Trucking back to his Arkansas hometown with his young son in tow, Peter Fonda soon finds the pastoral idyll of
the ranching community mauled by good ol' boy corruption and big business landgrabbers. When the usual corporate goons
bump off his troublemaking bro, he trades in his Easy Rider placidity for Billy Jack stripes. Whoopass time. The
final entry in Jonathan Demme's pre-Handle with Care exploitation troika, this Corman-produced revenge drama isn't
nearly as rich or as much fun as his other quickies, Caged Heat and Crazy Mama. Stuck with Fonda's scarecrow
avenger, the movie can't channel the bloody single-mindedness that gives Walking Tall or Rolling Thunder their
dubious effectiveness. Then again, a successful gorge-riser would mean chilling Demme's essentially populist warmth --
soaking in a genre guided by grinding brutality, the director's eye gravitates to human detailing, hanging out in a honky
tonk dive or doting over an old farmer reading to his little grandson. (His Silence of the Lambs pedigree notwithstanding,
Demme has always delved into violence dragging his feet.) Also with John Doucette, Philip Carey, Lynn Lowry, Harry
Northup, and Scott Glenn.
--- Fernando F. Croce
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