Cheap Zachariah (Video) (George Englund) Price

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Cult Dud may have Bad film or nostalgia type value
Zachariah is a cult,college circuit,head movie designed to appeal to pot-smoking. meaning of life seeking, Herman Hesse reading neo-hippies circa 1970. It was billed as the first Electic Western. On DVD it's called the First and Only Electric Western. There's a reason for this....

Zachariah is pretty tame stuff. Too tame. It's rated PG and has a couple of shots of nudity, some drug use and mild display of violence but it's not a very innovative work. There's a little satiric homage to 2001 in the beginning of the film (where an amplifier is photographed like the 2001 monolith)but don't get your hopes up for too many moments like this--they aren't here. The Firesign theater did contribute to the script but a few good ideas and scenes (like Dick Van Patten's Horse salesman cameo) aren't enough. The use of rock music in a period piece wasn't a first, but it was almost a new idea. There's some hard rock, folk rock, country rock, classical rock, and some old fashioned fiddling too. It's pretty good but not particularly memorable.

You might enjoy it as a piece of nostalgia, or you might enjoy it as an entertaining so bad it's kinda' good movie. But for a real trippy 'head' movie track down a copy of 'El Topo' instead. Don Johnson who looks like he's 15 (He was 21 or 22) has a major but not starring role in the film. Johnson was in a lot of quirky films from The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970) to Zachariah (1971) to the Harrad Experiment (1973) to the notable A Boy and His Dog (1975) before hitting the big time with Miami Vice in the early 1980's.

Zachariah is a farmer (John Rubinstein) who dreams of being a wild-west gunfighter. After getting his gun via mail-order, he teams up with his old friend the blacksmith, Mathew (Don Johnson) to seek their fortunes.

Psychologicaly the film is a hoot. The gun of course being symbolic of one's manhood and the friendship between Mathew and Zachariah being thinly disguised homo-eroticism at it's clumsiest. There's a montage where they share the joys of gun slinging that is high camp classic (as is the films finale'). They team up and pursue The Crackers, a well known gang of outlaws who also happen to be a rock and roll band. The Crackers are played by the once well known Country Joe and the Fish (the band's claim to fame was the "F" cheer at Woodstock and the I'm Fixin' to Die Rag anti Vietnam anthem).

The Crackers play at a local bar and one of the patrons hates their music and picks a fight with Zachariah. It's the squares versus the hippies set in the old West. This leads to a gunfight. Zachariah wins and decides he's a tough gunfighter. They join the Crackers. The Crackers however aren't very good outlaws. In a forced montage set to a rocked up William Tell Overture, The Crackers are seen being incompetent outlaws, failing to rob a stage coach, and then ambushing a Pony Express rider stripping him of his mail and his clothes.

Zachariah and Mathew come up with a plan and they pull off a bank robbery. Zachariah needs more out of life though. He's sure he has a destiny, though he doesn't know what it is. Shades of Herman Hesse's Sidhartha. The search for one's true self is on. In this case Zachariah wants to learn how to be a great gunfighter from one of the most notorious gunfighters in the West... a man named Job Cain. We know Cain is good because there's a $50,000 bounty on his head.

The names are downright biblical aren't they?

Job Cain turns out to be Elvin Jones who hangs out with the James Gang. He does an impressive and long drum solo after winning a gunfight.... The James Gang dress in cooler leather outfits and have lots of good looking woman groupies hanging around. However, even after Zachariah proves himself worthy to Job Cain's challenge he's not fulfilled. He and his friend Mathew go their separate ways. Mathew stays to become part of the gang.

Zachariah spends some time with an old man in the middle of nowhere, and then goes to a strange border town to meet some ladies. The town is interesting, but the film gets really silly during this sequence and Pat Quinn does a very bad imitation of Mae West as Belle Star, Queen of the Whores. Zacharia is coiffed and decked out like a countrified Siegried and Roy with a big white cowboy hat complete with a large feather. If you ever wondered what Liberace as a cowboy would look like the answer can be found right here. He then woos Belle Star and decides of course that she is not what he is looking for in life either.

This all leads to... well I don't to spoil the film. . . let's just say if you like high camp you'll have a great time at the end of this film.

If you can laugh AT the film, you'll have a pretty good time with it. If you can't, the film's charms (assuming you found a few in the film) evaporate completely after the first 45 minutes.

It's an odd hybrid of a film which boils down to a story of two friends searching for themselves and discovering friendships are perhaps most important of all. It's cornball stuff. The film has more unintentional laughs than earned ones. It never quite clicks as an exploitation type film ala' Roger Corman's Psyche Out or The Trip, nor is it a Cheech and Chong Out West type of thing. It's also not as fun, manic or funny as Blazing Saddles is either. They almost do a funny campfire scene though.

The DVD is a bare-bones no extra affair. The film looks and sounds okay, but there are enough instances of grain, edge enhancement, etc to warn the pickier among you of the problems.(. . .)

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31 Years Later - Still a Great Movie!
I saw this movie when it was first released in the theatre (1970). Being a fan of Country Joe and the Fish and James Gang got me to the movie originally. The movie itself made me never forget it. When I saw it was on DVD, I had to get it, and I'm glad I did. All the unlikely scenes (electric guitars, drum solos, etc.) fit right into the story and never seem out of place. Watching Zachariah again was more than nostalgia, and I felt good afterwards. Highly recommended!

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"For Novelty Use Only"
Still dont remember why I bought this DVD, or why it sat for 4 years before watching it. Anyway, this movie is a real hoot. From Don Johnson's premiere as an 18 yr old Prom Queen lookalike with a sidearm to Country Joe's surreal insertion into an old west shoot-em-up saloon. The whole thing is just twisted as hell, and semi-fun.

A recommended rental with a 6 pack. 3 tokes.