My wife & I love Repo Man and I actually saw it on release at the old Nickelodeon in Boston. It got a very good review in The Phoenix with much commentary on Michael Nesmith's involvement. I knew little about his life after The Monkees but him pushing through a dystopian punk film with aliens was definitely in my wheelhouse. Went with a buddy and the theater was jammed. (Back then The Phoenix mattered.) The funny part though was that people actually walked out during a couple of different scenes. One was when the CHP got vaporized when he opens the trunk and the other was when Estevez asks for some immediate gratification. The crowd reaction was funny and definitely "WTF?" when they got up & left. My wife & I still quote Miller; plate, fish, plate of fish. She just did last week over a really odd coincidence we experienced together.
Good story.
I found out about Repo Man shortly after I moved down to Austin Tx. for my senior year of HS and my mom gave a booklet for a bunch of "free" stuff from local shops & such and one of the coupons was for a free movie poster at this movie store down on the drag. So while I was out cruising around getting a feel for my new surroundings I stopped in there to see what they had. Well being a college town with a strong film community the poster pickings were pretty slim,the only one that caught my eye was this one w/Emilio on it infront of a '64 Malibu flanked by some sketchy looking folks,so I figured meh I'll just grab that one.
Obviously I had no idea what the movie was about...
Well later on that day I stopped by one of my new friends place and I pulled out that poster and he & his brother just flipped out when they saw it,and I was like so it's a good movie huh,they were like AWWW MAN YOU GOTTA SEE THIS MOVIE,and they clammed up and would'nt tell me anymore about the movie,so they tracked down a copy and we all got good & primed (cue TV Party by Black Flag) and watched it,and I gotta tell you they were right,a true indie classic.
See they were waaayyy into the punk scene,but me I had like zero contact with that scene till I moved down to ATX.
Like a week later I was @ a Circle Jerks show at Liberty Lunch and a whole new world had opened up for me.
My friends took it upon themselves to expose me to more & more of that genre (punk/hardcore) so I could figure out what flavors worked for me and what did'nt,being a metalhead a lot of the crossover stuff was a no-brianer (DRI et-al),but there was a ton of stuff I never would've considered listening to if it had'nt been for those guys.
I had that poster for years and years till I finally relented and gave it to my friend,and then he had it for awhile,though I eventually got it back for some reason I cant really remember anymore. Eventually it was destroyed when the house down there got struck by lightning and caught fire back in '04.
But yeah it's still one of my top 5 movies for sure,absolutely love it.
Yeah the old Lattice "O" coincidence at work all right,that bit is classic.
And everytime I see one of those pine tree air fresheners I have to quote Miller too "find one in every car,you'll see".
I could go on & on,but alas I digress.
Bret P.
