Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 06:39:25 -0700
Reply-To: Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Movie review: "Rickshaw Vanagon"
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Movie: "Rickshaw Vanagon"
Reviewed by Jeffrey Earl
If you've not yet experienced Steve Gough's "Rickshaw
Vanagon" www.emriver.com/rickvan.htm I wholeheartedly
urge you to do so. Whether you own a Vanagon or you
simply enjoy a rollicking good tale, you will not be
disappointed. Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm
all thumbs, and when I had finished viewing this
soon-to-be classic, all ten thumbs were firmly UP.
We've all come to expect movie sequels to be inferior
in most respects to the progenitors from which they
spring. The universally disappointing "Caddyshack II",
"Star Wars: Phantom Menace", and "Look Who's Talking
Too" come to mind. Unfortunately.
Rare exceptions to this cinematic axiom include the
"Earnest Goes to (Blank)" films and those sublime
"Police Academy" movies, which exceeded even our
highest expectations and only continued to push the
zenith of filmic excellence ever higher.
Such is the exceptional nature of "Rickshaw Vanagon",
the latest high-concept offering from cinematic genius
Steve Gough. Where "backfire"
www.emriver.com/vandemon.htm --the first installment
of what we can only hope is an epic
trilogy--chronicled the original sin and fall from
grace of Gough's unnamed 1986 VW Vanagon Westfalia
camper, "Rickshaw Vanagon" continues and furthers the
story arc of his beloved Westy. Through numerous
trials and challenges, but most importantly through
the supernatural aid and assistance of an expanded
cast of unlikely characters, we cheer as his namesake
Vanagon finally roars to life and embarks upon its
great journey.
JaJa the Wonder Dog, like that other familiar furry
sidekick, Chewbacca, is enigmatically silent
throughout most of this classic tale. But he embodies
that darkly animalistic and primal lifeforce within us
all, manifested by his simple canine utterances of
affirmation.
Chirping words of wisdom and crackin' wise from his
post in the engine compartment, Lufty the AFM is
vaguely reminiscent of movie 'droid R2-D2 dutifully
ensconced in the mechanical innards of Luke
Skywalker's X-wing fighter in "Star Wars". Though
Lufty is but a single cog in this vast and complex
cosmic machine we call life, his absence would spell
doom for the entire adventure.
When we first meet Kate, she is the subservient and
long-suffering assistant, calling out the minute
details which inevitably comprise every Vanagon
journey, in the symbolical "backseat" role. But before
this valiant tale is over, we see that she--like every
Vanagon spouse or significant other--both figuratively
and quite literally provides the driving force and
motive energy behind this odyssey.
As for Gough's character, well, he is but a figurehead
in the larger scheme of things. For we see that like
all of us who sail the high seas of misadventure in
our decrepit and ill-fated Vanagons, Gough is in truth
not the captain of his own ship, nor the master of his
own destiny. Rather, he is a mere mortal, forever a
victim struggling against the whimsical tides and
capricious undercurrents of the inscrutable gods in
whose hands our fortunes lie. Like Han Solo, he barks
orders from the wheel of his patched-together craft,
but in the end it is the ragtag crew with whom he
surrounds himself who truly make the journey possible.
Though the special effects of "Rickshaw Vanagon" are
sometimes distractingly implausible (are we really to
believe that Bosch, maker of fine labor-SAVING
devices, would ever make an exer-cycle?), the film
represents a refreshing return to a time when form
followed function, and style followed story.
If one accepts the typical Westy journey, with all its
adventure and misfortune, as a metaphor for life (and
who doesn't?), then "Rickshaw Vanagon" begs for
resolution. In the closing scene, as we watch the
Westy exit stage right, ass-backwards presumably onto
the open road, we wonder what trials and tribulations
await it there, and whether the good ship and crew
will achieve final redemption in the larger world. We
can only hope that Gough intends to close the circle
on his epic saga, delivering with the same vision and
craft the final, grand conclusion for which we so
desperately yearn. If he does, I assert that Gough's
"backfire" trilogy shall thereby take its rightful
place in our popular lore, the modern cultural
mythology by which we define ourselves.
JEFFREY EARL is not a film critic, but he plays one on
the internet.
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