1975 - WHITE LINE FEVER, truck driver trash classic

Jan Michael Vincent is Carrol Jo Hummer a Vietnam vet trying to make it as an independent trucker in southern Arizona.  He runs afoul of some crooked freight handlers and decides to take matters into his own hands.

White Line Fever is B movie stuff expertly directed by Jonathan Kaplan who also co-wrote the screenplay.  The film has a real feel for this trailer park white trash without being condescending towards them. 

Besides Jan Michael in his signature role driving his truck the "Blue Mule." 1974 Ford WT9000 cabover rig with a Cummins turbo diesel engine.   The film has an outstanding cast of character actors.  Slim Pickens as Duane Haller, L.Q Jones as the villainous Buck, Sam Laws as Pops and Don Porter as Cutler, head of the Glass House the evil transportation company trying to muscle out the independent truckers.

Half the fun of watching this film are the great stunts and fights that run throughout the film.  Kaplan even works in a John Ford shot with a sequence of the Blue Mule driving through Monument Valley.

90 minutes

1974 - TRUCK TURNER, incredibly entertaining exploitation film

Musician Isaac Hayes is bounty hunter Truck Turner who is caught in the middle of a pimp war in LA.

This low budget film is  incredibly well directed by Jonathan Kaplan who mixes humor with lots of gun play and action.  Hayes would never be confused for Laurence Olivier, but he has a commanding presence and it's fun to see him beat the crap out of white racists.  Hayes also has a real big gun. 

The actor Yaphet Kotto, is in the film as a pimp trying to kill Truck Turner, and his performance is  intense.  Apparently nobody told him he was in a film about black pimps shooting it out all over Los Angeles.  Kotto has an excellent death scene in a hospital shootout which is definitely a highlight of the film.

Critics have noted that the hospital shootout clearly influenced John Woo's hospital shootout in Hard Boiled.  

Truck Turner is an outstanding example of very talented people working on a small budget in a somewhat disreputable genre and succeeding in making a very good film.

91 minutes.