An early film from director John G. Avildsen (before he cashed out as a Rocky/Karate Kid man) from 1970 & starring the late, great Peter Boyle & Susan Sarandon (in her film debut). Sarandon is a drug addict living w/her asshole of a boyfriend but after a drug binge leaves her OD'ing, her rich parents get her to a hospital to recoup. Her incensed father returns back to Sarandon's apartment finding the deadbeat dealer & kills him in a fit of rage. Winding down in a bar, the father, played by Dennis Patrick, admits his sin to the bartender in hearing range of Boyle, a loud bigot who's been railing against the other from the moment the camera has laid eyes on him. Boyle gets it into his head Patrick is a kindred spirit so he contacts him out of the blue w/Patrick, fearing a blackmail scheme, goes along w/this working stiff even bringing his wife over to their house for Chinese dinner or popping up at Boyle's weekly bowling game. The final third of the film finds the mismatched pair out in the streets of New York trying to track Sarandon down (who has left the hospital) but instead they go on an odyssey into hippie culture confirming their own prejudices while at the same time taking advantage of their circumstances. Probably shocking for the time 50 plus years ago but nowadays in certain circles this may be seen as a right winger's dream (especially the final images involving gunfire at a wintry drug den) but some of the film scoring & shots dilute its power w/the ending almost par for the course being a tyro filmmaker's propensity to shock its audience his first time out of the gate but in this day & age where we've pretty much seen & heard just about everything (at least I hope!), this film's final moments feel a little obvious & force fed. Also starring K. Callan (who played Ma Kent on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures) as Boyle's wife.
