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Electra Glide in Blue is a 1973 film starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona and Billy Green Bush as his partner. The movie was filmed in Monument Valley, and was produced and directed by James William Guercio (who is best known as the producer of Chicago's first eleven albums). The film was loathed by critics when first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, but garnered a great deal of critical acclaim upon its nationwide release. Overall, it saw only limited commercial success. Several members of Chicago appear in minor roles, including Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Lee Loughnane, and Walter Parazaider, as well as David "Hawk" Wolinski from the Guercio-produced band Madura. Chicago also appears on the movie soundtrack.
Plot summarySpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
At first his supervisors ignore his request for a transfer; however, he is informed of an apparent suicide by Crazy Willie (Elisha Cook, Jr.). Wintergreen believes the case is not a suicide, but is instead a murder; after a confrontation with the local coroner, he meets Detective Harve Poole (Mitchell Ryan), who admires Wintergreen's savvy, and arranges for Wintergreen to be transferred to homicide to help with the case. Wintergreen's initial joy at being promoted is short-lived, as his relationship with his fellow officers deteriorates. Wintergreen begins increasingly to identify with the hippies whom the other officers are endlessly harassing; in one scene he watches as Harve brutally interrogates the same hippies who had cheerfully lied to Wintergreen about not knowing a suspect by the name of Bob Zemko (Peter Cetera). Workplace politics also cause him to be quickly demoted back to traffic enforcement; the final straw comes when Harve discovers that Wintergreen has been sleeping with Jolene (Jeannine Riley), Harve's girlfriend and waitress at the local bar. Harve is emasculated by Jolene in front of Wintergreen, his subordinate, when Jolene mocks Harve's sexual prowess (implying that Harve is impotent) and brags that Wintergreen can "go three times in one morning".
Wintergreen then discovers another terrible fact: Zipper's dream was to own his own motorcycle, and had stolen the dead man's drug money (initially blamed on Zemko) to pay for it. Zipper is intoxicated and begins firing his gun at Wintergreen, and actually kills a random passer-by. Horrified, Wintergreen shoots Zipper in self-defense, and Zipper dies in his arms. Shortly afterwards, Wintergreen loses his own life in an ending reminiscent of the end of Easy Rider. On the road again, he encounters the van of the hippie that he and Zipper had interrogated earlier in the film; the hippie is now accompanied in the van by a friend. Wintergreen pulls the van over when he notices that it is without a front bumper, but when he recognizes the driver and remembers the trouble he and Zipper caused him, Wintergreen pardons the hippies and sends them on their way. Almost immediately after the van drives off, Wintergreen discovers that he is still holding the driver's license, and rides after them in an attempt to return it. However, the hippies interpret it as an arrest attempt (they are apparently carrying drugs in the van), and before Wintergreen is able to return the driver's license, the accompanying hippie leans out the van's back window and shoots Wintergreen with a shotgun. The hippies make their escape, and Wintergreen dies on the desert road, his motorcycle lying some meters ahead of him. Spoilers end here.
Recent AcclaimThe film has appeared on Turner Classic Movies as part of the TCM Underground program hosted by Rob Zombie, who hails the film as a masterpiece. The British Film4 channel also included the film in their series of cult classics. TriviaA promotional photograph of the film hangs on the wall of the captain's office on the police drama Hill Street Blues. See also
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