I love this little gem of a forgotten film (which has never had a DVD release, and quickly went OOP shortly after it's early 1980s VHS release). Vince Van Patten as a hillbilly kid, a crazy midget, a visit to a whorehouse, slow motion chicken fights...what else could anyone want from a hixploitation flick (my word)?What is a hixploitation movie? Well...in my definition it's any film that exploits the lifestyle and culture of rural folk...y'know...hillbillis. The last "minority" in American culture we still feel comfortable making fun of the stereotypes.
I discovered Rooster quite by accident...for years as a kid, it seemed like every little mom n pop video rental place in my small rural farmland community in West Union, Ohio had a copy...but they always for some odd reason had it stocked in their horror sections...so for years, I assumed it was some kinda crazy "nature goes wild" scary flick (that seemed to pop up alot in the 1970s) with chickens. Years later, I ran across my ancient VHS copy at a local fleamarket, and mistakenly assumed that it might have been a film that I'd read about a few years earlier (yet had not yet seen), the Monte Hellman directed/ Warren Oates starring Cockfighter, which I probably first read about in college while flipping through my dog-earred copy of Roger Corman's book, How I Made 100 Movies In Hollywood (and Never Lost A Dime)...I knew that Cockfighter had been re-released under a few alternate titles, and I thought that Rooster may have been one of them. Boy...was I wrong....
Track Listing:
01- Intro
02- You're the Proudest Bird (We Know You Can't Fly)
03- Death On Wings
Download Link
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