When people talk of Jonathan Demme's movies for Roger Corman, most of it focuses around Caged Heat with some on Crazy Mama but this one, his third, gets overlooked. I think maybe because it was for 20th Century Fox than New World, though it is more purely Demme than Crazy Mama.
It's redneck revenge film, kind of, only the lead is Peter Fonda as opposed to some burly middle aged guy, which doesn't work as well. It could have been adjusted more for its star - Fonda gives off a school teacher vibe and could have made an ideal Straw Dogs type lead, a nerd who is pushed to breaking point, but here he's more of a bad ass.
The villains are enjoyably bad - strip miners kicking people off their land. They are well connected to cops and Senators and it's enjoyable to watch their come uppance. Scott Glenn is in it as Fonda's brother who is killed along with his pregnant wife in perhaps the film's most shocking scene.
It's got a sort of low key vibe to it reminiscent of Robert Altman. The shoot out in the basement of a house at the end was a forerunner of Silence of the Lambs. Demme doesn't do much with Fonda's kid - I kept waiting for him to be threatened but it never happens. Ditto the girl that Fonda gets involved with.
Philip Carey is a good slimy villain.
Other Corman Fox productions: Capone, Moving Violations and Thunder and Lightning.
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