Six-String Samurai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Six-String Samurai
Six-String Samurai DVD cover
Directed by	Lance Mungia
Produced by	Michael Burns Leanna Creel
Written by	Jeffrey Falcon Lance Mungia
Starring	Jeffrey Falcon
Music by	Red Elvises Brian Tyler
Cinematography	Kristian Bernier
Editing by	James Frisa
Distributed by	Palm Pictures
Release date(s)	1998
Running time	91 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$1 million+ USD
IMDb profile

Six-String Samurai is a 1998 post-apocalyptic action/comedy film directed by Lance Mungia. Brian Tyler composed the score for this film, along with the Red Elvises who provided a majority of the soundtrack.

Six-String Samurai was greeted with a great deal of excitement when shown at Slamdance in 1998, winning the Slamdance awards for best editing and cinematography, and gathering extremely favorable reviews from influential alternative, cult and indie film publications such as Fangoria, Film Threat^[1] and Ain't It Cool News. Film Threat, in fact, went so far as to call it "the best indie film of 1998."

In a limited theatrical release the film ran for several months in a few theaters, gaining a reputation as a minor cult film; having a budget of $2,000,000, it only made a mere $124,494 at the box offices. An intended trilogy has been discussed but not yet realized, just like the predicted launching of the career of the film's star, Jeffrey Falcon, a martial artist who had appeared in several Hong Kong action movies in the 80s and early 90s. While Mungia made several music videos, he did not direct another feature until the 2005 film, The Crow: Wicked Prayer.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Six-String Samurai is set in an alternate history America, in which Russia launched several nuclear warheads at the U.S. in 1957, reducing most of the United States to an inhospitable desert. The government has entirely collapsed save for the Kingdom of Elvis, who rules from Lost Vegas to California. The Red Army is besieging Vegas, but the lack of supplies and equipment ("We haven't had bullets since 1957" comments a Russian general in the movie) from the Soviet Union has caused them to degenerate into just another gang sqabbling for territory. As the movie begins, Elvis has died and all musical virtuosos are travelling to Lost Vegas to try to become the new King of Rock'n'Roll.

Buddy (Jeffrey Falcon), a Buddy Holly look-alike, is one of the musicians converging on Lost Vegas on the death of The King. Early in his travels, he finds himself obliged to take care of a kid, named Kid (Justin McGuire). While Buddy resents having to look after the Kid, the Kid turns out to prove his worth in a few key situations.

Buddy comes across many people in his travels, ranging from a zombie-like, cannibal suburban family to the 'windmill people' who appear to be the remnants of the Area 51 staff, to the filthy tribals that make up most of the civilian population. He also combats many foes, including a samurai, a bowling team of bounty-hunters, a Russian surf band (the Red Elvises), and the Russian army laying siege to Lost Vegas. Throughout his journey, Buddy is stalked by his greatest foe: a sinister Slash look-alike who might be the personified Grim Reaper, and his grungy group of guitarists/archers; the goal of "Death" is the elimination of all King-wannabe rivals and the conquest of Vegas (this being penultimate to the actual motive, that of removing Rock'n'Roll music from society and replacing it with the sound of Heavy Metal!)