mobile home. I also still believe the Bob Zemko character could have benefited with a real actor playing him, although the guy from Chicago was adequate. He just didn't have much film 'presence'.OK, all of that said, I viewed the film yesterday, and it worked for me. It really, really did. The reason I gave it a 7 as opposed to an 8, is because It took three tries to really 'get it'. But it finally took, and I was able to get involved with the Wintergreen character, and why the more disjointed scenes weigh heavily onto his character development.The waitresses scene is awesome. The Zipper scene showed the desperation of that character, and how much he looked up to Wintergreen. It almost reminded me of Harvey Keitels confessional scene in "Bad Luitenant", as in, he'd like to do the right thing, but he was just too weak. I found the 'Harve' character operates more as a benchmark for how 'big' the Wintergreen character is.....and always was. And without spoiling too much, it was just a story choice to give it the ending which speaks of the uselessness and randomness of it all. The film (as I interpreted it today) would have even worked with a 'nothing special' ending wherein Wintergreen could have split the force, become a great detective, whatever. It wouldn't have effected the 'meat' of the story for me.But is was well filmed.

I saw this movie at a drive-in in Spokane, Washington in the summer of 1973--double feature with Westworld! What a great memory. Electra Glide in Blue was so cutting-edge, so modern! It had motorcycles and girls with enormous breasts (covered) and blood and cussing. It even had several members of Chicago, my favorite band at the time! Unfortunately, it lacked one important thing, something critical to make it actually . . . good--a story. I own a copy of it, and I watch it from time to time to relive the good memory of seeing a movie that had the line, "Yeah, man, I'll tell ya something. You're standing in pig dung." Robert Blake was so intense in his desire to be promoted, Mitch Ryan could do his officious buttbag-act in his sleep, Billy Green Bush was great as the wack-job motorcycle cop, and Chicago-member Lee Loughnane, sitting there with the pigs, should have stuck to his day job with Chicago--he may have been sober, but his delivery of that pig dung line was proof of the dangers of drugs. I even own a copy of the album, with all the poster stuff. The soundtrack was the best part of the movie.This movie was truly awful. It slogged and plodded and tried so hard to be deep, and all it accomplished was teach me that 15 year olds make terrible film critics.