Nightwing (1979) starring: Nick Mancuso, David Warner, Kathryn Harrold, Stephen Macht, Strother Martin
dir. Arthur Hiller
Before Martin Cruz Smith would write his best selling Gorky Park, he wrote a smaller book about killer vampire bats accosting all living things on an Indian Reservation. It would be turned into a movie that was co-scripted by Smith and would quickly disappear only to find life on a small pay cable channel called HBO. It would play repeatedly and infect the minds of very young and unknowing filmgeeks.
30 years later on February 27th, the Nuart theater in Los Angeles held an anniversary screening and had several guests including stars Nick Mancuso and Stephen Macht in attendance. So how does a movie about killer bats hold up? About as well as you'd expect it to, but there are things that I see in it now that watching it as a kid flew right over my head (bad pun intended*).
After Jaws (1975) came out, everyone was scrambling to make the next killer animal movie. Grizzly (1976), Piranha (1978) and Orca(1977) were all variations on the man versus animal theme. Nightwing though tried to have a social conscious. It is blatantly aware of our (the white man) mistreatment of the American Indian and our continual raping of the environment. It also delved a little into homogenization and the loss of culture as the gods being worshiped have less to do with how we look at the world and more with the accruing of money. I'm being overly generous here. These topics are touched upon but never given enough room to breathe and really take hold.
It's still an interesting nostalgic romp. One of the big set pieces involving some christian missionaries being attacked by a fleet of bats is high camp. There is no tension, but you are reminded that when the shit hits the fan it's every christian for himself and screw anyone who gets in the way. An ugly statement, but more true than not.
I could bitch about the very Italian Mancuso being cast as a Native American, but why, it's Nightwing and railing against it isn't going to solve any equal rights issues. We live in a culture where every ethnicity is miscast and Mancuso delivers a certain charm in the role. He is one of those actors who is always dependable and probably doesn't get the notoriety he deserves.
This is not available on DVD for some odd reason, but it's worth a look if it plays at a revival house near you and the audience is excited with nostalgia about seeing it. You'll laugh, you'll guffaw, you'll wonder why Nick Mancuso can't button up his shirt.
Before Martin Cruz Smith would write his best selling Gorky Park, he wrote a smaller book about killer vampire bats accosting all living things on an Indian Reservation. It would be turned into a movie that was co-scripted by Smith and would quickly disappear only to find life on a small pay cable channel called HBO. It would play repeatedly and infect the minds of very young and unknowing filmgeeks.
30 years later on February 27th, the Nuart theater in Los Angeles held an anniversary screening and had several guests including stars Nick Mancuso and Stephen Macht in attendance. So how does a movie about killer bats hold up? About as well as you'd expect it to, but there are things that I see in it now that watching it as a kid flew right over my head (bad pun intended*).
After Jaws (1975) came out, everyone was scrambling to make the next killer animal movie. Grizzly (1976), Piranha (1978) and Orca(1977) were all variations on the man versus animal theme. Nightwing though tried to have a social conscious. It is blatantly aware of our (the white man) mistreatment of the American Indian and our continual raping of the environment. It also delved a little into homogenization and the loss of culture as the gods being worshiped have less to do with how we look at the world and more with the accruing of money. I'm being overly generous here. These topics are touched upon but never given enough room to breathe and really take hold.
It's still an interesting nostalgic romp. One of the big set pieces involving some christian missionaries being attacked by a fleet of bats is high camp. There is no tension, but you are reminded that when the shit hits the fan it's every christian for himself and screw anyone who gets in the way. An ugly statement, but more true than not.
I could bitch about the very Italian Mancuso being cast as a Native American, but why, it's Nightwing and railing against it isn't going to solve any equal rights issues. We live in a culture where every ethnicity is miscast and Mancuso delivers a certain charm in the role. He is one of those actors who is always dependable and probably doesn't get the notoriety he deserves.
This is not available on DVD for some odd reason, but it's worth a look if it plays at a revival house near you and the audience is excited with nostalgia about seeing it. You'll laugh, you'll guffaw, you'll wonder why Nick Mancuso can't button up his shirt.7 out of 10
*assuming there are good puns
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