Tracks (1976) from Tuna

Tracks (1976) is a Henry Jaglom film staring Dennis Hopper as an army Sergeant escorting a body across country on a train. At first, he does just what you would expect from a soldier, he tries to pick up Taryn Power, a young hippy college girl. As the journey goes on, it becomes increasingly obvious that Hopper is not firing on all cylinders.

There will be times when you will be struggling to figure out what is real and what is only in Dennis Hopper's head. The soundtrack is probably the biggest clue as to the real meaning of this film. It is all WW II tunes, harkening back to a popular war full of heroes, who were welcomed home as such. In contrast, a deeply disturbed Hopper is escorting a coffin, and nobody seems to care.

In typical Jaglom style, much of the dialogue is improvised. I am not a huge fan of Jaglom and his technique, especially the wordy improvisation. In this case, it was not enough to ruin the performances from the leads, and the power of the story. Hopper gives the performance of his life, and the ending will blow you away.

 

DVD INFO

  • This has been a forgotten film, and nearly impossible to find, making this DVD release long overdue. It features a great transfer and a feature length commentary with Henry Jaglom and Dennis Hopper.

 

NUDITY REPORT

Taryn Power shows her breasts.


Scoop's notes


Taryn Power is the daughter of screen legend Tyrone Power, who died when Taryn was 5. She had a pretty face and attempted to cash in on her looks and her name by establishing a screen career of her own in the mid seventies. It didn't take. She was gone from the acting world after 1977, but made two brief comebacks. In the first try, she appeared in a grade-Z horror movie in 1984. Her second comeback occurred in 1990 when Henry Jaglom remembered her and gave her a small role in "Eating."

At one time she was engaged to Richard Chamberlain, who was 19 years older. They "never married." Do you think the fact that he was gay had some bearing on that?

The Critics Vote ...

 

The People Vote ...

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

  • A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
  • B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
  • C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
  • C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
  • C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
  • D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
  • E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
  • F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

 

Based on this description, this film is a C+.

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