The Savage Seven
The Savage Seven is a 1968 outlaw biker exploitation film directed by Richard Rush, who had directed the previous year's Hells Angels on Wheels. Rush agreed to direct The Savage Seven in exchange for the opportunity to make the psychedelic film Psych-Out.
Penny Marshall appears in one of her earliest screen roles.
Plot
Kisum, the leader of a motorcycle gang, is in love with waitress Marcia Little Hawk. Her brother Johnnie Little Hawk, the leader of a group of Indians, is upset about the romance. The bikers and Indians join forces but a scheme by crooked businessmen causes them to become adversaries.Reception
In a contemporary review for The [New York Times], critic Richard F. Shepard wrote: "The movie is one continuous uproar of unmuffled motors and head-cracking and emphasized cruelty from one and to another. It is colorful and technically competent but completely cheap in its primitive, uninquiring, kick'-em-in-the-groin sensationalism, too serious to be lusty and too one-note to be interesting."Several critics consider the film to be a biker film adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic Seven Samurai. In an interview, Rush said that Quentin Tarantino liked this film the best among his line of work.