headhunter46 I watched this movie tonight and toward the end I realized I had seen it years ago when I was much younger. I must confess, I didn't realize how good it was back then. There were parts of the movie that were downers, I guess I was looking for a feel good flick years ago.Our main character played by Robert Blake is a straight by-the-rules cop. He has a partner that does not play fair and I suppose that was part of the turn off at the first viewing. Our hero has to deal with all kinds of set backs and surprises, dealing with other police who seem to be too focused on the "job" and less focused on right vs. wrong.There were good, convincing performances all around. Never did I get the feeling they were "acting".There is mystery, surprises, and some incredible scenery of the wild, open Arizona spaces. Even after a second viewing I'm still not certain what the message of the movie was although I did give it a nine rating. Are the majority of cops bad? Are most hippies good? Are most hippies bad? Does the desert make you crazy? I suspect the movie will leave you with similar questions. I don't think it strives to answer any in the first place. I get the impression it simply throws issues at the viewer and leaves you to fill in the blanks.This movie will NOT spoon feed you a clear cut plot, but it will make you think.

tomquick What a quirky thing this film is, and mostly in an irritating way. Best parts first. The scenery and filming are excellent, especially the hypnotic ending with mesas receding in the background. Robert Blake is as endearing and eager here as he was playing Little Beaver in the Red Ryder films. His extended monologues are often great, and point towards his role in Baretta. But there's no sensible dialog, and the supporting cast - barfly, mentally disturbed desert wanderer, and police detective - aren't as good as Blake with their monologues. They chew a lot of scenery and are painful to watch. The whole thing gives off a whiff of Chicago, with the Guercio score and and even band members Cetera and Kath in the cast. When the film was made in 1973 Chicago was rapidly becoming a pop hit machine. Their energetic performances from the late 60's were receding from memory as fast as the hippies/communes/psychedelia shown in the film. Easy Rider was made in the 60's and captures the feel. Compared to it Electraglide in Blue seems like a wannabe that arrived 5 years too late.

BaronBl00d This film is of interest for a variety of reasons: its surreal feeling through the Arizona desert, its ambiguous story, its thematic threads of honesty, integrity, and corruption amongst the police, its humanizing lust for meaning in an otherwise meaningless world, OKAY, it is getting deep but this film COULD be said to meander in all those areas. Does that make it a good movie? No, not necessarily. Nor is it a bad movie. It is certainly an interesting movie. Robert Blake plays Officer Wintergreen - a short, dedicated motorcycle cop out to become detective. He works with his partner Zipper who is happy just to have a job and get paid and have little work to do. Here the film explores goals and what life is like with and without them. We get more of this through other characters' eyes: Harv the eagle detective Wintergreen initially impresses but later is stripped of all manhood in front of him by a wildly over-acting Jeannine Riley. Riley's Jolene sees life as despair basically loveless and pimped out to Harve I think. We get some hippie characters caught up in life anarchy in communal life and a trucker and Wintergreen himself having just returned from Vietnam. The film has a lot going on in subtext - perhaps too much. I still am not sure what the film is trying to achieve. Is it a mystery of an old man being shot through the chest that may or may not have had some money? Is it a battle of integrity in Wintergreen(played rather decently by Robert Blake) versus corruption as in Zipper's character or Harve's police brutality. Is it meaning versus nihilism with the whacked out ending that leaves one scratching one's head. I honestly don't know. I do know that film will make you think, is evocatively filmed, and generally well-acted. Robert Blake is good - perhaps one of his best roles. The supporting characters are interesting with character stalwarts Royal Dano(great as a coroner in a brief sequence) and Elisha Cook faring well. And what about Jeannine Riley? Sure she overacts, but she is still beautiful. You might remember her as Billie Jo from the first few seasons of Petticoat Junction. Well, it's ten years later - but Jeannine is still sexy and still fills out a sweater wonderfully. Electra Glide in Blue is a strange film by a one-time director. It is definitely worth a look. Then you can figure out what you think everything means.

mickeeteeze I first saw this film, either with my Dad, or possibly at a local theater with my brother while Mom shopped nearby. The reason I remember it, quite frankly, is the magnificent cinematography described by almost every previous poster. Absolutely stunning, words really won't describe.If anyone chooses to view this flick after reading through some reviews here, be sure to watch it on a big screen, full wide. I didn't like this film when I was a kid, but I did like Blakes character. I tried watching it again about 10 years ago, and, for whatever reason, I found some of the disjointed scenes distracting. I didn't really care for the somewhat surreal scenes featuring Elisha Cook, the waitress, or the Zipper character at his mobile home. I also still believe the Bob Zemko character could have benefited with a real actor playing him, although the guy from Chicago was adequate. He just didn't have much film 'presence'.OK, all of that said, I viewed the film yesterday, and it worked for me. It really, really did. The reason I gave it a 7 as opposed to an 8, is because It took three tries to really 'get it'. But it finally took, and I was able to get involved with the Wintergreen character, and why the more disjointed scenes weigh heavily onto his character development.The waitresses scene is awesome. The Zipper scene showed the desperation of that character, and how much he looked up to Wintergreen. It almost reminded me of Harvey Keitels confessional scene in "Bad Luitenant", as in, he'd like to do the right thing, but he was just too weak. I found the 'Harve' character operates more as a benchmark for how 'big' the Wintergreen character is.....and always was. And without spoiling too much, it was just a story choice to give it the ending which speaks of the uselessness and randomness of it all. The film (as I interpreted it today) would have even worked with a 'nothing special' ending wherein Wintergreen could have split the force, become a great detective, whatever. It wouldn't have effected the 'meat' of the story for me.But is was well filmed.