hyped garbage

Fresh and Exciting

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A few days before Sylvester Stallone's latest movie The Expendables came out, I was at the used video store called Grand Cinema Station and stumbled upon this VHS case from Paragon Video Productions that had him on the cover and had the title of Rebel. I bought it right away but I have just now gotten through watching it. In a nutshell, Stallone plays Jerry Savage who is part of an underground terrorist group that's planning to blow up a building in Manhatten. It's interesting watching a film from this time in the late '60s-early '70s and seeing and hearing various news footage of the riots of the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968 (where and when I was just a few months old), the speeches of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and various hit songs of the time. Also interesting is seeing someone later known as more of a conservative figure playing a left-wing radical. Not to mention his reactions when a woman in his group recounts her abortion or another lady from the country he likes argues with him about his bombing methods vs. her more peaceful tranquility living. This is not a great movie but it's certainly a fascinating document of such a turbulent time in U.S. history and of Sylvester Stallone's early contribution to that era.

I recall the filming of this film in my upstate NY town of Livingston Manor in 1972. So the making date is inaccurate. The scene of them driving up to the country is on Route 17 which is now Interstate 86 at the exit near Parksville,NY. The old boarding house is actually a bed and breakfast now and they make no claims to this pretty awful film. It was definitely a period piece and fun to see how Sly started in this industry. He was a looker even then before all the excesses. Does anyone else remember this film from the Catskills of Sullivan County? The Bed and Breakfast is located on Debruce Road in Livingston Manor and is known as the Debruce Inn. It has been restored but still the structure looks like it did in the film. As I watched this film I realized how much of our area in the country is timeless and other than trees being bigger the road is unchanged. I still would like to know how many people actually paid to see this one?

Believe it or not, I was pumped up to see this movie after seeing a preview for it on another tape. My hopes, however, were quickly dashed as I found it hard to get through the first 10 minutes with my eyes still open. Dreadfully boring and slow moving, the only redeemable factors are when Sly attacks a chair and his final run through a field......clad head to toe in denim. After watching this, my friends and I took a trip down to the shore and buried it in the sand. That was the only enjoyment we got out of this movie, which is truly one of the worst pieces of work I have ever seen. Enjoyment may be slightly higher if you make bad Stallone impressions while watching it.

Sly plays a sixties radical who must choose between his love for a beautiful country girl and his loyalties to a terrorist group planning to bomb a Manhattan skyscraper. Stallone's performance is to be admired as he delivers lines such as "a bohhmb." Also you can just let the tears fly as Sly or shall I say Jerry Savage takes that final liberating run through a field of green. This could be the greatest movie ever made. Definitely misunderstood.