d_m_s A so-so time travel film that sounds like it would be a lot more fun that what is actually is.Unfortunately, despite trying, I can not get into the Western genre and after the first 10 minutes this film becomes a very sub-par Western film with the novelty element of someone who has gone back in time. The potential was there but it was not utilised. There whole time travel element is almost completely irrelevant to the storyline and is nothing more than an occasional novelty element in the storyline.Lyle Swann is accidentally transported back to the Wild West and from that moment it's a simple case of boy meets girl, girl gets kidnapped by baddies, boy rescues girl. All rather dull.

zpzjones One of my favorite time travel movies. This is a film that's taut and well-made and probably a tad too adult for the Saturday morning kiddie type crowd. It really should appeal to the viewer who has his thinking cap on and can appreciate attention to historical detail. In late 1982 the hero, an off road motorbike racer, named Lyle Swann, unwittingly gets caught in the middle of a time-travel experiment and is transported to the Old West of 1877. In the strata of science-fiction and time travel, this is believable since he's alone in the middle of the desert and cannot ascertain that he's been transported through a time warp. As the film progresses Swann meets several people in 1877: outlaws, an attractive woman named Clare Cygne from Louisiana, a priest Quinn heading a small town and two US Marshalls. The outlaws led by Porter Reese appear to be Civil War veterans from the Confederate side when Reese makes a crack about 'General Lee would have won the war if he had Swann's motorcycle'. The filmmakers add a nice touch and nod to Mark Twain. When Clare pulls out a copy of Twain's "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", written in 1865, viewers paying attention to the scene will recall that Twain is the author of one of the most famous time travel stories "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" written in 1889 and which probably inspires this film. Clare asks Swann if he can read and if he's read any Mark Twain and Swann responds telling Clare he has and that "Tom Sawyer" is Twain's most famous book. Since the old-west part of this film takes place in 1877, it wouldn't have been unusual that Clare would not have heard of "Tom Sawyer" as it had only been published in 1876. Other nice touches of realism are the showcasing of a community of outlaws living in a outlaw camp. The viewer may ask what are those outlaws doing for food, for clothes, bathing, laundry altogether basic survival. When one outlaw is shot early in the film his cohorts pick his body of clothing & belongings before the vultures get to him. The priest and Clare work together bartering with Mexican locals, trinkets, guns, and food stuffs.The film showcases several adult themes ie: profanity, gunshots, mild sex scene. It's amazing the film was released with a PG rating but remember this was 1982, two years before the Motion Picture ratings system was upgraded to include PG-13 and NC-17. The director keeps the film accurate to its 1877 time frame and shows elements in a western that are realistic such as the profanity and the renegade woman Clare who is a gunslinger, ?prostitute and adventuress. This film gets away with telling mature elements in Western that were not up to that time seen in conventional westerns especially going back to b/w films in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Had Timerider been made in the early 70s it might have been better received. If it had come out in the 40s or 50s as a film noir western it would certainly be a classic but with a compromise. There would not have been no cursing, no scrib gunshot wounds, the sex scene would not be explicit, though for 1982 the scene given is mild. More explicit sex scenes can be viewed in daytime soaps.GRANDFATHER PARADOX An interesting aspect of this film is the application by some of the 'so-called' Grandfather Paradox. Hmmm! This supposedly applies when Clare and Lyle have sex and she questions him about the pendant around his neck. He tells her that his great great grandmother took it from his great great grandfather after an incredible night and the great great grandfather was never seen again. At the end of the film Swann is rescued by helicopter by the scientists responsible for transporting him to 1877. The head scientists tells Lyle that Clare cannot come back with them to 1982 by which time Clare snatches Lyle's pendant from his neck. When Clare takes the pendant this essentially repeats the story of Lyle's great great grandmother: END OF STORY!.....No mysterious paradox, Clare merely snatches the pendant. At this point many viewers who have seen the film think that Clare's actions reveal her to be Lyle's great great grandmother. I thought this too at one time but this is IMPOSSIBLE. Even if time-travel was real, Lyle Swann could not be his own great great grandfather or father his own great grandmother who would be the child Clare would conceive after the night of sex with Lyle. IMPOSSIBLE, even if time-travel were real a person could not literally go back in time and father his own ancestor. A person has to come from somewhere, he has to have a history. Swann could sleep with his great great grandmother, impregnate her and it would be a completely different individual. (Remember when the two of them were going over the Mark Twain books she tells Swann her real name, Clare Cygne, which if she was his great great grandmother, he should have known her name. Or it should have sounded familiar. A flag should have gone up in Swann's head as to her identity.)This puts an end to the Grandfather Paradox. ...The pendant, a seemingly valuable trinket as Lyle had been handed down to by his mother, is probably something from the 19th century and now it's returning to it's original time when Clare snatches it. If Clare is pregnant by Lyle she'll merely hand it down to her offspring and he/she will hand it down and so forth but there is no reason Lyle will ever see it again as it will be a totally different set of people and circumstances who will receive the pendant.The film gets 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

FlashCallahan Lyle, a motorcycle champion is travelling the Mexican desert, when he find himself in the action radius of a time machine.So he find himself one century back in the past between rapists, thieves and murderers....The thing that is wrong with this movie, and what deters it from other schlocky eighties movies of this nature, is the fact that there is no characterisation, no real story, no narration.The film at times doesn't know what to do with itself, so spends the time with Ward riding his bike to one situation that ends with a comedy moment, or with an action moment.But the most irritating thing about this movie is that not once does Swann ask what year he is in, thus making the title of the film pointless.There are a couple of good scenes, bloody boots and Coyote trying to start the bike, but it really doesn't hold a candle to cult movies like Zone Troopers or Solarbabies.

rtpear Can't understand the low rating at all. Only complaint is the movie isn't long enough. Saw this movie 20 years ago and it's even better now. The soundtrack by Mike Nesmith (former Monkees) touches on all kinds a genres. Hard to find DVD too. Fred Ward is a very interesting actor in all his movies. His uniqueness and style adds to the interest. He's one of few actors whose eye gestures needs no words spoken with it. Tremors is another great example where he adds to the quality of the movie.The supporting cast is excellent too. 1) Lauter is great in all his movies. 2) Bauer is awesome and is a shame she hasn't been in more movies in the past. 3) As for Coyote, this has to be his best movie as the bad guy.Thumbs up!!!