Film Year: 1969
Genre: Drama, Action, Sports
Director: Gus Trikonis
Starring: Ross Hagan, Diane McBain, Michael Pitaki, Robert Tessier, Claire Polan
MST Season: 2
The Movie
Originally titled Five the Hard Way, the title was changed to the mildly misleading Side Hackers to highlight a unique take on motorcycle racing which makes up only a quarter of the film. The sport of "sidehacking" (according to Wikipedia the sport is better known as "Sidecarcross") features motorcyclists in a motocross race, but the direction of the cycle itself is controlled by a second person in a sidecar who controls the direction of the cycle through balance.
But the actual story of The Side Hackers is really a revenge drama. Sidehacker Rommel is a mechanic who refuses the advances of Paisley, the girlfriend of unstable punk J.C. In retaliation Paisley lies to J.C. and states Rommel assaulted her, causing J.C. and his gang to savagely beat Rommel and murder and rape his fiance, Rita. Having survived the encounter, Rommel puts together a group of thugs to go after J.C. and his cronies.
The film is rather infamous among MST films for being one of the films that the crew of Mystery Science Theater regretted doing. The film was accepted after viewing the opening half hour and seeing the sidehack sport, but upon viewing the film for the writing process they were surprised by the film's change in tone and appalled by the violence toward women in the film, eventually leading to the film's rape scene. Having already purchased the film the cast was forced to use it, though the latter sequence had to be edited out. To the credit of the edit, the film still is quite coherent even with the violent scene edited out. It's always quite clear that Rita has been murdered (though the riffers feel the need to point this out in case it wasn't clear enough), and the allusions to sexual assault are gone entirely.
I might catch some flack for this, but the film itself isn't that bad. The acting and script aren't great, but the revenge story is mildly involving. I was constantly invested in the harsh story right down to it's brutal and cynical conclusion, which I thought was about as well as it could have ended. It's a tale of revenge begetting more revenge and violence begetting violence. And of course there is the sidehacking, which is goofy fun and somewhat amusing to watch.
I don't have a lot negative to say about this one. I think it's okay, and it really makes me want to sign up for sidehack lessons.
The Episode
As mentioned above, the crew regrets doing this movie. But if they did it doesn't show in the riff which is quite fantastic. Now, it's true that there is more to work with in the sidehacking portion of the movie, but something to consider is that if the movie were an entirely about the sport it would have gotten fairly repetitive with similar scenes and potentially similar riffs. Our riffers probably could have worked around this in later episodes, but this early in the second national season would make me a bit nervous.
In a way the sudden shift in tone that the film takes works in the riff's favor, as, now they're riffing an entirely different movie and there is new material to comment on. And yet, as the movie gets aggressive one can sense an uneasiness in the tone of Joel and the Bots. There's a scene in which J.C. beats his girlfriend, of which Joel and the Bots have a very negative reaction to. Nothing said at the expense of it is even a joke, since they're treading the line of something they seem aware that they can't make funny. Also at one point Crow feels the need to spell out to the audience that the character of Rita was dead, because they seem unsure if the audience still understood what was going on after they edited the murder and rape scene out (I think they gave the audience too little credit, honestly). Compare this to several scenes in the sixth season episode Zombie Nightmare, in which many murder scenes were cut away from including a scene of attempted rape that was seemingly interrupted by the zombie killing the attempted rapist. This entire sequence is missing from the film, as we just see the asshole acting creepy, cut to commercial, and when we're back the guy is dead and the woman is crying. This Side Hackers edit is way more coherent than that, but it's more apologetic about what is missing.
But the revenge drama portion is pretty funny in spite of this. They love to point out the light filters, which depict nighttime in total daylight. They have a lot of fun with the kooky cast of characters as well, climaxing with the movie's belabored and botched attempt at humor featuring a character telling a joke. This failed joke becomes a running gag for the final third of the movie, and personally I laughed just about every time.
"Heh! Number 16!"
The host segments feature a pair of classic songs: "Sidehackin'" and "Only Love Pads the Film. The terminology for sidehacking segment is also pretty fun, though a visit by J.C. has promising aspects but goes nowhere. The Invention Exchange is slinky inspired, as Joel demonstrates a living slinky and Dr. Forrester splits himself in two and connects himself with slinky wire.
In a way the sudden shift in tone that the film takes works in the riff's favor, as, now they're riffing an entirely different movie and there is new material to comment on. And yet, as the movie gets aggressive one can sense an uneasiness in the tone of Joel and the Bots. There's a scene in which J.C. beats his girlfriend, of which Joel and the Bots have a very negative reaction to. Nothing said at the expense of it is even a joke, since they're treading the line of something they seem aware that they can't make funny. Also at one point Crow feels the need to spell out to the audience that the character of Rita was dead, because they seem unsure if the audience still understood what was going on after they edited the murder and rape scene out (I think they gave the audience too little credit, honestly). Compare this to several scenes in the sixth season episode Zombie Nightmare, in which many murder scenes were cut away from including a scene of attempted rape that was seemingly interrupted by the zombie killing the attempted rapist. This entire sequence is missing from the film, as we just see the asshole acting creepy, cut to commercial, and when we're back the guy is dead and the woman is crying. This Side Hackers edit is way more coherent than that, but it's more apologetic about what is missing.
But the revenge drama portion is pretty funny in spite of this. They love to point out the light filters, which depict nighttime in total daylight. They have a lot of fun with the kooky cast of characters as well, climaxing with the movie's belabored and botched attempt at humor featuring a character telling a joke. This failed joke becomes a running gag for the final third of the movie, and personally I laughed just about every time.
"Heh! Number 16!"
The host segments feature a pair of classic songs: "Sidehackin'" and "Only Love Pads the Film. The terminology for sidehacking segment is also pretty fun, though a visit by J.C. has promising aspects but goes nowhere. The Invention Exchange is slinky inspired, as Joel demonstrates a living slinky and Dr. Forrester splits himself in two and connects himself with slinky wire.
Side Hackers is one of my early favorites in the series and episode that helps sparks the greatness that the series would eventually enjoy. Hell, this episode is so fun that even Cambot gets a riff in! Regardless of the black mark in this episode's history book, I genuinely believe it's probably the best episode of the series yet.
Classic
The DVD
Rhino originally released The Side Hackers as a part of their Volume 3 box set. Audio and video were both excellent. The only special feature was bonus B-roll footage from the episode's host segments.
The episode was eventually re-released in Shout Factory's reissue of Volume 3. The B-roll footage was retained, while Shout also saw fit to include an interview with star Ross Hagan, who talks about the first time he saw a sidehack and what inspired him and the crew to make a film about it, discusses the cast and crew, and even Hollywood in general. The interview was released posthumously, as Hagan sadly passed away not long after it was made. Despite the added interview, the episode is at a noticeably lower resolution than the Rhino disc, with softer colors as well. The Rhino disc is the keeper if one just wants the episode.
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