World Wide Fan Comment < 1 >
"I too was fortunate enough to view the screening of this
film the other night in Hollywood at the monthly
Grindhouse screening. Lots of hippies, bikers and
shootings in slo-mo with blood packs spurting a la
Peckinpah. Apparently this movie is quite a rare little
number. Shot in Detroit in 1974 and 75, released to
drive-ins in 1976, and as such I believe we can state
definitively that this film marks the very end of the classic
"biker film" cycle (no pun intended) started 10 years
earlier with "The Wild Angels" starring Peter Fonda,
Nancy Sinatra and Bruce Dern.
One very important fact not mentioned by any of the other
commenter's, and confirmed by Mr. Dear, was the fact
that the music for this was scored by the great Michael
Nesmith. I am a fan of his time in the Monkees as well as
his great "solo" records released throughout the 1970's. If
you've heard Nez's work from this period, you will
certainly recognize his distinctive sound in the music here.
I believe most (but not all) of this music was recorded
especially for this film, and as such would be a treat to
hear for any Nesmith admirers.
How to describe his style? Cole Porter on the Prairie
could be one shorthand meme, but that does a disservice
to his elegant yet down home music. He combines
western cowboy songs, country-rock, blues, Caribbean
Pop and lilting, wistful melodies in a unique fashion. Some
of the musical themes are what you would expect in a
picture like this: some hammering blues-rock and some
country truckin' songs. One of the songs was sung by
Garland Frady. Nesmith released some LP's by him on his
Pacific Arts record label which he operated at that time."
World Wide Fan Comment < 2 >
"This Movie is an International Cult Classic!
When I first heard about it I mistakenly assumed from the
title that it had something to do with zombies or vampires
or something like that. Well it doesn't! There are monsters
to be sure but the kind we all run the risk of encountering;
the narrow minded bigot who hates anyone who differs
from his own view of what "normal" should be.
This movie deserves to be recognised for many reasons.
For one thing the 2 biker gangs in it (The Scorpions and
The Road Agents) are real gangs; for another the music
was written by Mike Nesmith. Yes, THAT Mike Nesmith,
the former Monkey; and for yet another it is one of the
most brutally honest independent movies to come out of
the 1970's putting those glossy, sugar coated versions of
biker life put out by American International to a well
deserved shame. (Sorry, Roger.) We are on the side of
the bikers from the opening scene when they surround an
elderly couple in a car with a flat tire. We are expecting
the worst but the bikers change the tire and ride on
without even waiting to be thanked!
This was filmed in 1976 so the Vietnam War was over and
the Hippie Era had crashed dismally but America was still
licking its wounded ego over the war they "lost" and
returning soldiers came home to a society that made them
pariahs. Many fought back against the only enemies they
had left, the societal dropouts who had dodged the draft
and had been living free and indulging every impulse from
mind expanding drugs to free love while they, the alleged
"good Americans", had been away fighting a hopeless
case.
Okay that was the editorial, now back to the review. A
redneck sheriff's deputy rapes a local girl who has
rejected his romantic advances and puts the blame on a
member of a biker gang that is passing through town. This
sets off a smalltown war and underscores the intolerance
and potential for violence that lurks beneath the shallow
veneer of the Norman Rockwellian style smalltown life.
The bikers fight back by arming themselves and soon it's
rednecks vs. bikers and bullets are flying by the hundreds.
The use of explosive squibs is used primarily for shock
value but this is the earliest movie I can recall (apart from
THE WILD BUNCH, that is) that used them quite so much.
Prior to this screen violence had been mostly bloodless
until Sam Peckinpah broke new ground with THE WILD
BUNCH which left audiences and exhibitors alike gasping.
There is a PATTON-inspired speech in front of a giant
American flag; there are shootings, knifings, beatings, one
exploding helicopter that is the worst special effect in the
movie (an obvious miniature) and a powerful ending that .
. .oops, almost gave it away. This is a hard movie to find
but it is well worth the search. Check it out and then don't
be shy about e-mailing me and telling me how you feel
about that ending! Trust me, you WILL be talking about it."
World Wide Fan Comment < 3 >
"The greatest biker movie ever made! In fact, it's the only
biker movie I like. Every other biker movie promises so
much and delivers so little. This film gets the job done.
Thank God at least one movie made the genre proud.
Every other movie of the blaxploitation genre just didn't
have the bite their bark promised. But The Northville
Cemetary Massacre pulled it off. Some great movies
were made in the 70's and 80's. Escape from New York,
The Thing, Road Warrior, Dawn of the Dead, Blues
Brothers & Northville Cemetery Massacre."
World Wide Fan Comment < 4 >
"I saw The Northville Cemetery Massacre along with
Satan's Sadists as part of the monthly Grindhouse dbl
feature in Hollywood at the New Beverly Cinema. The
director, William Dear, humbly introduced the film and
shared some amusing antidotes. Hopefully I am
remembering them correctly.
The title of the movie was supposed to be Freedom R.I.P.
As was the case with many genre films of the 70's,
distributors changed the title without informing the film
makers. The print that we saw had the title Wheels Of
Death.
The film which was only supposed to take a few weeks to
shoot actually wound up taking several years. They would
run out of funds and when they had more funds would
resume filming. This explains a few continuity issues.
Due to budget limitations, the blanks used in the guns
were for revolvers/rifles/ shotguns. No automatic
weapons. This explains why the arms dealer only gives
the bikers the firearms that he does. The biker firing a
fully automatic assault rifle is firing live rounds.
Nick Nolte does voice-over for one of the characters."
World Wide Fan Comment < 5 >
"Other writers have more than adequately described the
plot of this ultraviolent biker vs. redneck opus so I'll get
straight to the editorializing. Picture, if you will, a cross
between THE HUNTING PARTY and/or THE MOST
DANGEROUS GAME with Harleys thrown in, and you'll
get an idea of what we're dealing with here. The
proceedings are acted out by a number of players who
were one-hit wonders with this picture and that's a shame;
most of them are good enough that I'd like to see more of
them. There's occasional comedy such as a Patton
parody and the sight of bikers toking up in jail-you'd think
the cops would have searched them for dope but what do
I know?"
There's enough action throughout to keep this flick lively
but most of the mayhem is concentrated at the end and
it's here that the movie lives up to it's title. The long,
agonizing final gun battle is as frustrating as it is bloody;
most of the bikers couldn't hit the broad side of a barn,
even if they were inside the barn. I rented this many times
from a video store down the road, then bought it outright
when the store folded and sold its stock. Purchase your
copy today."
World Wide Fan Comment < 6 >
"This is one of those low-budget biker vs the cops
pictures that permeated the early seventies movie scene.
Unlike those other titles though this one features some of
the most violent scenes I've ever watched.
The story concerns a small town sheriff who savagely
rapes the daughter of one of the town's more respected
residents. He places the blame on a group of fun-loving
bikers just passing through. The sherrif and the father of
the girl go on a rampage, slaughtering every biker in sight.
The final stand-off between the sherrif and the father and
the remaining bikers inside the town's Northville Cemetery
is violent to the extreme. The bloodletting in this scene is
on par with the finale scene in The Wild Bunch. The
special effects are also amazing, especially for a film with
this low a budget.
What I appreciated most about this film is that in the final
shoot-out you'll notice that the two men trained in firearm
usage, the sherrif and the father, a big game hunter,
manage to hit everything they shoot at while the bikers, an
untrained bunch, miss everything. It's that kind of realism
that I like.
A mexican stand-off between the film's two main
characters is never concluded before the film fades to
black. We are left to wonder what happens next. I loved
that! Imagine if Leone chose not to show what happened
next when Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach had each
other all lined up in that threeway stand-off.
Northville Cemetery Massacre is a fun, violent movie that
is definitely not for the squeamish or for children."
Freedom: Ride In Peace
"I too was fortunate enough to view the screening of this
film the other night in Hollywood at the monthly
Grindhouse screening. Lots of hippies, bikers and
shootings in slo-mo with blood packs spurting a la
Peckinpah. Apparently this movie is quite a rare little
number. Shot in Detroit in 1974 and 75, released to
drive-ins in 1976, and as such I believe we can state
definitively that this film marks the very end of the classic
"biker film" cycle (no pun intended) started 10 years
earlier with "The Wild Angels" starring Peter Fonda,
Nancy Sinatra and Bruce Dern.
One very important fact not mentioned by any of the other
commenter's, and confirmed by Mr. Dear, was the fact
that the music for this was scored by the great Michael
Nesmith. I am a fan of his time in the Monkees as well as
his great "solo" records released throughout the 1970's. If
you've heard Nez's work from this period, you will
certainly recognize his distinctive sound in the music here.
I believe most (but not all) of this music was recorded
especially for this film, and as such would be a treat to
hear for any Nesmith admirers.
How to describe his style? Cole Porter on the Prairie
could be one shorthand meme, but that does a disservice
to his elegant yet down home music. He combines
western cowboy songs, country-rock, blues, Caribbean
Pop and lilting, wistful melodies in a unique fashion. Some
of the musical themes are what you would expect in a
picture like this: some hammering blues-rock and some
country truckin' songs. One of the songs was sung by
Garland Frady. Nesmith released some LP's by him on his
Pacific Arts record label which he operated at that time."
World Wide Fan Comment < 2 >
"This Movie is an International Cult Classic!
When I first heard about it I mistakenly assumed from the
title that it had something to do with zombies or vampires
or something like that. Well it doesn't! There are monsters
to be sure but the kind we all run the risk of encountering;
the narrow minded bigot who hates anyone who differs
from his own view of what "normal" should be.
This movie deserves to be recognised for many reasons.
For one thing the 2 biker gangs in it (The Scorpions and
The Road Agents) are real gangs; for another the music
was written by Mike Nesmith. Yes, THAT Mike Nesmith,
the former Monkey; and for yet another it is one of the
most brutally honest independent movies to come out of
the 1970's putting those glossy, sugar coated versions of
biker life put out by American International to a well
deserved shame. (Sorry, Roger.) We are on the side of
the bikers from the opening scene when they surround an
elderly couple in a car with a flat tire. We are expecting
the worst but the bikers change the tire and ride on
without even waiting to be thanked!
This was filmed in 1976 so the Vietnam War was over and
the Hippie Era had crashed dismally but America was still
licking its wounded ego over the war they "lost" and
returning soldiers came home to a society that made them
pariahs. Many fought back against the only enemies they
had left, the societal dropouts who had dodged the draft
and had been living free and indulging every impulse from
mind expanding drugs to free love while they, the alleged
"good Americans", had been away fighting a hopeless
case.
Okay that was the editorial, now back to the review. A
redneck sheriff's deputy rapes a local girl who has
rejected his romantic advances and puts the blame on a
member of a biker gang that is passing through town. This
sets off a smalltown war and underscores the intolerance
and potential for violence that lurks beneath the shallow
veneer of the Norman Rockwellian style smalltown life.
The bikers fight back by arming themselves and soon it's
rednecks vs. bikers and bullets are flying by the hundreds.
The use of explosive squibs is used primarily for shock
value but this is the earliest movie I can recall (apart from
THE WILD BUNCH, that is) that used them quite so much.
Prior to this screen violence had been mostly bloodless
until Sam Peckinpah broke new ground with THE WILD
BUNCH which left audiences and exhibitors alike gasping.
There is a PATTON-inspired speech in front of a giant
American flag; there are shootings, knifings, beatings, one
exploding helicopter that is the worst special effect in the
movie (an obvious miniature) and a powerful ending that .
. .oops, almost gave it away. This is a hard movie to find
but it is well worth the search. Check it out and then don't
be shy about e-mailing me and telling me how you feel
about that ending! Trust me, you WILL be talking about it."
World Wide Fan Comment < 3 >
"The greatest biker movie ever made! In fact, it's the only
biker movie I like. Every other biker movie promises so
much and delivers so little. This film gets the job done.
Thank God at least one movie made the genre proud.
Every other movie of the blaxploitation genre just didn't
have the bite their bark promised. But The Northville
Cemetary Massacre pulled it off. Some great movies
were made in the 70's and 80's. Escape from New York,
The Thing, Road Warrior, Dawn of the Dead, Blues
Brothers & Northville Cemetery Massacre."
World Wide Fan Comment < 4 >
"I saw The Northville Cemetery Massacre along with
Satan's Sadists as part of the monthly Grindhouse dbl
feature in Hollywood at the New Beverly Cinema. The
director, William Dear, humbly introduced the film and
shared some amusing antidotes. Hopefully I am
remembering them correctly.
The title of the movie was supposed to be Freedom R.I.P.
As was the case with many genre films of the 70's,
distributors changed the title without informing the film
makers. The print that we saw had the title Wheels Of
Death.
The film which was only supposed to take a few weeks to
shoot actually wound up taking several years. They would
run out of funds and when they had more funds would
resume filming. This explains a few continuity issues.
Due to budget limitations, the blanks used in the guns
were for revolvers/rifles/ shotguns. No automatic
weapons. This explains why the arms dealer only gives
the bikers the firearms that he does. The biker firing a
fully automatic assault rifle is firing live rounds.
Nick Nolte does voice-over for one of the characters."
World Wide Fan Comment < 5 >
"Other writers have more than adequately described the
plot of this ultraviolent biker vs. redneck opus so I'll get
straight to the editorializing. Picture, if you will, a cross
between THE HUNTING PARTY and/or THE MOST
DANGEROUS GAME with Harleys thrown in, and you'll
get an idea of what we're dealing with here. The
proceedings are acted out by a number of players who
were one-hit wonders with this picture and that's a shame;
most of them are good enough that I'd like to see more of
them. There's occasional comedy such as a Patton
parody and the sight of bikers toking up in jail-you'd think
the cops would have searched them for dope but what do
I know?"
There's enough action throughout to keep this flick lively
but most of the mayhem is concentrated at the end and
it's here that the movie lives up to it's title. The long,
agonizing final gun battle is as frustrating as it is bloody;
most of the bikers couldn't hit the broad side of a barn,
even if they were inside the barn. I rented this many times
from a video store down the road, then bought it outright
when the store folded and sold its stock. Purchase your
copy today."
World Wide Fan Comment < 6 >
"This is one of those low-budget biker vs the cops
pictures that permeated the early seventies movie scene.
Unlike those other titles though this one features some of
the most violent scenes I've ever watched.
The story concerns a small town sheriff who savagely
rapes the daughter of one of the town's more respected
residents. He places the blame on a group of fun-loving
bikers just passing through. The sherrif and the father of
the girl go on a rampage, slaughtering every biker in sight.
The final stand-off between the sherrif and the father and
the remaining bikers inside the town's Northville Cemetery
is violent to the extreme. The bloodletting in this scene is
on par with the finale scene in The Wild Bunch. The
special effects are also amazing, especially for a film with
this low a budget.
What I appreciated most about this film is that in the final
shoot-out you'll notice that the two men trained in firearm
usage, the sherrif and the father, a big game hunter,
manage to hit everything they shoot at while the bikers, an
untrained bunch, miss everything. It's that kind of realism
that I like.
A mexican stand-off between the film's two main
characters is never concluded before the film fades to
black. We are left to wonder what happens next. I loved
that! Imagine if Leone chose not to show what happened
next when Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach had each
other all lined up in that threeway stand-off.
Northville Cemetery Massacre is a fun, violent movie that
is definitely not for the squeamish or for children."
Freedom: Ride In Peace
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
© 1974 Freedom: R.I.P. Renewed 2006 Freedom: R.I.P., All Rights Reserved.
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