Pick-up (Pazuzu). Bernard Hirschenson, 1975.
😿😿😿
Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #195, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.
Summary: Pointless murder of a boar.
Details: A pig is shot with an arrow and we see him fall over and die, 55:00-55:16.
After being “stranded” for about four hours on a dirt road in the Florida swampland, a trio of young people decide they must “kill a wild boar” to keep from starving. A pig, minding his own business in a clearing, is so tame that he allows the man to walk right up and shoot him. Inexcusable.
I can understand why people are disproportionately intrigued by this not-very-good movie. The on-again/off-again underpinning in magickal spiritualism constitutes the best parts of the film, heavily indebted to Barbet Schroeder’s More (1969) and The Valley (1972), with nods to Jorodowsky. [The idiotic murder of “the wild boar” unfortunately is traceable to The Valley, although Schroeder was documenting the lives of a genuine New Guinea tribe rather than the bored afternoon of some over-privileged young adults.]
The magickal segments alternate with common ’70s Red Necks Gone Wild buffoonery, with plenty of hootin’ and hollerin’ and wimenz hatin’ and general makin’ amerika great again. Unfortunately, that idiotic mentality gets the last word in the film. Just like in real life.
The Vinegar Syndrome release also includes a 1963 film called The Orgy at Lil’s Place, which is not the naughty film it postures to be. Containing only a tiny bit of modest nudity, The Orgy at Lil’s Place actually is one of the best compilations of early ’60s New York City location filming I’ve ever seen, unified by the blasé story of a small town girl who moves to the big city. Loved it!