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Nam's Angels **/**** Image A Sound A Extras B starring William Smith, Bernie Hamilton, Adam Roarke, Houston Savage screenplay by Alan Caillou directed by Jack Starrett
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Figuring out the ideology of an exploitation movie is a tricky proposition. The libertarian leanings of a form generally concerned with sex, violence, and loose living lend themselves to right and left interpretations, often within the same movie. Consider The Losers: in one corner, it's a biker exploitation number given to sticking it to the man and getting it on in mass quantities, but in the other, it's one of the few pre-Rambo movies to be unambiguously positive about the Vietnam war. This cross-genre mélange basically charts the right-left mix of biker gangs themselves, which could ally themselves with the counterculture or claim themselves to be the real free Americans in the same breath. Pity, then, that they have to do their free living at the expense of "slopes" and "slants"–evidence that freedom is a one-way street.
After a ludicrous opening in which the Viet Cong open fire on what I think is supposed to be a Buddhist temple (as played by a Filipino gazebo), we're treated to a caravan of trucks taking heavy fire only to reach their destination and reveal the Devil's Advocate motorcycle gang. Headed up by Link Thomas ("screen legend" William Smith), they're supposed to lead an assault on a Red Chinese encampment in Cambodia, where a CIA operative is being held captive. That the scourge of all straight America would willingly work for the military is a little hard to buy, but the film compensates by making them as dissipated as possible. No sooner than they're set loose to modify some Yamaha bikes are they hitting the whorehouses and getting into fights.
As the boys are too erratic to be taken seriously as soldiers, the movie doesn't even try: it's racist and egalitarian as the mood suits it. The locals are treacherous and obsequious in equal measure, though they're hardly "locals" at that. Barmaid Mama-san (Paraluman) is in fact a whitey with heavy eye makeup and a black wig. So, too, is the Buffy Ste.-Marie look-alike hired to play the woman of one of the boys, but she's a fragile lotus blossom with a black baby sired by an American–specifically, Capt. Jackson (Bernie Hamilton), the CO overseeing this little adventure. But issues of American responsibility vanish once Duke (Adam Roarke) rekindles a love affair with another Vietnamese woman, despite having disappeared much earlier in the conflict. You know they're the real relationship of the movie when accompanied by one of those horrible '60s "youth" songs, i.e. "Life has so much to offer to the young/But when love can't be for everyone…"
The meaning of the biker/soldier confluence hits its crucial point after the big attack scene. Our heroes are taken captive only to be chided by some communist Super Mario Brother and informed that the CIA man is a turncoat. As they stew in a Tiki bar of a prison, the Benedict Arnold spook informs them they won't be missed–newspapers will thrill to the information that five bikers bought it in 'Nam. The forgotten Vietnam soldier–drowned out by the protest movement's catcalls–becomes the rider of the American freedom machine, and both man and machine are spurned by their country, made to take the fall alone. One can imagine John Wayne taking this script to mainstream Hollywood–it's just as ridiculous as The Green Berets, but it has way more action and cuts closer to the archetypal bone. In this context, the drive-in seems the right place for the forgotten veteran of conservative legend.
THE DVD Dark Sky's DVD release of The Losers is fantastic–far better than the movie deserves. The 1.85:1, 16×9-enhanced image is full and lustrous, with excellent saturation and deep, vibrant colour. Detail is excellent, and the presentation as a whole belies its forgotten-for-decades status. The Dolby 2.0 mono soundtrack is also superb, razor-sharp and without defect. Extras include a commentary featuring cast members Smith and Paul Koslo and a Dark Sky representative who mumbles his name; they are alarmingly credulous of the whole enterprise, noting the "attention to detail" of a film that betrays its inauthentic locations at every turn. An intense amount of recall is surprisingly at hand; much attention is lavished on the kindness of the Philippine locals, one of whom is said to have enjoyed being called "pencil-neck geek" in the film. Ick. Rounding things out are a photo gallery, two radio spots, and trailers for this film and Werewolves on Wheels.
95 minutes; NR; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; DVD-9; Region-free; Dark Sky
