WARNING - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A NUMBER OF SPOILERS which may save you the awful experience of suffering thru the movie itself!
When I was 12years old, I saw this flick and thought it was pretty cool - mainly because of the motorcycle theme. I sat thru it again years later and realized what an absolute farce it is! The story is so badly flawed on so many levels it is ridiculous. I can't imagine someone with an objective outlook feeling sympathetic to the lead character, Andy Crocker - because he is clearly a moron who cannot make one intelligent decision. Ever. Okay, so he had a rough time in Viet Nam, but he came back home to learn that the rest of the world had gone on just fine without him. His lame "motorcycle shop" (an empty room with a few automotive v-belts hanging on the wall) has supposedly gone right down the tubes and his partner also had the nerve to sell the hoist (something which NO bike shop needs)... his girlfriend is married and pregnant, and nobody around him is interested in overhauling the Present to bring back Andy's longed-for (and long-gone) Past. Apparently, you are expected to consider this brainless dreamer to be the "hero" of the story - in spite of the fact that he steals a motorcycle, beats up his best friend, runs off for a secret fling with his (now married) ex-girlfriend and then tells his father that he wasted his entire life by being a truck driver. Again and again Andy is offered gainful employment - as well as three thousand dollars (a LOT of money in 1969) for his half of the nonexistent bike business - three thousand more to simply leave his old girlfriend alone... but, no - this fool can't see the logic in any of that! He would rather ignore all of the offers, go visit the girl again, have a warrant posted for his arrest - get in a big chase with the cops, throw the stolen bike off a cliff... and ultimately re-enlist in the army. Yeah, I felt sorry for the guy, all right. Sorry that he was such an incredible blockhead from one end of that film to the other!!!
When I was 12years old, I saw this flick and thought it was pretty cool - mainly because of the motorcycle theme. I sat thru it again years later and realized what an absolute farce it is! The story is so badly flawed on so many levels it is ridiculous. I can't imagine someone with an objective outlook feeling sympathetic to the lead character, Andy Crocker - because he is clearly a moron who cannot make one intelligent decision. Ever. Okay, so he had a rough time in Viet Nam, but he came back home to learn that the rest of the world had gone on just fine without him. His lame "motorcycle shop" (an empty room with a few automotive v-belts hanging on the wall) has supposedly gone right down the tubes and his partner also had the nerve to sell the hoist (something which NO bike shop needs)... his girlfriend is married and pregnant, and nobody around him is interested in overhauling the Present to bring back Andy's longed-for (and long-gone) Past. Apparently, you are expected to consider this brainless dreamer to be the "hero" of the story - in spite of the fact that he steals a motorcycle, beats up his best friend, runs off for a secret fling with his (now married) ex-girlfriend and then tells his father that he wasted his entire life by being a truck driver. Again and again Andy is offered gainful employment - as well as three thousand dollars (a LOT of money in 1969) for his half of the nonexistent bike business - three thousand more to simply leave his old girlfriend alone... but, no - this fool can't see the logic in any of that! He would rather ignore all of the offers, go visit the girl again, have a warrant posted for his arrest - get in a big chase with the cops, throw the stolen bike off a cliff... and ultimately re-enlist in the army. Yeah, I felt sorry for the guy, all right. Sorry that he was such an incredible blockhead from one end of that film to the other!!!