Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 3, 2024)
In all my years, I never heard of “Hicksploitation” as a film genre. Today launches me into a new cinematic universe via 1976’s Redneck Miller!
Radio personality DJ Miller (Geoffrey Land) drinks hard and loves to drive his beloved motorcycle. A crisis emerges when lowlife Ray (Paul Walsh) steals his chopper.
Ray uses DJ’s bike to steal drugs from gangster Supermac (???), a factor that then puts DJ in the crosshairs. These events lead DJ on a crusade.
Although I never heard the term “Hicksploitation” – or “Hixploitation” - until now, a little research into the genre indicates that it covers a variety of flicks. For instance, apparently horror movies like Motel Hell and Texas Chain Saw Massacre fall under the “Hicksploitation” banner.
Whatever the case, Miller brings something that turns into firm cheap drive-in fare. Apparently little-seen until noted “grindhouse” aficionado Quentin Tarantino championed it circa 2007, this movie went largely unknown for decades.
Does Miller deserve to emerge from obscurity? Heavens no – it winds up as a submediocre piece of grindhouse nonsense.
Tarantino often touts his love of obscure genre efforts, and I occasionally think he does so as a goof. Someone with his talent must understand that Miller offers poorly-made junk, so it feels as though he wants to fool his public into praise for terrible films.
Though my synopsis implies a tight little tale of a manly man on a mission, Miller offers an oddly rambling narrative. Rather than pursue the story at its core, the filmmakers prefer to wander about aimlessly instead.
Even at a mere 89 minutes, Miller feels padded. It comes with little actual development and simply tends to meander.
None of this ever becomes even vaguely compelling. Oh, it can feel oddly intriguing to watch the “Hicksploitation” genre butt heads with “Blacksploitation”, given that Supermac and his cronies feel like outcasts from the world of Super Fly who make no sense in this flick’s universe.
Even those elements don’t ever seem more than cheesy, and not in a “so bad it’s good” manner. Miller leans toward parody when it gets into its Blacksploitation side, though I don’t think the filmmakers did so intentionally.
Instead, I believe they simply made tacky stabs at “the Black experience” without any awareness how racist and tacky these moments looked. Granted, those elements seemed less egregious in 1976, but nonetheless, Supermac and his underlings never become more than cheap stereotypes.
At least they show some personality, which is more than I can say for our title character. As played by Land, DJ becomes a dull, charisma-free role.
It doesn’t help that Land sounds more like he’s from the Midwest than from the deep south. It also turns into a problem that he never shows any form of “Good Ol’ Boy” side that would make sense for a character called "Redneck”.
Perhaps I wouldn’t mind those issues if Land didn’t seem so flat and dull the whole time. He makes for a completely blah leading man, as he can’t pull off any of the movie’s demands in terms of romance or action.
DJ needs to be a charming cad who seems irresistible to the ladies and aspirational to the men – ie, someone akin to Burt Reynolds in the 1970s. Instead, he comes across as an unpleasant jerk with no charm or redeeming qualities.
Miller boasts some fine eye candy at times, mainly from the unnamed actor who plays DJ’s semi-girlfriend Jenny. Otherwise, this becomes an amateurish and forgettable stab at an 1970s action-thriller.
