Love & a .45

Love and a Colt 45 are all you need in life, according to store-robber Watty Watts, and he has both. He takes the Colt out ''shopping'', unloaded of course, since he doesn't want to harm anyone while working. Back in the trailer park Watty's pretty girlfriend, Starlene, is awaiting her lover and hero's return.

They have a pretty good life, considering that they are poor, white trash from Texas, that is. At least they are quite happy. However, there is one small cloud on the horizon in the shape of Dino Bob and Creepy Cody, two heavily stoned loan sharks, who want to have a talk with Watty about the $ 2 000 he borrowed from their boss.

In order to sort out the loan, Watty is persuaded by his prison pal, the biker and speed-freak Billy Mack, to do a small job in a one-horse town. Billy Mack, stoned on amphetamine up to his eye-balls, breaks rule number one. He walks into the store with a loaded weapon and it all ends in carnage. When Billy starts to make trouble Watty is forced to stab his pal in the neck with a fork, and suddenly Watty's and Starlene's tranquil life only just on the other side of the law is turned into the life of a fugitive.

Love & a .45 is an American roadmovie of the bizarre and violent kind. It is clearly a film that few would have dared to produce before Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. However, even though C. M. Talkington pinches bits from here and there and exploits a genre filled with clichés for his own purposes, there are scenes where both the actors' and the director's own personalities shine through.

The fact that the film was made, against the clock and faced virtually every problem a low-budget movie of this kind is supposed to face (film disappears, entire shoots ruined when developed, etc) is one thing. However, when the film team, on top of everything else, manages to get lost and enter a private property in one of the more lawless parts of Texas (where home-distilling, amphetamine production and growing cannabis are among the side-lines), and are chased by a gang armed with Uzis and an abundance of Dobermanns and are almost shot, that is beyond the call of duty.

Love & a .45 is the director C. M. Talkington's first full length feature and he stays within an American tradition richly exploited during the last couple of years. Films such as Wild at Heart, Kalifornia, Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers are vital reference points.
STEFAN MALMQVIST

Medverkande
Gil Bellows, Renee Zelwegger, Rory Cochrane, Peter Fonda: Producent
Darin Scott: Manus
C.M. Talkington: Foto
Tom Richmond: Musik
Tom Verlaine: Talat språk
English