Bullet Points: Deadbeat at Dawn
This past Christmas I did something I very rarely do; buy a movie with little to no knowledge of it. Well, I guess adding a film to my Amazon wish list doesn’t constitute as buying it myself but it was a commitment, nonetheless. What I found with this gift/purchase may have strengthened my resolve to do this again and again.
Synopsis: Ravens gang leader Goose (Jim Van Bebber) decides to leave the lifestyle of gang warfare he has grown so accustomed to with The Spiders after his girlfriend begs him to leave. Sadly, Goose isn’t able to just up and walk away from the life and he’s driven back into it more deeply than ever. This time, though, he has revenge on his mind.
- Cemetery Throwdown: You’ll know to a certain extent what you’re in for when the movie damn-near starts with a gang fight scene in a cemetery. Goose (Bebber) goes mano-a-mano with the Spiders leader Danny (Paul Harper). Harper can best be described as a mustachioed man who wears cheap Halloween masks around and somehow gets more unlikable the longer the film goes on. Goose gets to show off his fight skills early on and you’ll be surprised by just how decent he is with a pair of nunchuku. The fight finally breaks down when the police show up but consider this early scene just a taste of what is about to go down.
- Tools of the Trade: Goose is the leader of the Ravens. A gang in Dayton, Ohio. As an Ohio guy, myself, I can’t vouch for how shitty Dayton was in the 80’s but I can say that it is currently pretty shitty and I can believe that this level of shittiness was achievable just a few decades ago. My favorite part of Goose, the gangster, has to be his expertise with weapons. Guns, knives, throwing stars, chucks, and just about anything he can get his hands onto becomes a weapon for a man with the skill to use them.
- Easily Convinced: It’s only shortly after the fight in the graveyard that Goose’s girlfriend Christy convinces him to give up the good life. And by “good life” I mean getting stabbed by men in Halloween masks, living in a dump of an apartment, and stealing random bikes on the street to make a quick buck. Christy uses the greatest power in the world to get Goose to quit his crew; the power of the poonany. The big problem lies in when Goose finally tells his fellow Ravens that he isn’t planning on retiring as one of them. It ain’t good….
- One Angry Goose: Keith (Ric Walker) might be the new head honcho with the Ravens but he doesn’t learn much from Goose on his way out. His first two decisions as gang leader are bad ones and the first has to do with killing Goose at his home. They should have known that Goose had a closet full of leather jackets and there is absolutely no reason to ever piss off a man with a leather jacket.
- Nooooooo: As you might expect, Goose returns to his humble apartment to find his lovely lady a mess. Dead, in fact. It’s a very sad and touching moment when Goose screams wildly before rolling Christy into her favorite comforter and dumping her in a local trash compactor. Romantic it may not be but Goose is dead set on getting his revenge. First things first, lets go see Daddy….
- Montages and Bad Parenting: Goose’s father is a real piece of work. Between psychotic rants, threatening Goose with a baseball bat, and shooting smack in between his toes, it’s a very sad existence. Luckily, Goose decides to get the hell out of there and start training for his ultimate revenge. Unlike some of the other action greats Goose’s montage is more about doing drugs and chugging whiskey. To each his own, I guess!
- One Last Job: Well shit. All that partying really did Goose in and he finds himself working once again with the Ravens and the Spiders to do one last heist. It’s a big one this time, too. It could set both gangs up to run shit in the city for some time. As you might expect, though, not everything goes as planned and we’re set up for a final act that might be too much for some of you to handle.
- A Bone Crushing Finale: The final 15 minutes or so of the movie left me with all the satisfaction that I could hope for. Goose faces off against Danny and a number of other Spiders which included the man who killed his lady, Bone Crusher. The fights are awesome! Ninja stars to the face, heads getting caved in by nunchuku, and dudes getting thrown from rooftops. Goose goes absolutely nuts beating the shit out of these guys and I think he actually ripped one man’s throat out at some point. To say that the finale knocked it out of the park would be an understatement. I loved it!
The Verdict: Deadbeat at Dawn is a low budget film. It has many actors who will never win any awards for their abilities and the effects aren’t great at times. BUT, it’s one of the best ultra low budget action films I’ve ever seen. It’s a dirty movie filled with the scum of society doing horrible things to each other. Even the hero of the movie is constantly doing drugs and being a vagrant throughout. The movie reminded me a bit of my first time watching Deadly Prey and how much I enjoyed it. It’s not high art but put it all together and Deadbeat at Dawn was an extremely entertaining experience.
