Six-String Samurai

Plot synopsis:
In 1957, the Soviet Union attacks the United States with nuclear weapons, rendering most of the nation uninhabitable. The American government has collapsed with the exception of the haven known as "Lost Vegas", ruled by King Elvis. The Red Army has been besieging Lost Vegas, but the lack of supplies over the years has relegated them to a gang of thugs. Forty years after the Soviet invasion, King Elvis dies and radio disc jockey Keith Mortimer announces a call for all musicians to come to Lost Vegas to try to become the new King of Rock 'n' Roll.
Buddy, a lone guitarist and swordsman, saves an unnamed boy he simply calls "Kid" from a group of bandits; consequently, as the Kid's mother was killed by the bandits, he tags along with Buddy. As the duo travel through the desert wasteland, the heavy metal-playing Death stages several attempts to prevent Buddy from reaching Lost Vegas alive and claim the throne for himself. After enduring a host of opponents such as a bounty-hunting bowling team, a cannibalistic suburban family, a band of underground mutants, and the Red Army, an injured Buddy squares off against Death in a sword fight. Death mortally wounds Buddy, but the Kid discovers water is Death's weakness after spitting at him. The Kid then melts Death away with a canteen full of water. Buddy's lifeless body disappears, but the Kid puts on his clothes and glasses before continuing his journey toward Lost Vegas.

Tags: cult

Review:
...if you like rock-a-billie and love a campy adventure in a post-apocalyptic world were Elvis, the KING, has just died and there's a guitar-strumming race across the desert to Las Vegas to see who will be the next King crowned - you'll love this bizarre piece of comic book fiction brought to life.
Buddy is a bad-ass rock'n'roller with a katana hidden in his guitar with his sights set on being the next king of Las Vegas.
No playmates, no cartoons, just empty land and not a Gymboree or video arcade in sight!), and the various bad guys (loved the evil bald bowlers) come in just about every shape and size.Elements of "Wizard of Oz", "El Topo", "Mad Max", Sam Peckenpah, and God knows how many Kung Fu/Samurai films are in this, seasoned with a handful of self-conscious humor.Living in the Las Vegas area, I'm familiar with most of the scenes featured (The bombed out gas station is the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada), so it was a kick seeing some of those places in a film.It isn't for everyone, and some will dislike it, mostly for it's campiness, but this is a film that doesn't take itself too seriously...and neither should you..
Our hero is a taciturn Buddy Holly look-alike traveling with samurai sword and six string guitar as he treks across scenic Death Valley on his way to America's last outpost of civilization, Lost Vegas, where he expects to be coronated as the new King, Elvis having died without naming a successor.
He hacks, slices, punches, and kicks his way through every insane nuclear holocaust survivor who stands in his way, all the while with a feral orphan boy in tow.There is not a dull moment in 'Six-String Samurai', thanks to the off-the-wall script and Jeffrey Falcon's acting and fighting.
This movie was incredible for an otherwise unknown martial arts bit actor who also wrote the script and coordinated all the fighting.It would be cool if there was a sequel, or better yet, a prequel to 'Six-String'.
This film is quite original and a little bizarre, but it is definitely the kind of independent movie that is worth seeing.
I enjoyed the flow of the story, which breaks down like this:  The hero is traveling across the desert to the post-apocolyptic city of Lost Vegas, to vai for his right as king.
The movie has a very good Second Act, which throws the main characters in to great peril, with the bad guy's having all the advantages.
It looked like he could use just a little more practice (I don't think he nailed that Butterfly Flat Spin in the sand dunes fight scene with the Death Archers).
With the title and description, I expected an all out camp movie that would be fun and humorous, but this film has a lot of spirit.
From the Pin Pals and the cannibalistic Leave It To Beaver family to the remnants of the Soviet Army; Buddy meets all types.Six String Samurai should appease anyone with an interest in Road Warrior styled apocalypse films.
'Six-String Samurai' is the kind of movie that is more fun to describe to someone else than to actually sit through yourself..
Jeffrey Falcon plays Buddy, a guitar slingin' samurai who is on a journey to Lost Vegas to become the new King of rock'n'roll.
Buddy encounters lots of oddballs along the way, reluctantly looks after The Kid (Justin McGuire) , and ends up having a showdown with Death (Stephane Gauger).
I just tell people that if the like post apocalyptic/samurai/rock & roll movies, this is the one to see.
And when the prostitute approaches him in the cantina, I laughed until it hurt.Bottom line, if you like movies that are a little (or possibly a lot) off-beat, you have to watch this one.
While neither the script nor the acting gain sufficient momentum to truly involve the viewer, the film's premise - a sword-wielding Buddy Holly on the road to a post-Appocaliptic Las Vegas is irresistibly twisted.The film feels ad-hoc and empty at times, coming up far short of a masterpiece.
Buddy Holly is a samurai-sword wielding, kung-fu-fighting, guitar-picking hero making his way across a post-apocalyptic desert in order to become the new King of Lost Vegas.
I actually really like the movie, one of the best things about it is the soundtrack, made entirely by The Red Elvises.
(which I'm sure were intended to be taken like that) all in all I love the non-traditional way the film was made, I found it intriguing and fun.
Possibly the greatest alt-history swordfighting spaghetti-western Elvis-Las-Vegas desert America-good-Russia-bad 50s-rock-n-roll adventure ever made.
Elvis, the King of Lost Vegas, has died, and so all rock-n-roll king wannabees are on their way to Vegas.Among them is Buddy, the guitar-slingin' samurai hero of the story.
People have complained about the most inane things in regards to it, i.e. the whining of the Kid, or the poorly written dialogue, but neither are any worse than what you'll encounter in another action movie with ten times the budget of this film.Locations were well chosen and well filmed, the colors were vivid and the lighting (almost) always appropriate.
Costumes also added a lot to the characters and the aesthetic of the film, especially those of Death, Buddy and the Kid.
Having the radio show in the background served as a good way to introduce scenes, the soundtrack itself added atmosphere but didn't detract from the images, and the music by the Red Elvises provided good stuff for fight scenes and otherwise.Really my only problems with the film were little things, like when there are a number of lines of dialogue which were post-dubbed (most noticably when Buddy meets the Kid), or during a fight scene when the time of day suddenly changes for one shot...small flaws in the film.
I think it's somewhere inbetween good and "bad." C'mon, who can't like a movie with lines like, "Only one man can kill this many Russians" ?
Not many films can pull off what they did here - looking good, fast action, large supporting cast of nut-jobs.It is true that this movie is not perfect.
Death and his gang sound stupid, look worse, and with all the fine crafted supporting characters, you'd think that they'd have a better #1 bad guy.
But the story is original and the film doesn't waste time feeling bad for itself in the spots were weakness shows.It is one of my finest DVDs and I'm proud to explain the plot to all who pick it up!.
Is The Six-String Samurai a good bad-movie?
You'd think that b-movie fans would realize that not every sci-fi/horror/fantasy flick with a low budget is trying to be a Sam Raimi film.
Quite possibly the best independent sci-fi/kung fu/fantasy/comedy/set to rockabilly surf guitar music ever made!Ok, so its the only one, but it surely is a great film to watch.
Warrior-musicians from across the land, including Death himself, trek to Vegas in hopes of filling the vacated throne.One such musician is Buddy (Jeffrey Falcon), a Rockabilly guitarist who totes a vintage 1957 six-string acoustic guitar and a samurai sword.
Together, they confront horde after horde of misfit villains on the road to Vegas.Given the bizarre characters in this movie, one might think that the producers of the film just said, "OK, we'll have a guy go from point A to point B.
To make it interesting, we'll have people dress up in whatever costumes we can get our hands on and have them attack this guy." Considering how strange and varied the characters are in SAMURAI, it is difficult to say which of them were a homage to other post-apocalypse movies and which resulted from budget constraints.
All of Buddy's kills are comprised of the action movie-style one-slash-you're-dead variety.While achieving realism was clearly not Falcon's goal in these fights, they do make for a good showcase for his abilities.
This off-kilter world has precious little room for normalcy as we know it.This movie will probably not gain the followings that PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW enjoy but it certainly deserves the attention of fans who wouldn't mind seeing an alternative to effects-laden Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters..
This is one of those great movies that ought to be a must-see but is likely instead to get lost in the Hollywood shuffle and end up with a cult following.
could successfully combine beginning-to-end action sequences, a post-apocolyptic setting, extremely tight dialogue, and a perfect blending of the buddy movie, the road trip, and the hero quest, all within the confines of independent film standards?
thinly veiled samurai fightin' action movie that actually deals with the completely bad ass theme of the evolution of popular music.
If you enjoy an oddity, feel good, rock and roll-action-cannibalism film (don't let anything by Troma come into your mind; that it most certainly is not anything of the like) then rent this little jewel.
Buddy is confronted with countless distractions on his way to the competition, some of them include Death, who wants to fill the airwaves with his own brand of darkness (Metal), Bowlers, The Clever Family, and even a sect of people who live underground fearing pollution, titled 'The Windmill People.'  Lance Mungia establishes himself as a fine director through this film (as well as his numerous music videos).
Six-String Samurai is that movie in spades.This lovely little film starts with a fairly far-out concept-That in the 50's, The USSR nuked The United States, and a young musician named Elvis was crowned King of Lost Vegas *snicker*.
Not only does it have some of the standard cliches of Asian Cinema-Tough, almost monosyllabic hero, precocious orphan, leering, comically evil more-bad-then-bad-can-be bad guys, a near indestructible head villain-it also has liberal doses of Eastern Philosophy, tongue-in-cheek references to The Wizard Of Oz, and even a childhood monster made real.By the end of this movie, you are having such a good time that you can forgive all of the poorer aspects of the film because the dynamics of it all are just fun.
Definitely works best as a film to get and watch with a group of friends, although you'll want to actually listen for some of the cheesiest line-readings in recent years.
"Six-String Samurai," director Lance Mungia's first venture into feature film, and is definitely one of the year's best action movies.
With no punches pulled, co-writers Mungia and Jeffrey Falcon dish up a "Rockin' & Ronin" film that is sure to give Hollywood the good, hard slap in the face it's been needing.A frenetically-paced, high-octane romp set in a post-apocalyptic world where the Russians have taken over a nuked USA and Elvis is king of Lost Vegas, "Six-String Samurai" chronicles the tale of Buddy (Falcon), a hero who's a '50s rocker and wandering warrior rolled into one, too-cool package.Armed with his six-string in one hand and his kitana in the other, Buddy is on his way to Vegas to succeed Elvis as King.
In "Six-String Samurai," the road to Vegas is paved with plenty of danger, as Buddy is forced to fight his way through the Nevada Badlands.
Buddy and his junior sidekick encounter a wide variety of weirdos and baddies, including King wannabe's, spinach monsters, cannibals, an annoying kid with an arrow in his back, and even Death himself (apparently played by Rob Zombie).The film's many action sequences, choreographed and executed expertly by Falcon, a Hong-Kong action veteran, give "Six-String Samurai" a high-voltage, "catch-me-if-you-can" rhythm that is fun and exciting to keep up with.Adding to the film's overall effect are it's often off-the-wall humor and many homages to  other films, including "The Wizard of Oz," "Star Wars," and the "Mad Max" trilogy (as well as many others).
Done with just enough sarcasm, irony, and hipness, it all works perfectly.If all this weren't enough, the great surf-a-billy tunes from The Red Elvises (who also appear in the film) and score by Brian Tyler add perfectly to the movie's surreal, ultra-cool atmosphere."Six-String Samurai" is cinema's biggest surprise of the year.
And if a post-apocalyptic, Kung Fu, Rock'n'Roll, road trip movie isn't fun, what is?So, forget all the killer asteroids, giant lizards, renegade toys, and Spanish swashbucklers of the summer; if you've been needing a good, swift kick in the face that leaves you smiling, get on the road to Vegas, ya dig?
It will truly test your ability to suspend the need for rationality or sensibility in a film, but Six String Samurai is visually stimulating, has a great (albeit weird as hell) atmosphere, good dialogue, and a cool story.
Fun movie with Rock 'n Roll and Samurai fighting.
This is a fun little movie if you don't take too seriously you can have a great time watching.
"six-string samurai" seems very reminiscent of many of the bruce lee, post-apocalyptic movies that i have grown to know and love.
although it follows many of the formulaic styles used in said films (i.e. repeated scenes of kicking enemies down, dubbed & cheesy japanese anime-like dialogue, survivors mocking utopian models of "perfect" families, etc), it followed its own swinging tune with bad guy slashing and flowing sword fighting.although many might not like this movie, i recommend it only if you are having an "independent/anime movie fest"..
Lance Mungia's SIX-STRING SAMURAI combines equal parts of post-apocalyptic science fiction, action styled after the best Hong Kong fantasy martial arts films, and just a dash of rock and roll.
Then there's Buddy - looks like Buddy Holly - who plays a mean "ax" and isn't bad with the sword either.Just like "Mad Max," Buddy is one a quest, and when he isn't fighting bounty hunter bowlers, a cannibalistic "Cleaver" family or the Russian Army, he is learning what it takes to be a real hero.
While the cinematography is crisp/sharp, it definitely has a feel reminiscent of "Planet of the Apes" or"Road Warrior." Jeffrey Falcon, when he isn't acting, does an equally amazing job with the production and costume designs.SIX-STRING SAMURAI is one of the hardest working independent films in years.
I had the rare honor of viewing this movie on Sunset the week it came out...and watching what was the accumulation of massive amounts of hard work...I thoroughly enjoyed the film...It's so original it's frightening...The choreography and a perfect mix of acid surf music thrust you on this adrenalin surged ride..that has been influenced by everything...Buddy(our hero) is the love child of Clint Eastwood, Mr.Blonde and Stephen Dorf.
Narrative structure: Almost completely useless; a skimpy plot, random fight scenes, no build up, no pacing - pretty much the mayonnaise and American cheese sandwich of plots - bland and foul all at the same time, and it couldn't be filling if it tried.In conclusion, it seems like a student film with a slightly larger budget, but on all the things that count, it just becomes a waste in the end; a waste of the viewer's time, a waste of the money used in the project; and a waste of the director's time.
But now the king is dead and we end up following Buddy (Jeffrey Falcon), a wannabe heir to the throne, as he makes his way towards Vegas.The film is very nonsensical.
'Six-String Samurai' is nice quirky action adventure where main hero with guitar skills like Buddy Holly and martial arts skills like Bruce Lee, tries to reach into Lost Vegas (Las Vegas) to become the new King.
Or Jeffrey Falcon (who was also screenwriter for 'Samurai') to act any other films after that.P.S. Title of my review refers to Buddy Holly and Toshiro Mifune..
While not an extremely deep film the rock and roll falls nicely in place with the martial arts making a surprisingly good action comedy.
If you get your rocks off on that kind of cool-guy culture then watch this movie, for sure.As far as being humorous, there is a bit.
I could accept all of these problems if the main character had been cool, like Ash in "Evil Dead 2", but I spent the whole movie hoping Buddy would die.
However, it still makes watching this movie difficult, kinda like hearing the dentist's drill on your teeth and smelling the smoldering enamel.Too bad because the premise was quirky, original and very interesting, and the lead character is one of the better comic-book-style heroes of recent cinema.
Don't get me wrong, the dialogue in this is great (if you happen to like Eric Roberts movies.)    The story is about a Guy Pearce impersonator who travels to Lost Vegas to become an Elvis impersonator.
I can appreciate a film that was bad but genuine in trying to create a original movie.
Stay away from this movie if you prefer to watch films that are not STUPID..
Imagine a Post-Apocalyptic Spaghetti-Western/Samurai/Kung Fu/Rock&Roll movie, and you've got at least a vague idea of what Six-String Samurai is all about.Within the first 10 mintutes, I counted nearly 10 direct references to other films: Road Warrior, A Boy and His Dog, The Dollars Trilogy, The Seven Samurai, Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, and others.
Six-String Samurai is clearly having fun with the movies it's stealing from, creating a pastiche of cult cinema.By the way, anybody who thinks the kid is annoying has most likely never seen Eraserhead...
If you like heavy metal music don't watch Six-string samurai, otherwise you'll love it.
It is a very low-budget film, but the money was used to great effect; it doesn't really look low budget until the matte at the end of Lost Vegas.The kid is annoying, but deliberately so.
A post-apocalyptic, spaghetti western, rock-n-roll Samurai film?
A post-apocalyptic, spaghetti western, rock-n-roll Samurai film?
And then there are the multiple references to The Wizard of Oz ("Just follow the yellow brick road").The story's focus is on Buddy (Jeffrey Falcon), a six string carrying, Samurai sword wielding bad ass who wants to be the new "King" of "Lost Vegas." But first he has to get there.