Astonishing acid-fried take on a second coming in the wild west. Seaweedhead Greaser runs a dying place. He murders his son Lamy Homo (!) regularly because Lamy keeps getting resurrected. Then Jesse parachutes in with his unforgettable walk and zoot suit and starts doing miracles. Meanwhile his father is putting a young family through hell out in the desert, and the other part of the trinity is covered in a dust-sheet and killing or resurrecting at will...possibly pointlessly. There follows a lot of walking and an array of wondrous battered hats. There is very little script but lines are often repeated endlessly - more like animal calls. The authority does nothing but take taxes, and is constipated, bored, irrelevant, impotent. The Native Americans are a little more grounded and have a topless Toni Basil. The scenery is also absolutely beautiful. The music is lovely. Robert Downey Sr directed this wonderful absurdist comedy (I laughed out loud at least 7 times!).
I'm not gonna tell you how it plays out but I loved it. The comedy set-pieces are hilarious. There is horror. The cast played it straight and that was the right call. You may know Alan Arbus from M.A.S.H. and he's just as affecting in this.
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