Drive, He Said (1971)

Tagline: The disenchantment of an all-American jock.

Curiosity: It sprang from the mind of Jack Nicholson after he knocked out the excellent films Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces.

Plot: While star basketball player Hector (William Tepper) debates if he wants to A) play in the NBA and/or B) keeping getting freaky with his college professor’s wife Olive (Karen Black), his asshole roommate Gabriel (Michael Margotta) tries to dodge the draft. At various points, director Nicholson parades what he calls “a symphony of dicks.”

Thoughts: There were some great existentialist films from the ’70s, like Two-Lane Blacktop, Easy Rider, and Five Easy Pieces. While sparse in story, they captured a growing melancholy in the American consciousness, melded with a need to live in the now.

Drive, He Said is not that kind of movie, but it wants to be quiet badly. It tries to pose Big Life Questions, like “Why are we in Vietnam?” and “Why do we participate in consumerism?” Those questions are important, and still relevant in 2011, but since Gabriel the madman is the one posing them, they fall flat.

Gabriel is meant to represent the dark side of freedom, the unrepentant, angry, disaffected kind, and he does, but not the way filmmakers intended. Within the context of the story, he’s supposed to be a charming revolutionary who’s gonna rage against the man. His quest to fight the draft results in him munching psychotropic drugs in an attempt to be declared insane, which works, but it also causes him to sexually assault an unrelated character for no reason. The RAINN rep in me was repulsed by that scene, and all I could think was, “This guy’s a prick.” And he’s a prick through the whole got-damn movie. At no point does the movie offer any reason for anyone to like Gabriel, yet he scores loyal followers and sexual partners constantly. He’s meant to be a tragic character, but he’s so unlikable that my sympathy dissipates.

Same goes for Hector. Dude has an easy job, gets laid all the time, and whines about it. Sorry baby boomers, but thems first world problems.

Reflection: For a guy with that much body hair, you’d think Hector would be more thankful for the attention women give him.