MisterWhiplash To say it couldn't have been made today is an understatement. It's a bold film for any time, and it's incredible pissed off. If you wanted to see white men taken down a peg or two, this takes them down to uh... Hell. It's not scathing. It's scalding. And as a film, moving across just several hours of time in one afternoon, it has amazing energy and you can tell Cohen is having... A blast making this! This is significant because if Bone had been more like a sermon, if it had even tried to play everything super serious and straight, it wouldn't have the same impact. I should be surprised it was made at all... Cohen had a mountain full of tenacity. It's all over the place in some ways - at a certain point this felt a bit like Cassavetes's Faces but with Yaphet Kotto in the Seymour Cassel part...and for the whole movie. But its also a thriller... Sorta. Its something that feels so wholly original I can't quite compare it to anything else. It's not sleazy enough for the usual exploitation of the period, and it's too wild and packed with insane digressions for a studio. Bone is an unkenpt beast of a satire, made as a first feature (though Cohen had worked in TV for years), and clearly he had a lot on his mind... A lot. Cohen takes on race, sex, class and even policing and how to make your pool cleaner and... it makes for something special. I dont know if it all *works*, but I feel like I've experienced something daring and need a little more time to put the pieces together. By the last act it isnt so much funny as it is totally fascinating - perhaps if Kafka remade Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?And Yaphett Kotto... Whoa - one of his major performznces. Good jazz/r&B score and songs, too.

wes-connors Middle-aged used-car salesman Andrew Duggan (as Bill Lennox) and his blonde, bikini-clad wife Joyce Van Patten (as Bernadette) lounge by the pool at their swanky Southern California estate. Their home and property look like the best in the area, but there are troubled waters ahead for the Beverly Hills couple. While swimming, Mr. Duggan discovers a rat in the pool's side skimmer. Both he and Ms. Van Patten are horrified. Unable to remove the creature, they call for help and are suddenly joined by aggressive, jive-talking Yaphet Kotto (as Bone). Although he gets rid of the rat, Mr. Kotto is really there to rob the couple and rape Van Patten...Subversively subtitled "A Bad Day in Beverly Hills", this was the first feature film directed by TV writer-producer Larry Cohen. Usually responsible for populist entertainment, Mr. Cohen may have thought "Bone" had counter-culture appeal. It's a seldom funny "black comedy" that clearly understands the role played by Duggan while aiming poorly for some sort of parity of attention with Mr. Kotto's character. Not surprisingly, Duggan's character is the clearest drawn...The "imaginary" opening minutes show Duggan peddling his trade in a yard of car wrecks, with bloody bodies still inside. This would have been more effective if intercut later, perhaps during the bank withdrawal scenes. Shown first as an attention getting device, the bloody opening takes away from the disarming introduction of the three main characters. A pre-"Heartbreak Kid" Jeannie Berlin has featured role and a pre-"Match Game" Brett Somers is seen briefly. "Bone" is generous with ugly close-ups and an annoying soundtrack. You do get a good look at old Los Angeles and 1970s smokers will identify with dropping a cigarette in the car while driving.**** Bone (7/12/72) Larry Cohen ~ Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten, Jeannie Berlin

whist In my opinion, this film was before its time – by about 5 years. If only it had been made in 1977, I wouldn't have bothered renting it and would have saved myself $3 and 90 minutes of tedious American culture bashing. 'Bone' attempts to be a vehicle for social commentary. White, upper-middle class people who have settled in Southern California from the east coast have become bored and shallow; their lives are as empty as their joint bank account. *yawn* An African American comes along to shake them out of their lethargy. Racial tensions, sex, and murder ensue. If the plot strikes you as cliché, superficial, or boring, then you're with me.None of the characters is likable really. This is what happens when a director is determined to exploit rather than explore people. On top of it all, Bone, the interloper-rapist-lover main character, turns out to be a figment of . . . two people's imaginations? Reality not very apparently becomes fantasy at some point in the movie – you get to decide where – and then reasserts itself, I guess, at the end when murder is committed, although how, since it's been fantasy so far, is unclear. But when a director plays the exploitation/fantasy card, rationality goes out the window. Some folks might find this disclarity entertaining. Me, I think it's cheap.

sam2u I have to say I love the movie's intent just as much as the movie itself. I had a friend of mine watch it with me who tends to do what we all do sometimes, even myself. That is live the pretend so-called life instead of doing what the so-called hippies do. We often look down on people seem to not have "done something with their lives", and at the same time secretly admire them for doing what they want with their lives. When the movie finished she just stood there saying, "I don't get it", but the look in her eyes told me she got it all right. The funny thing is the movie really is like a judgment on America and it's lifestyle that will be even more significant as this lifestyle and the way it kills us becomes more apparent.Rent this movie and watch it with some of your affluent buddies who are one bad investment or FCC investigation away from poverty. They might learn what life is all about before it is too late.