Bigfoot 70’ and the Mysterious Gap Explained..

May 08, 2018

Well I was lucky this weekend to catch up with another cinematic triumph from the 1970s. Bigfoot 70 as it’s often referred to.There have never been this many head scratching moments in one movie before. But it makes for a lovely blog post for me. From the opening music. which had me keeping an eye out for John Wayne to come out of the saloon, all the way to The Monkees style mountain stand-off at the end.

The plot to this thriller is a “motorcycle outfit” (their words not mine) comes into town and not only wipes out the local store’s beer supply but one of them has their girl kidnapped by Bigfoot. No one seems to care that another girl has already been kidnapped at this point. And it took a lot for her to get kidnapped. She hopped planes, cars, etc.

Meanwhile, while she is on her second plane, two hustlers come to town (one being John Carradine) to sell some wares. They hear about the creature and decide they can profit if they take the creature alive. Patterson and Gimlin they were not. No, this duo of Hawkes and Biggs haven’t really thought this plan out. Hawkes is one step from a heart attack, and Biggs played the stupid side kick to a tee

Bigfoot and his minions (seriously there were minions) were pretty busy in this one, he had two women too. And... I cringe saying this... I assume, breed with, in under 15 minutes. When the motorcycle “hellion” goes to the only store on what just looks like a dirt bike to me. He calls the sheriff who thinks all the “creature” reports are crazy and meets up with our Patterson and Gimlin duo. They decide to work together to get the girl and the creature.

Here is where I was worried John C was going to have a heart attack. On this journey is where the movie gets ahead of its time. They discover rocks with Indian markings of the creature and a dead Bigfoot buried in the ground. (Answering the age old question of where the bodies are. There, take that, science community at large). As they proceed up the mountain it turns into an episode of The Monkees TV show with it’s ridiculous chase scene. I’m not sure I could have laughed harder than I did. I may have to text Rifftrax to do this movie, if they haven’t already.

When it goes back to the kidnapped girls, they are tied to trees with what is I believe to be tooth floss. Feet are free, hmmm, they must be to stunned to try to escape. And the head shaking continues because one girl is wearing bikini and the other is wearing a nightie. All of the men are fully dressed and wearing jackets. Because they are on a mountain!! (Calling Russ Meyer anyone seen Russ Meyer?)

But this movie saved the best for last. Ground breaking science revelations here people. The blonde surprises me with her genius when she describes..are you ready? She describes The Gap! Can you believe it? The Gap! Revealed in of all things Bigfoot 70’. Now, If somehow you missed this theory, I am going to try my best here to explain it. Okay let me think here. The Gap is the theory of the missing link between the Neanderthals and the humans (her words not mine). She has found them and apparently their population is low so they are kidnapping women to criiiinnnngggeeee, breed with! So, for a minute I mentally vomited, then recovered. Luckily in the end the boys come to their rescue. Which I’m thankful for because I have seen the movie when they didn’t.

But as much as I poke at these 70 movies. I do love them and they do have their place in pop culture and, yes, the Bigfoot community. And truly for the time, them talking about the rock markings, the body burials and yes The Great Gappy was ahead of their time. And unbelievably we are all still debating these things today in 2018. So let’s give them some props for putting it out there. And the creatures were pretty icky too.

So all in all I laughed, cringed, and was blown away by some amazing science so it’s a win win. Check it out if you haven’t already. Let me know what you think. Ground breaking or just sheer insanity? I’m still on the fence..