There is an old myth about the country girl who finds a poisonous snake freezing in the snow. She picks him up and brings him home, nursing him back to health, at which point he bites her on the cheek. As she lays there dying she asks, "Why have you done this to me?"
He answers while slithering off, "Look, bitch, you knew I was a snake."
"The Spikes Gang" begins with three teenage boys finding outlaw Lee Marvin (Spikes) wounded and dying on the ground, and they hide him in the back of the barn where they can nurse him back to health. Instead of killing them, he thanks them kindly and departs- but maybe his poison seed has been planted because soon the boys abandon their home and set off on the road and an eventual life of crime.
That's the story, and much of it works, but just as much fails. There is a pervading heavy-handed morality lesson at work here, and it takes the joy out of what could have been a great film. The three boys- desperate, penniless, and starving for food- finally decide to rob a bank. Not only does the sheriff walk in during the robbery, they accidentally kill a state senator passing by and lose ALL THE MONEY during the escape. In the next scene they're penniless again begging for food.
Hold the phone, but isn't movie crime supposed to be FUN? Aren't we as the audience supposed to get SOME vicarious thrill from these adrenaline-fueled exploits? The day after the botched robbery the boys wallow in guilt and regret... they've KILLED! They've STOLEN! God is no longer smiling at them! They do everything but turn themselves in, surprising since they actually discuss the possibility.
Eventually they catch up with Spikes who becomes their surrogate "evil" father-figure (is he what happens if you accept Satan as your lord and master?) Spikes liberates the trio from their feeble attempts at straight jobs and gives them a proper makeover so they can join his gang. We get a montage/training sequence of Marvin buying them new clothes, fancy meals and teaching them to shoot. Is THIS sequence any fun? Naw, we know the boys are Hellbound and therefore incapable of joy.
The joy comes from Lee Marvin. He is pitch-perfect in a role that could have easily been hokey or over-the-top. Marvin plays Spikes as a human being, the product of his environment. He slips seamlessly between malicious mentor and cold-blooded killer... he is as he says, "just a man trying to survive."
(As a side note I must nominate this film for "Worst Blood In A Motion Picture" category. It appears as thick, gloppy paint so bright it might burn your retinas. One character uses his hand to clot a wound but looks more like he's squeezing a tomato through his fingers.)
By the time the film comes to its' drawn-out finale (the movie's at least twenty minutes too long) I had given up hope for a happy ending, given up hope for a satisfying ending... we got the message early on that crime doesn't pay and we're just waiting for the period. Guilt-ridden, morally tortured, spiritually defeated cowboys rarely appear in good Westerns.
There's a reason.
GRADE: C+
He answers while slithering off, "Look, bitch, you knew I was a snake."
"The Spikes Gang" begins with three teenage boys finding outlaw Lee Marvin (Spikes) wounded and dying on the ground, and they hide him in the back of the barn where they can nurse him back to health. Instead of killing them, he thanks them kindly and departs- but maybe his poison seed has been planted because soon the boys abandon their home and set off on the road and an eventual life of crime.
That's the story, and much of it works, but just as much fails. There is a pervading heavy-handed morality lesson at work here, and it takes the joy out of what could have been a great film. The three boys- desperate, penniless, and starving for food- finally decide to rob a bank. Not only does the sheriff walk in during the robbery, they accidentally kill a state senator passing by and lose ALL THE MONEY during the escape. In the next scene they're penniless again begging for food.
Hold the phone, but isn't movie crime supposed to be FUN? Aren't we as the audience supposed to get SOME vicarious thrill from these adrenaline-fueled exploits? The day after the botched robbery the boys wallow in guilt and regret... they've KILLED! They've STOLEN! God is no longer smiling at them! They do everything but turn themselves in, surprising since they actually discuss the possibility.
Eventually they catch up with Spikes who becomes their surrogate "evil" father-figure (is he what happens if you accept Satan as your lord and master?) Spikes liberates the trio from their feeble attempts at straight jobs and gives them a proper makeover so they can join his gang. We get a montage/training sequence of Marvin buying them new clothes, fancy meals and teaching them to shoot. Is THIS sequence any fun? Naw, we know the boys are Hellbound and therefore incapable of joy.
The joy comes from Lee Marvin. He is pitch-perfect in a role that could have easily been hokey or over-the-top. Marvin plays Spikes as a human being, the product of his environment. He slips seamlessly between malicious mentor and cold-blooded killer... he is as he says, "just a man trying to survive."
(As a side note I must nominate this film for "Worst Blood In A Motion Picture" category. It appears as thick, gloppy paint so bright it might burn your retinas. One character uses his hand to clot a wound but looks more like he's squeezing a tomato through his fingers.)
By the time the film comes to its' drawn-out finale (the movie's at least twenty minutes too long) I had given up hope for a happy ending, given up hope for a satisfying ending... we got the message early on that crime doesn't pay and we're just waiting for the period. Guilt-ridden, morally tortured, spiritually defeated cowboys rarely appear in good Westerns.
There's a reason.
GRADE: C+