SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Michael_Elliott
Savage Seven, The (1968) * 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely bizarre AIP flick about a group of Indians, led by Johnnie (Robert Walker, Jr.) who are tired of their poor lives where they're pushed around on their reservation by a greedy white man. Soon a gang of bikers show up and the two sides clash, especially Johnnie and Stud (Adam Rourke) and it's all going to end in a battle. This is a very bizarre movie as it seems three or four screenplays were just mixed together and AIP quickly filmed them without trying to put anything into order. There are times when you think the bikers are wanting to help the Indians but then we're back to fighting only to flip flop a couple more times. The entire movie constantly left me with a WTF look on my face as nothing ever made too much sense or really added up in the end. You've got your typical white bad guys who are stealing money from the Indians. You have the Indians wanting to fight back on what is basically your land. Then you have the bikers show up who are probably here so AIP could exploit the biker genre. The film was apparently selected by Quentin Tarantino during one of his film festivals, which is a little interesting since there are much better biker flicks out there from this era. There's really not too much violence, no profanity and no nudity so the "exploitation" market is pretty low. What the film does have are a few long fights that seems to keep going and going. That's certainly not a bad thing as the fights are pretty outrageous with bats, chains and various other objects being used. Walker isn't too bad in his role but the screenplay doesn't leave him too much to do. The same can be said for Rourke who is also impressive for what he's given. Supporting players include Billy Green Bush, John "Bud" Cardos, Larry Bishop and Joanna Frank. Most of the time these biker flicks are at least mildly entertaining but this one here left me bored for long stretch of periods and way too many times. There's some cult-ish items here but just not enough to make this worth sitting through when there are so many better films out there.
sol1218
**Some Spoilers** One of the many biker films coming out of the AIP studios during the 1960's and 70's "The Savage Seven" is also one of the most entertaining. The fact that were supposed to accept without question white blond and blue eyed Robert Walker Jr as American Indian Johnnie Blue Eyes is worth the price of admission alone.In the movie it's the bikers who at first are the bad guys in their rampaging through an Indian shanty town as they go on their way to bigger and better things. Like getting themselves stoned and drunk on pot and beer between raping the local Indian, young and old, women population. It's when the leader of the pack of bikers Kisum, Adam Roarke, tries to get a bit too friendly with local Indian Johnny Blue Eyes' sister Marcia, Joanna Frank, that the Indians, who at first avoided violence, started to get restless. We have a number of confrontations between Johnny and his Indian friends with Kisum's crew of drunk and rowdy motorcyclists that the local owner of the bar and convenience store Filmore, Mel Berger, tries to use to his advantage.Fillmore has been trying for some time to drive the pesky Indians off their land and turn it into a resort and shopping mall that would make him millions. Now with Kisum & Co. running amok and terrifying the Indians in town Fillmore plans to pay off Kisum to burn the Indians out of their homes at at the same time, by calling the state troopers, have him and his gang arrested for arson and murder. That's the proverbial knocking off two birds with one stone on Fillmore's part! ***SPOILERS*** It's when the bikers and Indians, seeing a common cause, become allied against Fillmore that he goes into overdrive in having a local Indian woman raped and murdered by his #1 henchman karate black belt Taggert, Charles Bail, and making it look like one of the bikers did it! When things still don't turn out the way he wanted them to, with the bikers and Indians not going for each other throats, Fillmore has Taggert & Co. murder Kisum's good friend Bull, Richard Anders, to get things, a war between the bikers & Indians, started. The stoned out of his skull, on pot uppers and downers, Bull is both murdered and then crucified by Fillmore's men having it made to look like the Indians did it; In revenge for the raped and murdered Indian woman.With both the bikers and Indians now at war with each other Fillmore & Co. just sits back, in being "innocent bystanders" in all the carnage, and wait for the inevitable results: The two sides wiping each other out with Fillmore and his boys, being non-combatants, picking up all the pieces. :The valuable Indian land! Since both the Bikers and Indians, in killing off each other, won't have any use for it anyway! That's until a battered and beaten Taggert, who had the truth beat out of him by Kisum, confessed to what he and his boss Fillmore did! It's now up to Kisum to get the truth out to both his bikers and Johnnie Blue Eyes' Indians to unite against their real enemy-Fillmore-before they both end up slaughtering each other!
tatubaron1
In fact I would have gave it higher a rating but for the genre '8' will do. If you've'e seen some truly awful murdersickle gang movies and you want to be entertained and amused this is the one for you. Not that it has a morally life changing ending. In fact the ending is a little sad, with the bikers hired to do away with the Reservation only to find out the rednecks who hired them are working both ends against the middle.To me the best tagline is when the redneck drops into a karate stance and yells, "hai, KARATE", and the biker scoops up a barstool and yells, "Hai, CHAIR!!" and clobbers the redneck...Put the kiddies to bed, whip out some popcorn, and set back to be entertained...
Johnboy1221
This starts out to be one of the best biker films (which ain't saying much, since most are pretty horrible), but like another good one (The Hard Ride), it falls on it's backside, in the end.Rourke and Walker both elevate this film to a much higher level than it would be, with lesser actors. There's lots of action and the Indian story is a nice change of pace. What kills the effect is what happens in the end of the film, and the following will contain spoilers:..........Spoilers.............1. Johnnie gets shot in the back, but somehow ends up with a belly wound. 2. Does he live? No one knows, because it's not indicated. 3. After Fat Jack is killed, what happens to Seely? He just disappears. Did he escape? Did he fall dead from some unseen wound? Did he plan on killing his boss, or was it unintentional? 4. Kisum leaves his mortally wounded future brother-in-law, as if he means nothing to him. What happened to the ambulances? Wouldn't someone have called from the Indian reservation once the killing started? 5. Kisum finds Marcia, and it's over....just like that. Boo! With a tighter, better thought-out ending, this one could have been a winner. It's still worth seeing for Walker and Rourke's performances, as well as the early performances of "Lavern" and Billy Green Bush, but if only they had had a decent ending for it.
