That was an excellent one.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The movie itself is so-so, meandering around a lot and ending up more or less nowhere. Michael Parks' "Bronson" character says little, and makes even less sense. I suppose the fact that it is a pilot for the series somewhat mitigates this criticism. Nevertheless this movie is a must-watch, if only for a gorgeous Bonnie Bedelia in her early twenties, well before her "Die Hard" days.

I missed TCB in its original run. I was just out of the Army, going to college, and working evenings. I first saw the series when TBS ran it at 2am on Wednesdays around 1985 or '86. They also ran the pilot during normal hours--and they ran it with the reels out of sequence! Incredible. It jumped from reel 1 to reel 3, then back to 2, then the end. The regular series episodes ran properly, and I was hooked.For several years, I had many of the episodes recorded on VHS still usable, but they deteriorated, and now I don't even have a VCR. Over the years since, I've encountered numerous TCB websites and a few "petitions" for TCB on DVD. Amazing for a one-season show. Today, though, I think there may be hope for us Bronson fans. I just purchased a download of the pilot feature length episode from the Warner Bros store for $15. It is also available as a "made to order" DVD on that site for $20 plus shipping.Interesting the comparisons to "Route 66" and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", both of which I know well. Indeed, Jack Kerouac even initiated a lawsuit against the producers of "Route 66". Route 66 from the beginning of the 60's and TCB from the end. In between there was Star Trek, and that's about it!

I think the show was almost a precursor for the generation: No one really wanted to be that guy in the station wagon (tho most of us did eventually sell out.) Everyone wanted to be Bronson. And I can tell you for certain that spirit still lives. As I grew a little older, kids grew up, started college and began to move on, I was able to fulfill a dream by purchasing a Harley. I can tell you that wherever I go RIDING, people want to talk to you, find out where you are going - curiosity and envy - just like the 'station wagon guy.' Nobody ever cared where the 'station wagon guy' was going. We all knew. We'll never know of course (since it is, after all, fiction) whether the suit ever was able to break free. But a lot of us did. Better late than never. Never give up on your dreams.

Then Came Bronson was seminal and what I remember most about it (since I was 12 when I saw it for the first time) was the notion that you could lose yourself in America by simply getting on a motorcycle and disappearing. The imagery was perfect for young guys like myself who were watching people come back from Vietnam, utterly broken by the events of the period. The theme of "no ties" was utterly appealing to many people who felt that any connection to the "establishment" was empty and devoid of the satisfaction one could get from simply getting lost and "being free." The main character was far less hardened than other similar leading dropouts of the same genre (Fonda, Brando, Hopper) and far less psychodelic than guys pushing the "trippy" side of late 60's America. Bronson was more of a workin man's dropout and that's what I loved about him. And the mountain climb was unique. I think a whole generation of dirt-bikers caught the bug after seeing this movie for the first time.Very cool, man.