Richard Compton (1) (1938–2007)

"Angels Die Hard" was the first film to be produced by Roger Corman's New World Pictures, which is the only real point of note about the whole thing. It is badly written and directed by Richard Compton with the narrative meandering all over the place with great chunks of the run time given over to either the bike gang out on the road or the bikers being hassled by rednecks and the cops. The camera work is poor and the acting worse, but to be fair none of the actors have anything of worth to do. On the upside the film does have a decent soundtrack made up of unknown acid-folk and mellow psych-rock jams from a range of outfits but in the main from East-West Pipeline.… (mais)

A group of Vietnam veterans are discharged in an anonymous town. Four of them - Danny (Joe Don Baker), Shooter (Paul Koslo), Fatback (Elliott Street) and Kid (Alan Vint) decide to buy a car and drive cross county to California where they hope to go into cattle farming on some land owned by the Kid. On the drive they are met by a combination of ignorance, contempt and hostility that eventually culminates in a violent, bloody conflagration in a small back roads town. "Welcome Home, Soldier Boys" is a downbeat, existential anti-war film, that is part road movie, part exploitation shocker. It is sullen and morose from beginning to end with the majority of the film given over to long brooding takes and the melancholic and bitter exchanges between the veterans and those they meet on the road. This approach makes the final 15 violent and extraordinary minutes even more brutal and shocking. Richard Compton's directorial approach is a sombre as the Guerdon Trueblood's introverted screenplay, with the downer approach "enhanced" further by a series of melancholic country songs by Country Gazette. The acting is naturalistic with most of the camaraderie, frustration and growing resentment of the embittered foursome delivered with clever non-verbal touches. "Welcome Home, Soldier Boys" is a shocking, brutal and mournful look at war and its aftermath and how the horrors of combat seep into the very soul.… (mais)