Hawmps! (1976)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Fantastic!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I love this movie. I know that it's not the greatest film ever made, but it's just so much fun. My older brother took me to see this when it came out in 1976. Ever since then, I've thought of this as "F Troop: The Movie." It even stars James Hampton, who was the bugler, Cpl. Dobbs, on "F Troop." It's a shame that Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, and Ken Berry aren't in this film, but Christopher Connelly, Slim Pickens, Jack Elam, and Denver Pyle are always great...And when that band starts playing in the saloon, I laugh every time. This is of those movies like "The Apple Dumpling Gang" and (the original) "That Darn Cat" that entire families can watch together and get a good laugh.

I really enjoyed the movie as a kid, and was really looking forward to seeing this again. But why do they not bother to take the time to make decent transfers I'll never know. What a shame to ruin a perfectly good, fun movie. WARNING, POSSIBLE SPOILER!!! As a kid, I was fascinated to learn that they really DID have an experiment (upon which this film is VERY loosely based). They brought in camels with the idea that they would perform better than horses. What ever happened to these animals (once the experiment was concluded) ? Never found that one out. As was mentioned earlier, this film won't ever bee remembered as one of the "greats" of movie-making, but it was made in a time when clean wholesome films were the 'thing'. Something you could feel comfortable taking the whole family to. I was really excited to see it out (finally -after all the shovel-ware they make disks out of) on DVD -until the movie began. I really wish they would make decent transfers.

I remember virtually nothing about this movie that I saw as a child in 76 or 77. But I thought I would share one of my funniest childhood memories that is associated with the film. I was living in Florida and my mother went up north to visit relatives for a week. My father undoubtedly thought that this would make a perfect time for some male bonding and decided to take me to a movie. I chose Hawmps and we came to a theatre that was packed ( I guess it had a solid opening weekend). We had arrived late (my father was perpetaully behind in time) and the movie was already playing. We walked down the rows and most were full, occasionally a row had a just one seat open, but never two. Finally my dad (who wore thick glasses and never could see too well in the dark) said "there's two seats", and pointed to the end of a row. As I made my way down I noticed that only one seat was vacant. I turned to my dad to try to explain but he said "keep going", so as a child I just figured my dad must know what he was doing, so I found a seat and sat down, noticing that beside me was a small boy, about 3 years old. Much to my shock my father proceeded to sit right on the kid! He let out a shreik that was audible throughout the theater and his father jumped up even faster than my embarassed dad did and asked him what he thought he was doing. My father quickly told me to remain in my seat and he'd meet me outside of the theater after the show. I laughed throughout the movie, but not at any of the gags--at the thought of my father nearly skwishing the kid next to me.

I first saw this movie with my Mom and Dad and half the fun was watching them laugh at the movie. I would like to watch it again with my kids. Yes, the plot is silly, and the gags are somewhat slapstick, but it is just a fun movie to see on "family movie night". Don't worry about sex, violence, or language. Get the popcorn, kick back, and enjoy.