I've seen this film raved about but it didn't really do it for me. It has a certain ambience about it, that's for sure, and the setting of a sun-drenched liberal America in 1970 is a good one. But the story is only fitfully engaging and there's a whole lot of running time that feels either padded or repetitive with characters yakking away and not really doing much. Kristofferson, oddly beardless, fails to impress much in his first leading role and Hackman's villain fails to make an impact. Karen Black has nothing more than a token love interest role and it's left to minor players like Harry Dean Stanton to impress. The only parts I really liked were when they played the same Sonny Terry music as in Herzog's STROSZEK.
Review of Cisco Pike
