Zachariah

Zachariah
Directed by	George Englund
Produced by	George Englund Lawrence Kubik
Written by	Phil Austin Peter Bergman
Starring	John Rubinstein Patricia Quinn Don Johnson Dick Van Patten
Cinematography	Jorge Stahl Jr.
Editing by	Gary Griffin
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	1971
Running time	93 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Zachariah is a 1971 film starring John Rubinstein as Zachariah and Don Johnson as his best friend Matthew. The film is loosely based on Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha, surrealistically adapted as a musical Western by Joe Massot and the members of the comedy troupe The Firesign Theatre. The band Country Joe and the Fish perform as an inept gang of robbers (more adept as musicians) called "the Crackers," who are always "looking for people who like to draw." In the same vein, Zachariah boasts: "I can think, I can wait, and I'm fast on the draw." This is a parody of Siddhartha's famous line: "I can think, I can wait, I can fast."

Underneath the gunplay, the jokes, the campness and the music, an important message is delivered: a life of pacifism, quiet contemplation, male bonding and vegetarianism is preferable to a life of violence.

This film is defined as being part of the Acid Western genre. More precisely, in its own publicity releases, it was called, "The first electric western." This was, in no small part, due to the fact that this film featured several appearances and music supplied by successful rock bands from the era, including the James Gang and Country Joe and the Fish. Fiddler Doug Kershaw has a musical cameo that advances the plot of the film. The movie also features former John Coltrane sideman Elvin Jones as a gunslinging drummer named "Job Cain."

Cream's drummer Ginger Baker was originally going to play the part of Zachariah.

John Lennon was asked to supply a song to the soundtrack, but he didn't comply with the request. Also, the Minneapolis group (White) Lightnin' (an off-shoot of the band the Litter) performs their rock and roll version of the William Tell Overture on the soundtrack. The soundtrack features songs by the James Gang, Joe Walsh, and Country Joe and the Fish which are not available elsewhere. The soundtrack is out of print.

At a solo concert in Cedar Falls, IA in the autumn of 1973, Country Joe McDonald asked if anyone in the audience had seen the film Zachariah. When the crowd yelled, "Yeah," he said, "It was a crummy movie."

The film and its soundtrack received a positive review in the pages of Circus, a rock music magazine.

External links

• Zachariah at the Internet Movie Database
• A lengthy review and analysis of the film