Under The Radar Movie Review #3-Drive He Said

                            It's been a while since I have done an under the radar movie review. The reason being that I have not found a great, or even good movie to exemplify what the point of these reviews are. Drive He Said has finally been seen by yours truly, and it presents the very reason as to why I write about these older movies as well. The reason is that I want readers of mine to discover films that have yet to be discovered.

                           First-a bit of background regarding how I got to seeing this. In the area of Silver Spring, MD, there is a theater called the AFI Silver. It is a beautiful theater that shows older movies in categories. For example, Drive He Said was part of a Jack Nicholson retrospective in which I also got to see Five Easy Pieces. As it is, I plan to see 20 more films at this theater in the next month and a half, including more of Nicholson's films, some Peter Falk films, some Shirley MacLaine films, and some Studio Ghibli films. My point being that the first time I have seen this undiscovered classic..it was on a big screen in a huge theater. Not including the person I went with, there were only six other people in the theater and that is why I sit here writing to you-the reader to go see this film right now.

                           Now..onto the film. Drive He Said is a film about Hector (William Tepper), and his hippie friend, Gabriel (Michael Margotta). Hector is having an affair with Olive (Karen Black), and is being pushed by his basketball coach (Bruce Dern). The film follows both Hector's affair and Gabriel's over the top antics-both of which are equally fantastic. It is a film that perfectly portrays both our society today and society back then. We get to feel for these characters, and the film makes everyone more complex than meets the eye. Tepper never became anything, but this was an excellent performance by him. As well, Dern and Black are excellent as always. By far my favorite performance was Margotta, playing both wacky and complex very well. Drive He Said does feature many dated scenes. I personally enjoy watching dated stuff such as this. If you don't like dated films, don't see this film. It is also very trashy, which is an aspect I liked, but will offend many people, which would explain why it's an undiscovered gem. In fact, the film was originally rated X for male frontal nudity, but is now equivalent to that of an R. If you like your films trashy and dated (in other words, if you like movies such as Eegah, A Bucket Of Blood, and Dementia 13), then go see Drive He Said. If you don't like your films trashy and dated..then miss out on this wonderful gem of a film.

                        Drive He Said is not easily found on any format, but can be bought in The Criterion Collection's BBS Story collection, a box set that features six other excellent films such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and The Last Picture Show. The set is available on both DVD and Blu Ray, but it's about the same price for both, so if you like Blu Ray better (as do I), then I would suggest opting for that version.