Rebel Rousers . Austin Chronicle . 11-30-98

Rebel Rousers

DIRECTED BY: Martin B. Cohen

REVIEWED: 11-30-98

The Rebel Rousers ride into town on their Harleys and do a Wild Ones scene in the local bar, in a miserably poor town in the desert; eventually the sheriff comes and runs 'em all off. Cameron Mitchell chose that precise time to come into town to try to patch things up with his estranged wife Diane Ladd, before going off to star in innumerable Italian features. Ladd is pregnant with their child (actually, she was probably pregnant with Laura Dern at the time), and that fact leads to much overwrought dialogue and hand-wringing. Mitchell, as it turns out, is an old high school buddy with Bruce Dern from the scoot gang, but they've long since gone their separate ways. Though the town seems to be in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the beach is only a few miles away, so when John Law breaks up their fun, the boys buy a few cases of Pabst and head for the beach for some more hijinks. Mitchell and Dern go to the beach to talk things out, but unfortunately their timing is off, since the scoot boys staked out that piece of property earlier. They force the couple to party with them, but when Mitchell wants to leave, they use him for a punching bag. Dern is the leader of the gang and the only one with a conscience, but unfortunately he has a rubber spine to go along with it; he declares a series of drag races will be held, with the winner getting Diane Ladd for the night. Meanwhile, Mitchell drags himself back to the car, makes it back to town, and rounds up some help in the form of a Mexican family to go look for his wife. There's a fight between Dern and rival Nicholson, and a non-fight between the posse and the bikers, and everyone goes home happy except Nicholson. It's a big goddamn anticlimax, in other words. The most notable thing about this biker soap opera is the fact that it sounds like at least half of the dialogue was ad-libbed on the spot. Nicholson and Dern are as good as always (though Diane Ladd looks better than Laura Dern ever has) and Harry Dean Stanton plays a sort of comic relief biker who wears a suit all the time. You could easily live without seeing Rebel Rousers but hey, can you live without seeing those striped pants on Jack Nicholson?

--Jerry Renshaw

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