Sunburst, The Movie
Movie Notes From The Rust Belt
Youngstown, Ohio
I may have mentioned that I watch a TV channel called “PubDHub”. Never heard of it you say? Well, it’s one of the channels offered on my ROKU streaming media device. OK, truth be told I have multiple ROKU devices on my HD televisions. Lotsa good stuff on there, but what I’m here to talk about is PubDHub. OK.....PubDHub is Public Domain Stuff--get it? Pub is Public and D is Domain and Hub is, um, the hub. You can have regular PubDHub for no extra charge or you can go for Gold PubDHub for a paltry $2.50 a year.
I’m a Gold guy. That means that I get extra stuff. But the regular PubDHub is pretty cool too.
I told you that so I could tell you this:
I watched a 1975 movie on PubDHub today. That’s pretty new by PubDHub standards, but I like the 70s stuff. Title of the movie was “Slashed Dreams”. Later, I found out that it was originally released as “Sunburst”. Without belaboring the point, “Slashed Dreams” and “Sunburst” seem to be, at least linguistically, a pretty fair distance from one another.
Oh, well, A Rose By Any Other Name, and all that.....
In brief, here’s the story--two college students, a boy and a girl, hike into the wilderness to re-locate a friend of theirs who has dropped off the grid. Along the way, a bear eats their food, but doesn’t hurt them because (I’m guessing here) they are harmless, friendly, friends of nature, and they most likely vote Peace and Freedom. Bears understand this sort of thing. The couple find the friend’s home-made cabin, and two violent rapists find them. Guess the rest. ONLY KIDDING!! Girl gets raped, boy (and the “drop off the grid” friend) find the rapists and give them what for, but don’t kill them. This is, after all, the 70s and the movie is, after all, titled “Sunburst”.
Cast highlights include 1970 Miss America Runner-Up Katherine Baumann as the girl--She bares all prior to the rape scene when she jumps into the pond, but sadly shows only her back and buns. Robert Enguland (later to become Freddy) is the “drop off the grid” guy, and he’s a good guy in this film. One of the rapists is played by James Keach--he’s one of those faces you know from somewhere--I know him as the motorcycle cop who pulls over Chevy Chase in Vacation. You may know him better from elsewhere. Mr. Keach also wrote this particular movie, by whatever name it goes. Interestingly, James Keach was also the uncredited voice-over for Klinton Spilsbury in 1981s the Legend of the Lone Ranger. Another vastly underrated movie.
OK, then--The big finish. If you children out there really want to know what the mid-70s looked and felt like, the first 20 or 30 minutes of this movie will give you a pretty good idea. I’m reasonably certain that the title of the movie was changed when it was re-released on VHS in the 80s or 90s to capitalize on Robert Enguland’s fame. No other reason I can think of. It’s a 70s movie and not at all very dark, rape scene notwithstanding.
I give it two and a half stars. Have a look.
Youngstown, Ohio
I may have mentioned that I watch a TV channel called “PubDHub”. Never heard of it you say? Well, it’s one of the channels offered on my ROKU streaming media device. OK, truth be told I have multiple ROKU devices on my HD televisions. Lotsa good stuff on there, but what I’m here to talk about is PubDHub. OK.....PubDHub is Public Domain Stuff--get it? Pub is Public and D is Domain and Hub is, um, the hub. You can have regular PubDHub for no extra charge or you can go for Gold PubDHub for a paltry $2.50 a year.
I’m a Gold guy. That means that I get extra stuff. But the regular PubDHub is pretty cool too.
I told you that so I could tell you this:
I watched a 1975 movie on PubDHub today. That’s pretty new by PubDHub standards, but I like the 70s stuff. Title of the movie was “Slashed Dreams”. Later, I found out that it was originally released as “Sunburst”. Without belaboring the point, “Slashed Dreams” and “Sunburst” seem to be, at least linguistically, a pretty fair distance from one another.
Oh, well, A Rose By Any Other Name, and all that.....
In brief, here’s the story--two college students, a boy and a girl, hike into the wilderness to re-locate a friend of theirs who has dropped off the grid. Along the way, a bear eats their food, but doesn’t hurt them because (I’m guessing here) they are harmless, friendly, friends of nature, and they most likely vote Peace and Freedom. Bears understand this sort of thing. The couple find the friend’s home-made cabin, and two violent rapists find them. Guess the rest. ONLY KIDDING!! Girl gets raped, boy (and the “drop off the grid” friend) find the rapists and give them what for, but don’t kill them. This is, after all, the 70s and the movie is, after all, titled “Sunburst”.
Cast highlights include 1970 Miss America Runner-Up Katherine Baumann as the girl--She bares all prior to the rape scene when she jumps into the pond, but sadly shows only her back and buns. Robert Enguland (later to become Freddy) is the “drop off the grid” guy, and he’s a good guy in this film. One of the rapists is played by James Keach--he’s one of those faces you know from somewhere--I know him as the motorcycle cop who pulls over Chevy Chase in Vacation. You may know him better from elsewhere. Mr. Keach also wrote this particular movie, by whatever name it goes. Interestingly, James Keach was also the uncredited voice-over for Klinton Spilsbury in 1981s the Legend of the Lone Ranger. Another vastly underrated movie.
OK, then--The big finish. If you children out there really want to know what the mid-70s looked and felt like, the first 20 or 30 minutes of this movie will give you a pretty good idea. I’m reasonably certain that the title of the movie was changed when it was re-released on VHS in the 80s or 90s to capitalize on Robert Enguland’s fame. No other reason I can think of. It’s a 70s movie and not at all very dark, rape scene notwithstanding.
I give it two and a half stars. Have a look.
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| Slashed Dreams |
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| Sunburst |
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