Motorpsycho (4½ Stars)

Look at this photo of the Blu-Ray cover. It's not a DVD, and it's not even a standard Blu-Ray. It's a 4K Blu-Ray. It's taken us a long time to get this far. Sixty years, to be precise. I found out a week ago that five Russ Meyer films have recently been released on 4K discs. I couldn't contain myself, I ordered them all immediately, and they arrived today. I'm hoping that all his other films will follow in quick succession. We'll have to wait and see.

The film brings back memories. The first Russ Meyer film that I saw was "Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens", probably in late 1979. I was reading the Stuttgarter Zeitung at work, and there was a big article about it being a masterpiece. I went to see it in the Gloria cinema the same day. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. After that I saw "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill" at a small cinema opposite the Stuttgart Central Train Station. I believe it was called Ambo. It was a cinema that specialised in showing old films, usually only showing them for a single day, not a whole week. "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill" was often shown, about once a month, and I tried to see it as often as possible.

Over the years I managed to see some of Russ Meyer's films in various cinemas, but I didn't manage to see all of them until 2005, when the complete Bosomania collection was released on DVD, 18 films on 12 DVDs. At the time I didn't have many DVDs, so I watched the films over and over again. I hadn't seen "Motorpsycho" before, so it was an experience for me. As I remember, I didn't like it much and didn't watch it as often as the other films.

Watching it today, I was amazed. I tried to figure out why I didn't like it so much in the past. Maybe because of the violence against women? Maybe because so much of the action is random? There's a lot of violence against women in Russ Meyer's films, but usually the women are able to defend themselves or at least get revenge. In "Motorpsycho" it's a man who stands up to protect the women. As for the random action, it's more like real life. Things happen that aren't necessary for a plot, they just happen.

I think it also bothered me that the three tough guys drive wimpy little motorbikes. I should accept it. They're tough guys who act like bullies and are knocked down when someone stands up to them. Just like real life.

"Motorpsycho" is a very realistic film. It's not one of Russ Meyer's best films, but it's definitely worth watching.

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