Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1514840
VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P115 jacket, made from cool, comfort- able leather, designed to help keep each rider warm when the Baja temps dip into the low 90s. The four men are barely into their excursion before they quickly realize that Farragut's (Griffith) true motive isn't to survey the country; instead, he seems driven to test the mettle of these Kawasaki-mounted execs. The ride begins as Farragut gushes, "This is Baja!" "Yeah," Farragut repeats, just in case the viewer missed it the first time, "this is Baja!" To give us a break from the brilliant scriptwriting, the movie features several riding scenes throughout the desert. The sweet braap of the two-stroke sound as it emanates from all the bikes, in - cluding Farragut's Triumph four- stroke twin, brings back fond memories, and one can almost smell the castor bean oil wafting through the heavy desert air! Speaking of smells, the act- ing in this film is bad enough to make us wish for even more of the above-mentioned riding segments. Griffith's rapscallion character certainly wouldn't garner the favor of Sheriff Andy Taylor. In Wildcats, Griffith as Farragut is a lascivious, big business bully, displaying no self-control over either his ar- rogance or his libido. In an early scene, the four Wildcats visit a tiny Mexican bar, where a wispy blonde seductively dances her way around the joint. Farragut at first claps along in horny, apelike fashion before finally dropping all his inhibitions and joining the teasing waif on the dirt dance floor. "Now we're gettin' it on," he says as he begins to force him- self upon the protest- ing young woman. Her boyfriend then appears on the scene, and—you guessed it—fisticuffs ensue! Shatner's even- tempered character, Warren Summerfield, is quick to step in between the two suitors, taking care to neither offend his ad client nor lose his own Baja-ready toupee. Cooler heads prevail, and the Wildcats are soon back on their dirt bikes and heading south. Cycle News' review of the film was mostly positive, which most likely means that Pray For The Wildcats wasn't a good movie—it just wasn't as bad as the rest of the Hollywood offerings, which usually depicted motorcycling as an activity only marginally more acceptable than bestiality. The CN reviewer also pointed out that Griffith took a liking to dirt biking; at one point, filming was delayed for several hours while the crew waited for Andy to come back from a joy ride in the desert! We won't spoil the ending for you—er, wait! Yes, we will! Spoil alert! In the review, which actu - ally hit print before the movie aired, CN's unidentified movie critic reveals that "the picture has a spectacular ending with Griffith and the Triumph running off the edge of a 200-foot cliff and into the ocean." Well, that is mostly the ending! What we don't need to tell you is that, at impact, the poor Triumph bursts into a fireball of flames because you already knew that was going to happen! Pray For The Wildcats had each of those conflict themes that you learned about in high school English: man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. him - self. The 23,000 YouTube view- ers that have clicked on this one were likely engaged in a fourth theme: man vs. boredom. Ninety- two minutes of some of the best overacting one can stand likely had those viewers petitioning the Lord with their own fervent plea: "Pray…for The End!" CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Funny how a movie could be so... well, bad with such a heavy-hitting cast that included Andy Griffith, William Shatner, Robert Reed, Angie Dickinson and Marjoe Gortner.