''Cisco Pike'' is a 1972 American
drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
film that was written and directed by
Bill L. Norton, and released by
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
. The film stars
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...
as a musician who, having fallen on hard times, turns to the selling of
marijuana
Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
and is blackmailed by a police officer (
Gene Hackman).
The movie, which is Norton's directorial debut and Kristofferson's debut as a leading actor, was filmed in the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
area in late 1970 and includes several contemporaneous landmarks. It premiered in 1972 to unfavorable reviews and was a box office failure.
''Cisco Pike'' was not officially available on home media until its re-release on
DVD in 2006. Since its release, reviews became more favorable as the film earned followers and became a
cult classic
A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...
.
Plot
After being arrested for drug dealing, singer Cisco Pike tries to pawn his guitar. The shop owner declines and Cisco returns home to find his
demos
Demos may refer to:
Computing
* DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system
* DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR
* Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems
* Plural for Demo (computer programming ...
have been rejected. He records more and tells his girlfriend, Sue, about his failure. Former customers keep calling him, seeking to buy drugs.
Detective Leo Holland has stolen a sizable quantity of high-grade marijuana from a Mexican gang and visits Cisco, who says he is trying to quit the drugs business. Holland arrests Cisco and then takes him to a garage, where he shows Cisco the stolen marijuana. Cisco then visits his lawyer, who confirms the garage belongs to a person called Betty Hall, apparently related to Holland. The lawyer advises Cisco to avoid Holland but shows further interest when Cisco mentions the high quality of the marijuana.
Holland finds Cisco, tells him he needs US$10,000, and gives him fifty-nine hours to sell the marijuana and, in return, tells Cisco he may keep any excess money and that he will alter his most recent
arrest paperwork if the case goes to trial. Cisco accepts the deal and starts fragmenting the marijuana bricks, then contacts his former customers and proceeds with sales. After one bulk customer spots a solitary figure surveilling them with binoculars and takes off, Cisco confronts Holland, returns the bricks, and refuses to work with Holland any further, returning home to work on his demos. Holland is angry and visits Cisco's home; he beats Cisco and threatens to shoot him unless he continues the sales. Cisco agrees and Holland leaves.
Cisco visits his former competitor, Brother Buffalo, to try to sell the bricks in bulk and thus more quickly, and offers him for a low price. Buffalo tells Cisco he will try to work out a deal with his associates. Cisco then visits his musician friend Rex, who is recording songs at a
studio. Rex rejects the demos Cisco previously sent him. Instead, he asks him about the marijuana. Cisco, disappointed, meets Rex's manager to discuss the sale of drugs. Cisco rejects the manager's deal, then meets
groupie
A groupie is a fan of a particular musical group who follows the band around while they are on tour or who attends as many of their public appearances as possible, with the hope of meeting them. The term is used mostly describing young women, a ...
Merna and leaves with her. They pick up Lynn on the way to her father's mansion.
After a brief sexual encounter with the two girls, Cisco continues selling drugs as tensions between him and his girlfriend escalate. He visits Rex's manager, who agrees to pay Cisco's price. The manager tells Cisco he will be paid in two days; Cisco starts destroying his office until the manager gives him a personal check. Another of Cisco's customers takes him to a major buyer, and Cisco realizes he and his customer are being set up by the police; they escape and are rescued by Sue. Cisco grows increasingly frustrated because he has not been contacted by his potential buyers and is still short of money. Sue finds Cisco's former bandmate, Jesse Dupre, taking a bath at their home. Affected by the state of Jesse's drug addiction, Cisco tells Sue he is being blackmailed by a police officer.
Jesse and Cisco travel to
Sunset Strip, where they find Merna and Lynn. Merna introduces Cisco to a big buyer, who accepts Cisco's requested price. Later, at a party at Merna's house, Jesse overdoses with
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
and dies. Meanwhile, Holland enters Cisco's house uninvited and stays with Sue, who escapes, leaving Holland inside.
Cisco drives Jesse's body to his home in Venice and finds Sue sleeping in her van. Sue warns him of Holland and Cisco tells Sue of Jesse's death. Cisco leaves Jesse's corpse on a bench. Sue calls
9-1-1 to notify them about the body. Cisco confronts Holland and Sue tells Cisco she is leaving him. Cisco gives the money to a desperate Holland; they are interrupted by the arriving emergency services responding to the call about Jesse's body. Thinking they are coming after him, Holland starts shooting at them and is fatally shot. Sue returns home and Cisco drives away.
Cast
Background and production
Following the success of ''
Easy Rider'' (1969), films depicting the ideals of the
counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon and political movement that developed in the Western world during the mid-20th century. It began in the early 1960s, and continued through the early 1970s. It is ofte ...
spawned the
New Hollywood
The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema (not to be confused with the New American Cinema of the 1960s that was part of Experimental film, avant-garde underground film, underground cinema), was a movemen ...
movement in film. Releases in this style which met a good audience reception in 1970 include ''
Getting Straight'', ''
The Strawberry Statement'' and ''
Five Easy Pieces''.
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
graduate and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
–born
Bill Norton wrote a draft of a story depicting the relationship between the contemporaneous music and drug scenes. Norton had worked as a director on short films for
UCLA's film school, television commercials and rock-and-roll shorts. Norton came into contact with producer
Gerald Ayres of
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
and pitched the project to him. Ayres then forwarded the script to his friend
Robert Towne, who reworked the story and further developed the characters.
Towne added the character of the corrupt police officer who forces Cisco Pike back into the drug world and further expanded the role of Cisco's girlfriend. Norton initially opposed the casting of
Karen Black
Karen Blanche Black (née Ziegler; July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013) was an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She rose to prominence for her work in various studio and independent films in the 1970s, frequently portr ...
but relented when the studio imposed it as a condition for producing the film. Columbia felt Black's recent
Best Supporting Actress nomination in the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
for ''
Five Easy Pieces'' would help the promotion of the release. ''Cisco Pike'' is Norton's directorial debut.
Kris Kristofferson had made his film debut with a cameo appearance on
Dennis Hopper's ''
The Last Movie'', which was unreleased at the time of Cisco Pike's production. After his debut performance as a singer at the Los Angeles nightclub
The Troubadour, Kristofferson was approached by
Fred Roos, the casting director of ''Five Easy Pieces'', who invited him to audition for his film debut for a leading role on ''
Two-Lane Blacktop
''Two-Lane Blacktop'' is a 1971 American road film directed and edited by Monte Hellman, from a screenplay by Rudy Wurlitzer and Will Corry. It stars musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird in the leading ro ...
''. Kristofferson, who was signed to
, arrived to the appointment intoxicated and left. Kristofferson was next offered Norton's script by Columbia. His peers encouraged him to reject the role and to take acting lessons instead, but he accepted the part, and later said; "I read the script and I could identify with this cat" and that acting is "understanding a character, and then being just as honest as you can possibly be".
Gene Hackman accepted the role because he saw it as an opportunity to work in California, close to his wife at the time, Faye Maltese. Kristofferson's friend
Harry Dean Stanton also joined the production. Supporting roles included
Warhol superstar Viva and
Joy Bang.
Filming began on November 2, 1970, initially under the working title ''Dealer'', which was changed to ''Silver Tongued Devil'' (Kristofferson's 1971 album was entitled ''
The Silver Tongued Devil and I''). Ayres wrote some scenes of the film, and the script and storyline were altered while filming progressed. Editor
Robert Jones contributed the ending of the story. ''Cisco Pike'' was mostly filmed on location around
Venice Beach and its boardwalk.
Sunset Strip was also used as a location, and some indoor scenes were filmed at The Troubadour and
The Source Restaurant. The mansion of
silent-film-era star
Pola Negri was used as the home of Viva's character. Filming was affected by intense seasonal rain but the schedule was kept to by shooting in up to three locations daily. During the official post-production process, new scenes were written and filmed partly in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
Filming was over by December 1970. A crew of thirty-five took part in the production, which was one of the smallest Columbia Pictures had used at that point. Norton described the sets to ''Action'' (the
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...
magazine) as "claustrophobic" and said the finished film did not "play on the screen like it played in
ismind". Post-production was finished by early 1971; ''Cisco Pike'' cost less than US$800,000 to produce.
Release and reception
''Cisco Pike'' opened to a limited release on January 14, 1972, two years after its filming. Initial reviews were poor and it was a commercial failure at the box office. Released during the beginning of the
war on drugs, ''
Life
Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' described the approach of the movie studios and their depictions of drug issues in the United States as wrong. The publication said that due to the
ongoing economic crisis, audiences were not open to "downers" and attributed the film's three changes of title to damage control. The article described the positive reception that comedy movies depicting
drug culture
Drug cultures are examples of countercultures that are primarily defined by Entheogen, spiritual, Self-medication, medical, and recreational drug use. They may be focused on a single drug, or endorse polydrug use. They sometimes eagerly or reluct ...
had in comparison with dramatic ones.
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' gave ''Cisco Pike'' a negative review and concluded, "there isn't much to say about it". ''
Newsday
''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...
'' said the film "takes itself very seriously", called the script "limited", and criticized Norton for having "no noticeable talent for creating three-dimensional characters". ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' called the plot and the "film's virtue" "mundane". ''
Variety'' called ''Cisco Pike'' "surprisingly good" and Kristofferson "an excellent formal acting debut". Critic
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
rated it with three stars out of four and wrote that Kristofferson's acting "holds it together". ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' delivered a favorable review; the writer called Kristofferson "as good an actor, as he is a singer". ''
Los Angeles Free Press
The ''Los Angeles Free Press'', also called the "''Freep''", is often cited as the first, and certainly was the largest, of the underground newspapers of the 1960s. The ''Freep'' was founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, who served as its publisher un ...
'' considered the filming "faultless".
''
New York Daily News
The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...
'' rated it with two-and-a-half stars out of five. It described the inexperience of Norton, Ayres and Kristofferson and the "looseness of presentation" and "meandering story". ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' opened its review by calling the film "sluggish", while it suggested that Hackman's presence on the screen was "needed", but concluded that his character "doesn't have enough to do". The reviewer described the scenery of the movie as "shot with an eye for the sleazy and depressed", and he felt that it leaned "too long on background mood and too short on dialogue and action upfront". The review praised Kristofferson's singing, while added that his acting lacked "dimension". As for Black, it concluded "her talents are more or less wasted".
''
Austin American-Statesman
The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...
'' defined it as "one of those low-level, low-life, sex-and-drugs epics" that has "an occasional moment of perverse interest", but "great hunks of pure tedium".
Comparing Kristofferson's film debut to those of
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...
in ''
Performance
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Performance has evolved glo ...
'' and
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...
on ''Two-Lane Black Top'', ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...
'' concluded "(he) can't act either". Meanwhile, ''
The San Francisco Chronicle'' stated that Cisco Pike was "beautifully made", and ''
San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...
'' called it a "gripping suspense thriller". ''
Atlanta Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (''AJC'') is an American daily newspaper based in Atlanta metropolitan area, metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Jo ...
'' praised Kristofferson for a "surprisingly able job".
Legacy
''Cisco Pike'' was re-released in March 1975 to a short theater run; according to an article in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', most of the copies of the film had by then been destroyed. Reviewer
Charles Champlin saw the film's depictions as an "accurate slice of social history". After ''Cisco Pike'' finished its run in theaters, Columbia Pictures did not license its broadcast for television and it was never officially released on
VHS, though
bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as ''bootlegging''. Recordings may be copied and traded ...
s circulated and it was screened in theaters that still possessed original copies. The film was screened at the
American Cinematheque
The American Cinematheque is an independent, non-profit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States that represents the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms.
It presents festivals and retrospectives that ...
in Los Angeles, California in 2000 as part of a retrospective titled Celebrating the New Hollywood of the 1960s and 1970s. The American Cinematheque screened Cisco Pike again in 2005 as part of a retrospective titled The Return of Movies Not Available on Video. The film was released for the first time on
DVD in 2006; ''Los Angeles Times'' favored it, accentuating its place in history where "the optimism of the 1960s slips into ... disappointing loneliness". Critic
Sean Howe said the movie lacked the exposure it needed to turn it into a
cult classic
A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...
. Nevertheless, ''Cisco Pike'' was listed by
Danny Peary
Dannis Peary (born August 8, 1949) is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written and edited many books on Film, cinema and sports-related topics. Peary is most famous for his book ''Cult Movies (book), Cult Movies'' (1980), which s ...
as one of the emerging cult classics at the last page of his 1981 book ''
Cult Movies''.
The website
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was ...
gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five; reviewer Fred Beldin said the film is a "feature-length advertisement" for Kristofferson's next album release but concluded it "has plenty to offer with its eccentric pacing, great cast, and period ambiance". Reelfilm gave ''Cisco Pike'' two-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "fairly decent". It partly favored Norton's non-linear story approach but said the film is "overwhelmingly meandering and random".
In November 2013, the
West Hollywood theater
Cinefamily hosted a month-long screening of Kristofferson's movies, beginning with ''Cisco Pike'' on November 1. The theater held a
question-and-answer session with Kristofferson, Stanton and Norton in attendance. Norton described ''Cisco Pike'' as his version of ''
La Dolce Vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for 'the sweet life' or 'the good life'Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini and written by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, and Brunello Rondi. The film stars M ...
'' "set in L.A". Before the film screened, Kristofferson and Stanton performed part of the soundtrack for the audience. ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' noted the movie gained a cult following and praised Norton for a "clean and defined" plot.
In the third volume of
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
' ''
Rawhide Kid'', the main character's enemy is named after the film and his outfit is called "The Cisco Pike Gang". Marvel's Cisco Pike appears in numbers one to five and inhabits the fictional universe
Earth-616
In the fictional Multiverse (Marvel Comics), Marvel Comics multiverse, Earth-616 is the primary continuity (fiction), continuity in which most Marvel Comics titles take place.
Origins of the term
The designation "Earth-616" has its origins in ...
.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of ''Cisco Pike'' is mostly composed of songs, including Kristofferson's "Breakdown (A Long Way from Home)", "The Pilgrim—Chapter 33" and "
Lovin' Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)". These songs had appeared on Kristofferson's 1971 album release, ''
The Silver Tongued Devil and I''. An extended play containing the songs was released by Columbia Records in 1972. The film's soundtrack also includes "Michoacan", which is sung by
Doug Sahm
Douglas Wayne Sahm (November 6, 1941 – November 18, 1999) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from San Antonio, Texas. He is regarded as a key Tejano music, Tex-Mex music and Music of Texas, Texan Music pe ...
during his cameo, as well as "Hootin' and Hollerin" by
Sonny Terry and
Brownie McGhee.
See also
*
List of American films of 1972
This is a list of American films released in 1972.
Box office
The highest-grossing American films released in 1972, by domestic box office gross revenue as estimated by '' The Numbers'', are as follows:
January–March
April–June is
...
Citations
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External links
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{{Bill L. Norton
1972 directorial debut films
1972 drama films
1972 films
American drama films
Columbia Pictures films
American films about cannabis
Films about music and musicians
Films directed by Bill L. Norton
1970s English-language films
1970s American films