"They Needed Killinī"

Mexico, 1983
Cast: Mario Almada, Jorge Reynoso, Fernando Almada, Diana Ferreti, Eleazar Garcia Jr., Adalberto Arvizu, Javier Garcia, Fernando Sainz, Melchor Moran, Ernesto Rendon, Luis Lopez, Julio Lerma, Ruben Benavidez, Leo Benavidez, Leo Villanueva
Directed by: Pedro Galindo III

SEX:
VIOLENCE:

THE PLOT:
A bunch of vicious punk rock bikers ride into a small Texas town and almost immediately start terrorizing the locals. Itīs up to Al (Mario Almada), the townīs sheriff, to put an end to the mayhem.

THE VERDICT:
Bikers and punk rockers are two groups of misfits that were rarely the subject of Mexican movies. Whenever this happened however, the result was so sleazy, violent or just plain silly that no exploitation addict should ignore these flicks.

If bikers and punk rockers made for great, yet slightly deranged, entertainment on their own, a movie about bikers who dressed up as punk rockers or punk rockers who rode motorcycles should be a veritable classic.

Iīm not sure They Needed Killinī rates as a classic, but it sure is a fun little action picture. Be forewarned that if youīre looking for any kind of realistic portrait of disenfranchised youth youīre in for a real surprise. You can bet the last thing on the filmmakersī mind was attention to detail when they dreamed up this crazy premise.

They Needed Killinī is a vehicle for Mario Almada, by far the most popular Mexican actor of the last twenty years. He is routinely lambasted for playing the same role over and over for decades and his movies are often held as a shining example of everything that is wrong with commercial Mexican cinema.

I beg to differ.

In my opinion, the reason for Almadaīs success is simple. When you see his name or face on a video you know exactly what youīre getting. It will be the story of a tough-as-nails cop/detective/drifter who must resort to violence to stop some sadistic terrorists/drug dealers/hitmen/whatever.

Sure, you can guess the whole plot just by looking at the cover art. So what? The vast majoriy of movies, novels and, for that matter, comic books share the same half dozen basic plots anyway, with only minor variations in setting and/or characters.

This time around the villains du jour are the aforementioned punk bikers. Just as in The Fearless Vampire Hunters, which features the same breed of highly unlikely punk rockers, They Needed Killinī also has a bunch of actors well into their thirties wearing enough leather to make animal lovers foam at the mouth and sporting wigs that the average drag queen would balk at.

This would be merely goofy if there wasnīt a simple explanation for these inaccuracies. Punk rock, along with every other kind of rock music, was virtually outlawed by the Mexican government from the early 70s until the late 80s, fearing rockīnīroll would fuel the resentment Mexican youth already harbored for the government since the Tlatelolco massacre in october of 1968, in which hundreds of students, along with women and children, were killed by the army and police while they held a peaceful rally demanding democratic reforms. The surviving protestors were incarcerated along with anyone who publicly supported them.

Permits for live rock shows were denied, TV featured the lamest pop imaginable and only a handful of bands kept playing, thriving in the so-called hoyos funky ("funky holes"), which were abandoned buildings and warehouses located in run-down neighborhoods taken over by crowds eager to hear truly underground rock bands like El Tri, even if this meant being hassled and sometimes beaten by the police. Punk rockers were portrayed by the media as criminally insane.

Given this climate, itīs not surprising that the punk/bikers in this flick come across as sadistic thugs who apparently like nothing better than a random rape or murder. The very first scene show them beating the tar out of some lowriders.

Whatīs remarkable about They Needed Killinī is that the writers made it clear that all the violence could have been avoided. The sheriff tries to prevent trouble by telling the punks/bikers to leave town and they mostly act in self defense. The true villain of the movie is a deputy who eventually gets his comeuppance.

Whether this message of tolerance is in the script by accident or by design I donīt know but the shred of plot that jumpstarts all the mayhem appears to be an excuse to show the cast attacking one another with broken bottles, baseball bats, knives, guns, a crossbow, a hockey stick and a bullwhip. They use everything that isnīt nailed down to try and maim each other.

With this kind of action unfolding on the screen, the only message the filmmakers seem anxious to convey is: "Why settle your differences with a rational discussion when you can hit someone upside the head with a baseball bat?"

The ethics may be questionable, but the movie isnīt half bad as far as cheap action flicks go. Itīs not as technically slipshod as other Mexican film fare, it has a good pace, there are no female characters to act as a love interest for any of the characters and only a couple of mercifully brief instances of melodrama. As I mentioned earlier, punk rock was practically banned so instead of two minute, three chord songs, the soundtrack is made up of some really weird electronic music credited to Nacho Mendez.

Try as they may, the filmmakers are unable to hide the lack of a decent budget, and there are plot holes large enough for the entire membership of the Hellīs Angels to ride through, but these are minor complaints. They Needed Killinī remains an enjoyable example of Mexican exploitation at its seedy, nihilistic best.

You donīt think so? Let me know: [email protected]