Around six weeks ago or so,a friend of mine gave me a very interesting challenge,which was to try and hunt down four very rare films that he had been searching after for a good while.Whilst three of the titles seem like ones that I'll have to do a little bit more searching for,I was surprised,when I decided to have a quick search round on Ebay,and I found that this pretty entertaining Grindhouse drama (with Robert Redford!)was being sold on an auction that was about to end in 5 minutes.

The plot:

Taking part in one of his first dirt bike races,Little Fauss meets dirt bike playboy Big Halsy,whose footsteps he would secretly like to follow in,thanks to Halsy always having a girl on his arm and a winning smile on his face.Despite his parents voicing their concerns over him hanging out with an "outlaw",Fauss agrees to a plan which will hopefully make him and Halsy very rich,with him serving as Halsy's mechanic and Halsy impersonating Fauss by wearing his biker costume.

Although things at first go smoothly for the both of them,Little Fauss starts to develop some feelings for Halsy's latest girlfriend.

View on the film:

As the first credits appeared on the film,I was thrilled to hear Johnny Cash deliver a toe-tapping tune that was specially written for this very fun film.For the dirt bike scenes,director Sidney J. Furie (who has also directed the under rated British Horror Doctor Bloods Coffin) gives them a good amount of dirt and sand,which gives the scenes a low budget rawness.

Whilst the first half of this very entertaining Grindhouse film mostly focuses on the bike races,the second half suddenly turns into a really great Road Movie,and although the change of gears in the films style is pretty abrupt,the performances from Robert Redford and Michael J. Pollard make sure that the film never stops being fun.For his performance,Robert Redford shows a wonderful amount of charm playing Halsy,as Fauss and Halsy's latest girlfriend are initially left dazzled by his charisma.

With Redford playing the outlaw,Pollard cleverly shows the nervousness that Fauss at first experiences when he enters the "outside" world,which Pollard shows slowly changes,from Fauss being an admire of the way Halsy lives his life,to him almost not being able to stand the very site of him.

A genuinely odd, surreal jumble of visual ideas which probably looked extremely puzzling on the printed page--just what drew Robert Redford to the project, one may never know. Sidney J. Furie directs this knockabout journey of an egotistical motorcycle racer taking a milquetoast juvenile under his wing. The kid looks up to this anti-hero, and eventually begins to ape his amorality. Disjointed and off-putting, although for some the sight of Redford disrobing, about to disrobe or having been disrobed might be enough to warrant attention. Lauren Hutton gets naked, too, however all the sexy flashes are just teasers for the prurient-minded; there simply is no story. Perhaps Furie was making an esoteric comment about feckless wheelers and their flock circa 1970. If true, then this pre-Blank Generation approach backfired, as the film was not a success. *1/2 from ****

When Alex Cox used to present the BBC's cult film strand Moviedrome. He boasted that you will not find films from the likes of Robert Redford here.

Little Fauss and Big Halsy would had been tailor made for Moviedrome. It is a cult obscure film. It was made just as Redford was on the cusp of superstardom.

Redford plays Halsy Knox a braggart. A small time womanising motorbike racer and petty crook always looking for his next buck. Halsy can race but he does not have temperament or the mechanical knowledge to be a winner.

Halsy meets Little Fauss (Michael J Pollard) a mechanic who wants to be a racer. He just cannot stay on his bike when he goes fast. His parents are oafs and Fauss is shy with a child like innocence. He has no friends.

Fauss hooks up with Halsy, he tunes his bikes and Halsy races, they even make some money. Fauss soon sees through Halsy's tall tales and his womanising. Halsy always hooks up with a floozy who hangs around the races.

Fauss is upset when Rita Nebraska (Lauren Hutton) who came across them running totally naked before a race, falls for Halsy even though she is aware that he is shallow and unreliable.

There is an element of the counterculture in this movie. There are several songs from Johnny Cash. There is full frontal nudity. It is an atypical Redford film, he is a chancer with no redeeming features. He appears half naked for most of the movie, shirtless and showing a long scar on his back.

There are hints of homoeroticism. One male photographer at the beginning of the movie is more interested in photographing Halsy's bronzed torso.

Fauss grows up as a person with his time with Halsy. He becomes a better racer and he also gets to have sex with one of Halsy's cast offs. He also tries to leave them in the same way as Halsy by sneaking away early in the morning.

The main difference is Fauss still remains a better person. This comes up when he talks about being drafted to the army, Halsy then reveals how he got his scar on his back.

Little Fauss and Big Halsy is a small scale character piece and part road movie. Robert Redford was interested in flawed people. A year before this he played an Olympic skier in Downhill Racer. His character was selfish who was only interested in winning gold.

In The Great Waldo Pepper made in 1975, Redford played a stunt pilot who told tall tales of his exploits in World War One. The box office failure of that film meant that Redford stuck with mainly heroic parts. Only as director would he examine the darker side of the American dream.

Director Sidney J Furie has made an offbeat and meandering look at Americana. The script is too thin and also predictable. Furie pumps it up with the race scenes.