Seabo (1978)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Jimmy Huston

Writer:

Thom McIntyre (writer)

Release Date:

July 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

First there was Cool Hand Luke then Billy Jack, but there has never been anyone like Seabo. [Title as Buckstone County Prison] [US Theatrical]

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Independent Film

Cast

Earl Owensby	...	Seabo
David Allan Coe	...	Reb Stock
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Warden Coley
Ed Parker	...	Jimbo
Sunset Carson	...	Sheriff Deese
Holly Conover	...	Effie
Rod Sacharnoski	...	Sam
Ron Lampkin	...	Jess Clary
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leonard Dixon	...	Zack
Palmer Owensby	...	Prison Guard
Blair Peery	...	Elvis
Jerry Rushing	...	Redneck
Jerry Whittington	...	Prisoner #220

Also Known As:

Buckstone County Prison (USA)

Runtime:

Germany:86 min | USA:117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | USA:R | West Germany:18 | Norway:18 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Earl Owensby Studios - 1 Motion Picture Boulevard, Shelby, North Carolina, USA

Seabo, Seabo? SEABO!!! You've Got To Be DEAD!

(There are Spoilers) Earl Owensby is Seabo the mysterious half-breed, his father is a White European and mother a Native American, tracker and bounty hunter who has a talent of appearing and disappearing just at the right time when you, or his enemies, would least expect it in this rural 1957 saga of crime and revenge in the wilds and mountains of North Carolina.

Asked by his friend Sheriff Deese to track down and capture two escaped convicts, who murdered a jail guard, Seabo get's the jump on them when he catches one, Wilks, with his pants down trying to rape a young girl who's family, that he and is partner Hatcher, is holding hostage. In a wild exchange of fire Seabo guns down Wilks who attacked him with a pitchfork but Hatcher who was about to give himself up is shot from behind by the young girls father.

Not wanting the old man to be arrested and put behind bars Seabo takes responsibility by saying nothing about the incident where Hatcher was shot in the back and killed by him that soon lands Seabo in the Buckstone County Jail for unjustifiable homicide.

Warden Coley,who's a bit crazed and unstable, has had it in for Seabo for years since his son in the USMC was killed in action in Korea, together with his entire Marine company, in a North Korean ambush.

As we saw earlier Seabo wasn't much of a talker or complainer so we had to wait almost until the end of the movie to find out the truth, from Sheriff Deese, about what happened to Coley Jr and his men that turned out to be the exact opposite of what old man Coley said about him. Seabo who scouted out the valley on the border of North & South Korea, the dangerous 38th parallel, where Coley's company was about to enter and told Coley Jr that it's a perfect trap set for them by the North Korean Commies. The macho,and not too bright, Coley Jr wanting to be a hero sent his men into it where they were slaughtered by communist small-arms and artillery fire.

Using every method to intimated Seabo to make a run for it, in order to have him shot by the prison guards, Seabo takes all the abuse that Warden Coley and his thug-like prison guards can throw at him even to the point of being thrown into the dungeon and tortured by prison guard Jimbo for days at a time. Even his fellow prisoners are incited to attack Seabo who takes them on five or six at a time and is saved from being brutally beaten or even killed by fellow prisoner Zack, a big 6 foot 5 inch 250 pound gentle giant, who comes to his aid. Zack for his part is then thrown in the dungeon and, with his hands tied up,savagely beaten by Jimbo the most brutal and sadistic of warden Coley's prison guards. This cowardly bully thinks it's very macho to beat helpless and defenseless men who can't defend themselves. Later in the movie Seabo would put an end to Jimbo's fantasy and show him what it means to be a "Real Man". Seabo pays Jimbo back for what he did to himself and Zack when he wipes the floor with him this time, unlike when he had his hands tied like Zack, with both his hands free and ready for action.

Seabo getting a reprieve from the governor in order to track down six escaped criminals who murdered a cop, as well as an 80 year-old bank teller. Traking Zack along to help Seabo find and capture the escapees ending up killing one of them who tried to ambush him. The former bounty hunter, and now killer for hire, Reb Stock who was involved in the prison break-out.

Bringing the remaining escaped prisoners back to Buckstone County Jail Seabo is a bit weary of Warden Coley, who hates him with a white-hot and almost maniacal passion, being in charge there. His suspicions prove to be right when Coley hires a number of out of state, probably Mafia connected, hit-men to gun him down as soon as he and the escaped convicts enter the prison grounds.

The prison court-yard is turned into a free-fire shooting gallery as all the prisoners end up dead. Warden Coley gleefully running out of his office, where he was safely hiding throughout the entire massacre, finds to his shock and surprise that Seabo, the man that he wanted more then anyone else to be dead, wasn't among them!

Not all that bad B-movie with Earl Owensby as cool as cucumber as the hard as granite indestructible bounty hunter and outcast from society Seabo. A self-styled loner Seabo's actions, which were a lot, in the movie spoke far louder that his words, which were very few.