The Sidehackers

Plot

The film centers on Rommel, a mechanic and sidehack-style racer, who turns down the offer of J.C., a hot-tempered entertainer, to join his act after J.C. witnesses a sidehack race for the first time. J.C.'s abused girlfriend, Paisley, falls for Rommel and attempts to seduce him. He rejects her advances and sends her away crying. Later, when J.C. and his crew return to their hotel, they find Paisley drunk and her clothes tattered, claiming that Rommel raped her. Angered, J.C. and his gang beat Rommel unconscious, then rape and kill his fiancee, Rita. Rommel then spends the rest of the movie plotting his revenge against J.C., who goes into hiding from the police.

The film's end is nihilistic in nature. After both Rommel and J.C.'s men have killed each other (while two of Rommel's men escaped on a sidehack bike), the two men brawl. When Rommel manages to gain the upper hand, he elects to walk away when the police are about to arrive, but J.C. picks up a gun and shoots Rommel from behind. The last images of the film are a flashback of Rommel and his fiancee rolling about in a grassy field, superimposed over a shot of Rommel's dead body.

Cast

Mystery Science Theater 3000

On September 29, 1990, Sidehackers was featured and lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The episode (Season 2, Episode 2) includes one of the few occasions Cambot actually interacts in a way other than filming the experiment, by placing an ESPN-like score graphic during the movie's racing scenes. The episode was released on DVD by Rhino Entertainment as part of the third volume of Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD box sets.

Edits
The writers were unaware of the film's darker content when they selected it for the show, only watching it in its entirety during their usual joke-writing sessions. They were horrified to discover the scene in which Rommel's girlfriend Rita is raped and dies, juxtaposed with shots of Luke and Lois' children playfully roughhousing. This scene, and the discovery of Rita's nearly nude body, were removed from the episode. To make up for the missing plot point, the character of Crow later remarks, "For those of you playing along at home, Rita is dead." According to the series' head writer, Michael J. Nelson, "We were all traumatized, the scene got cut, and from that day forward, movies were watched in their entirety before they were selected." Earlier in the episode, the dinner scene at Rommel and Rita's cabin is also edited slightly: when J.C. flies into a rage and Nero tries to calm him, J.C. pushes him away, saying "Take your hands off me, you dirty nigger!" The latter half of the line is muted while Joel and the bots loudly rebuke J.C.

Soundtrack

The movie's soundtrack LP was issued in 1969 in the USA by Amaret records (ST 5004). The music was composed by Mike Curb and Jerry Styner, with lyrics by Guy Henric, and performed by the psychedelic, West Coast, rock band The New Life.

Track Listing:
1. Five The Hard Way
2. Love Theme [instrumental]
3. Strollin' Sunday Mornin'
4. 5 The Hard Way [instrumental]
5. Ha Lese Le Di Khanna
6. Only Love [instrumental reprise]
7. Sidehacker
8. Psychedelic Rape
9. I Wanna Cry
10. Five The Hard Way [instrumental reprise]
11. Only Love [not version heard in the film]

The New Life were formed from the ashes of another band, The Cindermen, who were a garage rock group signed by Moonglow Records in 1965. The New Life was formed by Don Whaley; Alan Shapazian (ex-member of Raik's Progress); Phil Reed; and Duane Scott (also ex-member of Raik's Progress) who was the original keyboard player. Steve Wood, who had been in an Oak Cliff, Dallas, band called The Penthouse, replaced Duane Scott after about a year into the band. Besides the Sidehackers soundtrack, they also scored songs for a movie called Black Water Gold. The New Life broke up in 1970.