Black Oak Conspiracy (1977)

That was an excellent one.

One of my all time favorites.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Jesse Vint stars as a guy who moves back to his small home town because his mother has taken ill. He learns that she sold the family farm at some point to a local mining concern, and when he starts asking questions, the sheriff (Albert Salmi) takes a keen interest in discouraging him. Vint co-wrote and produced this flick which is a rather obvious attempt at cashing in on the success of "Walking Tall". This one's an immensely slow burner that doesn't really build up to much of anything. The poster promises a lot more action than the film delivers. Seymour Cassel co-stars as Vint's closest friend. As expected, he's good, but he's hardly convincing as a small town southerner.

then you should check this out. This is an entertaining good ol' boy action flick. Hollywood stuntman Jingo (Jesse Vint) returns to his hometown in Oklahoma when his mother takes ill. He immediately suspects something isn't right with his mother's situation (she is nearly catatonic and in a nursing home) so he begins to investigate. He uncovers the scheme involving the sheriff, a local doctor, cheap property and the local land mine. And, naturally, he wins back the girl he left in town. It is strange how this type of film (small town conspiracy) was so predominant in the 70s but rarely gets made today. BOC is a bit slow in the beginning but picks up toward the end with a fun car chase and a couple of really shocking shootings. Sadly, the poster, featuring a bloodied and beaten Vint with a shotgun and overturned cars, depicts stuff that never happens in the movie.

I caught only the last part of this on television once. I'm going to have to wing it. Jesse Vint is the star playing the hero, Jingo. Jesse Vint has had a lot of roles, including a starring one in Macon County Line. Well, it seems old Jingo left his hometown of Black Oak and became a stuntman, a good occupation for a good old boy. Then it seems that for some reason old Jingo comes back to his hometown of Black Oak. Then it seems that naturally his old friends and family treat him as a hometown boy who went out into the world and done good. Jingo drives a black El Camino with sidepipes (This was the '70s!). But it seems that things are not quite right in Black Oak. It seems that people are dying suspiciously, etc., etc. Well, naturally the locals are helpless to do anything about whatever is going on. Well, naturally it takes a world-wise outsider like Jingo to investigate and see that there is a conspiracy in Black Oak. And just what is the Black Oak conspiracy? Why, it's a money-making racket designed to get money from the Black Oak residents from the cradle to the grave! It's worse than just death and taxes! As I recall, Jingo had an old friend who was a cop, and Jingo put a potato in his exhaust pipe so Jingo could go somewhere and the cop couldn't. And then there was this strip mine with big Terex trucks in it, and naturally Jingo has to have a showdown there like Arnold Schwartzenegger in Raw Deal. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if Jingo plumb wipes out this Black Oak conspiracy. I wouldn't be surprised if his friend the cop had a couple potatoes to stick in a certain place for fun, either.