Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Uriah43 This movie is essentially about three different groups which come into conflict with each other coupled with alliances shifting back and forth. The first group consists of Native Americans who live in extreme poverty. The second group is led by a rich but extremely controlling person named "Mr. Fillmore" (Mel Berger) who exploits the Native Americans and keeps them in line by using hired thugs whenever anyone dares to complain. The third group is a motorcycle gang known simply as "MC California" who drift into the ramshackle town with the idea of fighting, drinking beer and carousing with some of the Native American females. Needless to say, Mr. Fillmore doesn't quite like all of the chaos and destruction by the motorcycle gang. On that same note, some of the Native Americans don't like the way they are treated either. But the tactics used by Mr. Fillmore are just as bad and as it turns out he now has a secret plan which will leave the Native Americans even more destitute. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie has plenty of action but very little character development. As a result several scenes lacked the necessary setup which made the movie appear to be too spontaneous and shallow. But that's just my opinion. Be that as it may, although it does have some good qualities here and there, I was generally disappointed overall and I have rated it according. Slightly below average.

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!

Eric Chapman About the uneasy alliance between a gang of bikers and dirt poor Native Americans with the establishment, naturally, as their common foe. Directed by Richard Rush, who would go on to make the brilliant "The Stunt Man", the film delivers on all the action and stunts you'd expect from this genre while also injecting some obvious but effective social commentary. (The powers-that-be pit the bikers and Indians against each other to dissolve their strength and perpetuate their fringe status.)The lead biker, Adam Roarke, is commanding and charismatic - he's not the meathead you'd expect from this sort of film. In fact, there is a gravity and depth to his performance that catches you off guard at first. He's a bewildering but fascinating mix of aggression and sensitivity, someone grappling with the scrambled values of the era. I liked Robert Walker Jr. too as the hot-headed, blue-eyed Indian. Often too boyish and elf-like, he's edgier and more natural here.The movie has style to burn and stands up as an unusually well-mounted (and richly photographed) biker flick, with some brains behind the chains. Rush doesn't seem inhibited by the common-ness of the material - he builds the characters and moves his camera (it glides and whirls like a gymnast) in typically startling fashion. The whole exercise seems to center around Roarke's memorable line "If I'm going to be a bear, it might as well be a Grizzly."