Russ Mayberry (1925–2012)

This is a hugely likeable and offbeat biker movie about a gang of riders, led by the charismatic Waco (Robert Porter), who buy or rent (it’s not 100% clear) a set of cool chopped motorcycles. Unknown to the bikers their hogs are packed with heroin and when they get stopped at a checkpoint by a vicious cop named Tarboro (Billy Green Bush) they cut and run fleeing to a nearby convent. With Tarboro and cops on their trail they have no option but to bust out of the convent holding a nun, Sister Anna (Tippy Walker), hostage. They flee into the deep desert where Anna is soon seduced by their freedom-loving lifestyle and falling in love with the free-spirited Waco. Unfortunately, the deadly Tarboro and his violent cop cohorts are far from finished with the gang. Although this is a distinctly low budget effort from director Russ Mayberry and writer Dick Posten it is still quite an affecting, if simplistic, piece of counter-cultural cinema. The bikers are sympathetic, with a code of honour and desire to be left alone to live a simple life, while the cops are unsympathetically corrupt and double-dealing authority figures. Mayberry tells the story in a low key and haunting manner, with the relationship between Waco and Anna nicely realised against beautiful sunsets and vast open desert vistas. Some of the imagery is nicely inventive – the closing shots just ahead of the credits are stunningly framed in blazing reds. Some of the allegory is fairly obvious and the down-beat ending is par-for-the-course for this type of counter-culture film of the era, but none of that really distracts. The cinematography by Flemming Olsen is very good with some excellent sequences of bikes out on the open road. The neat, minimalist score is by Berardo Segall, with the film bookended by a nice ballad by Lee Dresser. “The Jesus Trip” is a hugely enjoyable and arty film; off-beat, touching, with a wide streak of poignant sentimentality and all tinged with a bitter flavouring of doomed youth.… (más)