"I ain't dealin' no more, man."

The opening sequence of Bill Norton’s Cisco Pike (1971) follows Kris Kristofferson, the eponymous Cisco, as he ambles through Venice Beach, guitar case in hand.  We see him first as a reflection in a canal, and then as he begins to cross over a little bridge that has been tagged, “The Human Race.” Kristofferson’s song, “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” deceptively softens the opening visuals. He is not on his way to meet a lover, but to a music store to hock his guitar. Although most of L.A. now seems to recognize him as a pusher, Cisco is also a down and out rock and roller. The store owner, improbably played by Roscoe Lee Browne–whose stateliness projects Cisco’s shabbiness into pathetic relief–is delighted to see Cisco. He greets him with an excited smile and an unironic,”Hey brother, it’s been a long time.” Looking at his guitar case, he teases, “Well, what have you brought me here? A little coke from Cuzco?” Cisco winces and tells him, “I ain’t dealing no more, man.” In a complicated sleight of language, Brown corrects him: “You mean you isn’t dealing no more,” and then lists a string of names the guitar evidently performed with: “Cash.  Joplin.  Dylan.  Odetta. A million memories,” imploring Cisco to keep the guitar, he declines the sale.  Cisco roughly packs it up, clearly in a snit. Browne extends his hand, Cisco pauses, smiles, and shakes it, saying, “I’ll see you brother.” Again Browne troubles the race and class parameters of this exchange with a sassy, “Ciao bello.” Browne’s parting words: “Now remember, that distinguished American philosopher Satchel Paige said, ‘Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you’.”  (Paige was a legendary black baseball player also known for his witticisms.) Cisco will shortly be conned into helping the cop who busted him, Officer Leo Holland (Gene Hackman), unload a shit-ton of weed over the course of the weekend.

Coming along at the commencement of the Seventies, the disillusion is strong with this one. Unlike Hunter S. Thompson’s explosion of form in Fear and Loathing, this narrative is not suspicious of its medium–formally it is a straightforward drug heist movie. Much of the drug dialogue is expository and dorky, but the film’s charm is its documentation of a scene and its density of dirty, gorgeous, iconic actors. Gene Hackman, Karen Black, and Harry Dean Stanton round up the cast, along with the bizarre, dazzling Viva, who is billed as a co-star.  Soon after his return to dealing, Cisco stops into a recording studio to get a friend to listen to some new tapes he’s made, and Merna (played by Viva) trolls him up.  Here is their first exchange:

Merna: “You a dealer?” Cisco: “Nope.”  She picks up his little black book and asks, “What’s that?” Cisco answers, “That’s my girlfriend’s.”  Merna: “Well, then. Will you sell me a pound?” C: “Of what?” M: “Anything you’ve got. I’m not choosy.” C: “Yeah, I can do that.” M: “You know, it’s a rather interesting accent that you have. How long did it take you to learn it?” C: “Not long. I majored in shit-kicking. That’s an interesting shape you got there. You’re kinda pregnant, ain’t ya?” M: “No, I’m just holding it for somebody for a couple more months. If you won’t take a check? Did I ask you if you’d take a check?” C: “No. Gotta do cash.” M: “Well, then. If you won’t, I guess we’ll just have to go to my house. Is that all right with you?” C: “You silver-tongued devil. You talked me right into it.”

Cisco and Merna on their way to the Source.

Cisco, who lives with his girlfriend Sue (Karen Black), tags along with Viva. They pick up her girlfriend, Lynn (Joy Bang), from the Source–Father Yod’s legendary restaurant. Back at her house they have a threesome, and if you look closely, you can indeed catch Viva’s little pregnant belly. Later in the film they meet up at the Troubadour and Waylon Jennings happens to be playing. Cisco’s guitar case will only carry dope for most of the movie. He makes his deals from a phone booth, huge stack of quarters piled up, as if he were gunning for the high score on Pac-Man. Later in the film, Cisco’s old bandmate Jesse (H.D. Stanton) shows up and they head over to Merna’s–a huge, Grey Gardens-esque crumbling L.A. mansion. As they ascend the stairs, Cisco asks, “You got anything to drink?” Merna responds, “What do you think we are, rich?” A structure of feeling, to be sure. Hard to say why it compels me so.