Review of Pick-up

Pick-up (1975)
3/10
Leaves Quite a Bit to the Imagination
28 January 2014
While driving a mobile home from Miami to Tallahassee a young man by the name of "Chuck" (Alan Long) stops to offer a ride to two female hippies by the name of "Carol" (Jill Senter) and "Maureen" (Gini Eastwood). Of the two, Carol is more free-spirited while Maureen is introverted and involved in the occult. Because of this, Maureen gets bad vibes and advises Carol that traveling with Chuck is dangerous. But Carol manages to persuade Maureen to accept the invitation all the same. Sure enough, they end up stuck in a swamp. From this point on the viewer is shown a series of flashbacks, hallucinations and visions from all three characters which eventually ends in the same bizarre manner in which they began. At any rate, rather than disclosing anything more I will just say that this was a low-budget exploitation film that leaves quite a bit to the imagination. Obviously, it was intended to be somewhat artistic and it succeeds to a certain degree. Unfortunately,some of the scenarios should have offered more clues to their overall symbolism. For example, in one scene there is a clown with balloons who at first amuses Maureen and when he takes off the mask terrifies her. But who or what the clown represents isn't made clear and the viewers are apparently forced to come up with the answers on their own. The ending is also something of a puzzle. Because of this the entire film suffers in translation and I rate it as below average.
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