The fact that this "tuchia" gets 6 stars on the IMDb scale and Two Lane Blacktop rates only 7.2 is proof how meaningless these aggregate scores are. I do sometimes wonder how much is lost in the pan-and-scan releases that these B movies get but I don't think anything could raise this film above bad and pretentious. Whether this is the fault of the producers or the director is usually a tale untold. My guess is that the producers wanted Agutter naked for half the film (bad) and that Hellman thought it would be cool to have Peckinpah mumble a few lines (pretentious). One interesting note is that this is the only screen credit for Jerry Harvey, the ill-fated programming genius behind Z channel in LA during the 1980's.
Review of China 9, Liberty 37
