The Good
A fun film that really focused on what it did have vs. what it didn’t.
The Bad
I really wish that Ron Howard would have done a commentary track for this movie.
Eat My Dust is all about a guy named Hoover Niebold (Ron Howard). Hoover likes a girl named Darlene (Christopher Norris) and he will do anything to get her to fancy him. She likes fast cars and when Hoover procures one he and her find themselves getting into all kinds of trouble. What ensues is a chase movie of the highest order where even small characters take center stage for however long or short they are on screen. Ron Howard also acquits himself quite well here in regards to his portrayal of Niebold. This movie is short on plot and long on action, but it’s actually a lot of fun seeing all the trouble he and Darlene get into together. Also, this movie got made because Howard wanted to direct for producer Roger Corman. So they made this deal whereby Howard would star in this movie and then get to direct one, which ended up being another road film titled Grand Theft Auto.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Features
Roger Corman Introduces Eat My Dust
Corman comes on very briefly before this film begins to offer his usual anecdotal introduction. He explains how the movie was successful because Ron Howard was the star of it and how members of the Howard Family were involved in the production. Lastly, he explains that the film had an different title but because they were shooting in the desert and their was so much dust, Director Chuck Griffith felt that “Eat My Dust” was the most appropriate name for the film.
How to Crash on A Dime: The Making of Eat My Dust
Video
Full Screen - 1.33:1. This movie seems to have that washed out look from the 1970s that many films from that time employed. The images aren’t so much sharp as they are well composed. In certain ways this adds a face value, cheapness that gives this movie a great deal of charm. They have done a solid job of bringing this print to DVD, and while I don’t think things have been remastered, they look like they have been taken care of in whatever vault they were stored.
Audio
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The audio on this release was good. It seems that Charles Griffith has miced this movie in a similar way to how Robert Altman does his films. There’s a lot of audio to contend with and they’ve also put in music that compliments the logistics of the the action on screen. From the sounds of the cars zooming down the road, the songs that play on the radio, to the characters overlapped dialogue at times, Eat My Dust is very much a product of its time.
Package
A police car, a red car that looks like the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard, and a silhouette of a hot chick are what is featured on this front cover. The back gives us a shot of Roger Corman telling a story about this film, it offers a description of what Eat My Dust is about, a Special Features/Technical Specs list and a credits list.
Final Word
I really don’t think that Roger Corman gets the respect that he should. It takes a lot of skill to not only make so many films, but to make them in so many genres. Also, his movies are often called exploitation pictures and maybe some of the ones in the 80s and 90s are, but there is a real artistry to the movies he did before that. I know that they may seem cheap and in a lot of ways they are, but they don’t seem so much exploitative as they do low budget. Also, when you consider how he was able to just crank out movie after movie (and make money), his career really seems like it hasn’t been given the sort of credit that it deserves.
Is Eat My Dust lacking in certain production values that today’s chase films might employ? Sure. At the same time this movie doesn’t feel nearly as dyspeptic and as wooden as say a movie like Days of Thunder does.
Eat My Dust! was released April 1, 1976.
