DIRK BENEDICT & LINDA BLAIR IN RUCKUS

1981

A troubled Vietnam Vet, hassled in a small town, escapes on a dirt bike into the countryside and… Does this sound familiar?

Rare DVD... signed by Linda Blair

Well before FIRST BLOOD came RUCKUS starring BATTLESTAR GALACTICA maverick Dirk Benedict as Kyle Hanson, whose scruffy disposition doesn’t make him very popular in dusty old small town: Wild-eyed like a predator in headlights, Kyle has a few creative tricks up his sleeve to thwart the hillbillies on his tail. Linda Blair is the Sheriff’s daughter who, with a missing husband in Vietnam, gives Kyle refuge: here’s where, surrounded in a big house in the middle of nowhere, the real trouble begins.

MovieSCORE: ***1/2

Action-packed from beginning to end, RUCKUS lacks the charge of the iconic predecessor, feeling more like a slightly edgy DUKES OF HAZZARD episode – and that’s a good thing. Dealing with post-war stress never gets heavy-handed, and the love story with Blair doesn't slow the pace. Although this came out before FIRST BLOOD, and shares the same plot and other characteristics including our hero leaping from a high area to escape impending foes, the David Morrell novel had been floating around Hollywood since the early seventies.

Linda Blair is the Sheriff's (Ben Johnson's) daughter in RUCKUS

Dirk Benedict causes a rampaging RUCKUS

"If you don't back off, I'll do something to make your head spin!"