The TSL Grindhouse: The Survivalist (dir by Sig Shore)

Posted on January 14, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1987’s The Survivalist opens with a mushroom cloud forming over a frozen landscape.

In America, a nervous-looking newscaster announces that someone has set off a nuclear bomb in Siberia. The bomb was apparently a “suitcase bomb” and it was probably set off by a group of terrorists who figured bombing one of the most desolate and sparsely-populated places on Earth would make their point. However, the Russians are convinced that America was behind the bomb. Nuclear war is eminent.

People go into a panic. Civil disorder breaks out. Even a small town in South Texas finds itself in the grip of societal collapse. Fortunately, independent builder Jack Tilman (Steve Railsback) has spent his life preparing for this moment. He has hundreds of guns and explosives and he’s prepared to take his family into the desert while civilization collapses. When a desperate neighbor comes back Jack’s house and asks for a gun, Jack gives him a shotgun and then reacts with shocks when his friend reveals that he’s never fired a gun before. Considering that they live in South Texas, I’m surprised too.

(Seriously, how do they scare off the coyotes?)

Jack leaves his home to get some gasoline for their trip. While he’s out, he’s harassed by the motorcycle riding Lt. Youngman (Marjoe Gortner). Youngman is with the National Guard and, apparently, the National Guard has turned into a motorcycle gang. Youngman is declaring martial law and setting himself up as a warlord. With his perpetual smirk and his feathered hair, Lt. Youngman epitomizes the arrogance of authority. Jack has no use for him. Jack also has no use for anyone who wants to keep him from getting his money out of the bank. Jack has access to a bulldozer, after all.

Unfortunately, while Jack is arguing with Youngman and smashing into the bank, a group of hippies are breaking into his house and killing his family. A half-crazed Jack kidnaps two of his friends — Dr. Vincent Ryan (Cliff DeYoung) and his wife, Linda (Susan Blakely) — and he takes them into the desert with him. When Vincent demands to know why they’ve been kidnapped, Jack says that he’s trying to protect them. Linda gets it. Unfortunately, Vincent doesn’t.

Last night, I was searching for some Marjoe Gortner films to review. I came across The Survivalist on Letterboxed and I also came across some amazingly vitriolic reviews, largely from Leftists who accused the film of being a paranoid right-wing fantasy. I read those reviews and I thought to myself, “It stars Steve Railsback and Marjoe Gortner and it annoys the commies? I have to watch this!” I was able to track the film down on YouTube and I proceeded to spend 90 minutes watching civilization collapse.

Is it a good film? It depends on how you define good. It’s a low-budget, unashamedly trashy film that was clearly meant to appeal to people with a very definite worldview, one that the filmmakers may not have shared. (Most films are made solely to make money and any message that is selected is selected out of the hope that it will be profitable.) The government is corrupt. Most of the citizens have become complacent and aren’t prepared to handle any sort of crisis. When civilization collapses, only men like Jack Tilman and Lt. Youngman will thrive because they’re willing to be ruthless. To try to rationalize the situation, as Dr. Ryan does, is an often fatal mistake. In short, The Survivalist is a very paranoid film. That said, its story and its worldview really isn’t all that different from One Battle After Another.

I enjoyed The Survivalist, precisely because it is such a shameless film. This is the type of movie where the National Guard rides motorcycles and blow up random buildings for fun. It’s the type of film where one gunshot can cause a car to explode. It’s the type of film where actors like Cliff DeYoung and Susan Blakeley attempt to find some sort of deeper meaning in their awkward dialogue while Steve Railsback does his Clint Eastwood impersonation. Best of all, it’s got Marjoe Gortner going totally over-the-top as a smug authority figure. It’s a fun movie, a trashier version of Red Dawn.

What’s not to love?

That’s The Way Of The World (1975, directed by Sig Shore)

Posted on April 18, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

Welcome to the down and dirty world of the music industry in the 1970s.

Coleman Buckmaster (Harvey Keitel) is a record producer who is known as the “Golden Ear,” because of his success at discovering new talent. Coleman is the son of a jazz pianist (to whom he brings a birthday present of cocaine) and he is convinced that consumers are not as dumb as music execs assume that they are. He believes that his latest group, known simply as The Group (but played by Earth, Wind, & Fire), have what it takes to become a big success despite not having a conventionally commercial image.

Coleman’s boss, Carlton James (Ed Nelson), disagrees. Carlton orders Coleman to spend less time working with The Group and to instead devote his energy to producing a single for a new band called The Pages. Led by Franklyn Page (Bert Parks), the Pages present themselves as being a clean-cut and wholesome family band. Carlton is sure that their innocuous style and feel-good harmonies are going to be “the sound of the 70s.” Coleman disagrees but he tries to balance working with both groups. While he tries to make The Group into a success, he also tries to find something worthwhile in The Pages’ new single, “Joy Joy Joy.” Complicating matters is that, against his better instincts, Coleman has fallen into a relationship with Velour Page (Cynthia Bostick), who is not as innocent as the band’s image makers makes her out to be.

Written by journalist Robert Lipsyte and directed by producer Sig Shore (he did Superfly), That’s The Way Of The World is an interesting look at what was going on behind the scenes of the music industry in the 70s. It’s not the first film to suggest that the recording industry was run by unethical and corrupt record labels (nor would it be the last) but it feels authentic in a way that a lot of other music industry films don’t. That’s The Way Of The World emphasizes just how manufactured most popular music is. Insisting on trying to do something different, as the Group does, will only lead to you being snubbed by the industry. Play ball and record music that means nothing — like the Pages — and you’ll become a star overnight. Having a hit has less to do with the work you put into it and more with how many people your label is willing to pay off. As one exec puts it, getting your record played on the radio (in those days before YouTube and Soundcloud) means resorting “payola, layola, and drugola.” Harvey Keitel performs his role with his trademark intensity and Bert Parks is brilliantly cast as the thoroughly fake Franklyn Page.

Today, The Way Of The World is best-known for its soundtrack, which was also one of Earth, Wind, and Fire’s best-selling albums. Though the film was a bomb at the box office, the album was not. The Group may have struggled to get anyone to listen but Earth, Wind, and Fire became the first black group to top both the Billboard album and singles charts.

Beware The Pages

That’s Blaxploitation! 8: SUPER FLY (Warner Brothers 1972)

Posted on November 19, 2016 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

Pimpmobiles, outrageous fashions, and the funkiest score in movie history are only part of what makes SUPER FLY one of the best Blaxploitation/Grindhouse hits of all time. This low-budget film by director Gordon Parks Jr. captures the grittiness of 70’s New York in a way few larger productions ever could in its portrait of a street hustler yearning to get out of the life.

Priest is a New York City coke dealer with all the outward trappings of success. As his partner Eddie puts it, he’s got “8-Track stereo, color TV in every room, and you can snort a half piece of dope every day… that’s the American dream, nigga! Ain’t it?”. To Priest, the answer is no. He’s tired of the hustle, the rip-off artists, and the deadbeats like Fat Freddie, and he’s got a plan to get out for good by scoring 30 keys through his mentor Scatter, selling…

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