Black Bridge '84: Year of the Banger
In a world where we are absolutely inundated with media, sometimes movies just get ignored. This seems to be the case with "Black Bridge" (aka "Black Bridge '84: Year of the Banger"), Kevin Doherty's better-than-expected '80s headbanger dramedy. Shot between 2002-2003 with a budget of $6,000 Canadian, the movie got a few film festival showings before falling into total obscurity. Doherty tried to secure distribution for the film but found no takers, so he marketed it himself on amazon and shared it on online file sharing sites.
On one hand, it's easy to see why distributors wouldn't touch the movie. Shot in black and white, ploddingly paced with a cast that's a mix of actors and non-actors clad in hilariously bad wigs, the movie is unquestionably rough around the edges (though given the subject matter, that's kind of the point). On the other hand, the movie has a helluva lot going for it. There are some genuinely good performances, a lot of clever dialogue, a rockin' soundtrack and a total WTF twist ending. The way I see it, the pros far outweigh the cons. And a few of the cons are pros. It's a weird little oddity that that deserves to be seen, and it can be found on various torrents and filesharing/video sites. Or you could pay $3 to rent it from amazon... clearly Doherty could use the money.
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