Johnny Firecloud – 1975
Director
William Allen Castleman

Writer
Wilton Denmark

Cast
Victor Mohica
Ralph Meeker
David Canary

Review by Wayne Malin

Good exploitation flick,

Indian Johnny Firecloud (Victor Mohica) lives in a small Western town. He’s constantly being tormented by Colby (Ralph Meeker) and his gang of friends who basically run the town. Things escalate–Johnny is beaten up repeatedly and whipped, his grandfather is publicly humiliated and lynched and a female friend of his is raped to death. Johnny explodes and hunts down Colby’s friends and extracts some very bloody revenge…

Hard to believe that 20th Century Fox released this–basically it’s a drive-in exploitation flick. It has some huge problems–the acting isn’t really good (Mohica yells all his lines, Meeker appears indifferent); the violence against the Indians is more than a little disturbing–the rape scene was just too savage and the script is WAY overdone and does nothing with its racism storyline. Still this is a very good OF ITS TYPE film.

It’s well-directed and when Johnny takes his revenge it’s exciting and extremely bloody–but these guys all deserve it. Also it has a subplot involving a gay man that’s treated sensitively–that’s pretty daring for a 1970s movie. Also the DVD print is in great shape–letter boxed with bright, strong colors.

I recommend it but it is very violent and unpleasant–it’s definitely not for everybody. I give it a 7.