Bronco Bullfrog (1970) User Reviews

Sixties Indie that still endures

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 7/10 · 28 May 2015]

Made in 1969 for the price of a second hand bike (more or less) this film is all about being young and having nowt. Del is working in a factory when he meets the teenage Anne and his hormones take over and he just wants to be with her. He does have a motor bike though and can afford the odd bag of chips. He also has some mates and one of these is Bronco Bullfrog.

Bronco is a bit of a legend as he has been in borstal and has returned to his old haunts and habits because he has nowhere else to go. This is a kitchen sink drama – without the sink. It was made by Barney Platts – Mills with a cast of non actors in order to keep the costs down. What he has come up with is a great little film and a rather nice time capsule on the sixties just where we were going to tip into the optimistic seventies and the fashions certainly reflect that.

He has loads of little things here that were ordinary then, but have been lost to the mists of time – like getting one person into the cinema then they let everyone else in through the fire exit – brilliant. This is not a great film of itself it but there is so much here to admire and appreciate that it becomes the sum of its parts and is a rewarding watch for it. A testament to a lost Britain.

An under-regarded social drama

[davidh-15 · 8/10 · 6 February 2006]

I went to a viewing of this in Brighton, UK at which the director, Barney Platts-Mills, and one actor, Roy Haywood, was present. tidbits regarding the film: it cost £18k (at 1969 prices) under budget of £20k.

All the actors were untrained and this was their first piece of acting.

Some of the actors were tearaway kids who engaged in theft in real life. They stole filming equipment from the set not realising its value, and that by doing so they threatened the films production.

Martin Scorsese has a 16mm print of the film in his private collection and regards it highly. The original negative was nearly thrown away when the film company went bankrupt but it was recovered from a rubbish pile by an attentive employee.

The director said that he preferred untrained actors to trained ones because they didn't ad-lib or interpret their roles: they played it straight from the script and that this was the reason for the extreme minimalism of the performances. For them it wasn't an exciting filmic opportunity it was, Roy Haywood said, "just a job - not exciting - just a way to earn money". The director said that that made their performances special.

Platts-Mills said that the main theme of the film, which most critics missed, was "why shouldn't a 15 year old girl sleep with those who she wishes to?"

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The film's title "Bronco Bullfrog" refers to the thief who escaped from borstal and had to make his way in the world whilst on the run by engaging in theft. He does not play the major role in the film however. That goes to Del and Anne a young couple who meet in the deprived environment of Stratford in East London where there is little for kids to do and where they have no money. Their relationship strengthens and they attempt to escape their limiting environment by running away to the coast.

The films has its comic moments often driven by the utterly spartan & anorexic dialog. Conversations that would occupy tens of minutes of naff method-overacting in a Hollywood film are dispatched in two or three words: for example when the couple meet for the first time and agree to date the entire conversation is: "Del:do you want to go out? Anne:Yea, OK".

These are kids who are adrift and going nowhere. The plot is an engaging slice into their life and a unique fusion of drama and social documentary: unlike anything else made.

You can see Skinheads portrayed without prejudice

[peterclash · 7/10 · 31 March 2004]

It´s a social realistic film. We follow some kids in the late teens, some in school and some at work. There is not really a story or the story isn't that important. Boy meets girl meets no acceptance from home so they run away. They team up with Bronco Bullfrog who has escaped from borstal. The best thing about the film is that we can follow normal working class kids in East End in London during the era of the Skinheads. So we get a non political view from skinheads, even if you may call them Suedeheads or whatever subcategory you like. There is no actors in the film, everybody is handpicked from the streets. The "bad" acting helps the real feeling. But you could always asked more from the director regarding the tightness of the film. I rated it 7 of 10.

not everything was bright and shiny for everyone in those infamous 'swinging sixties'.

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 10 April 2021]

Proof if it were needed that not everything was bright and shiny for everyone in those infamous 'swinging sixties'. Here a largely improvised series of incidents is filmed on location in Stratford and Greenwich. The second half with the girlfriend and vague plans to leave home is more successful that the first mainly centred around a robbery at a goods marshalling yard but the whole has a likeable enough rolling gait to it that feels authentic enough. Ironic of course that the lack of acting ability tends to give the impression of inauthenticity. Fortunately the essential good nature of the participants and the reliance on location shooting ensures that this is far more interesting than it might have been had it been over rehearsed and shot in a studio. Lots of fabulous shots of a less than fabulous Stratford of the time and now almost all replaced. Most of the war torn and.prefab strewn streets were soon to be built on and more recently the Olympic Park would smooth out and gentrify much of the rest. The short sequence at the end of the film is particularly interesting showing the Greenwich foot tunnel and the riverside power station. Both are still in use but the ships seen alongside and the working docks beyond are long gone. Not the finest film in the world but a valuable document of late sixties east London and pleasant enough watch.

Snapshot of the late sixties

[kristhebass · 6/10 · 2 June 2023]

I got the feeling that there was little or no script just an idea that was built upon as they went along. It was the first and last piece of acting any of the cast did and it shows, there is very little passion coming from any of them, delivery was all very wooden. I've tried to find out what happened to any of the young cast, Sam Shepard, Jo, came to the showing of the restored film in Brighton and Anne Gooding, Irene, had died, of what it didn't say. Everyone must have got 'proper jobs'.

There is no explanation as to why Jo is called Bronco Bullfrog. He spends a lot less screen time than Del and Irene so why the film is call Bronco Bullfrog is a mystery to me.

What's good about it? The snapshot of late sixties London, barely any cars, prefabs, dreary streets before the culture explosion of the Olympics. No CCTV or mobile phones. The Stratford of today and dockland areas are unrecognizable here. Woolworths dominating the high street, men's shirts for 20/- pre decimal.

The soundtrack by Audience is perfect, some from their Friends's, Friend's, Friend album.

All in all worth watching once.

Doesn't really work.

[mmca-2 · 5/10 · 1 March 2020]

I'm only a few years younger than the protagonists and can remember the clothes (though I don't believe these people were really suedeheads) and the cars and the caffs etc. And for a bit of nostalgia and as a visual snapshot of life at the time, it's worth a watch. But the bottom line is that using non-professional actors to portray people just like themselves doesn't get us, necessarily, anywhere nearer naturalistic realism than the smarmiest of drama school brats would. So it proves. It's mostly dreadfully wooden, all muttered lines, rigid stances and strange pauses, to the extent that the plot, basic though it is, is difficult to follow.In fact some passages are downright mystifying in that respect. It gets a bit better as it goes on but whichever critic called this a 'masterpiece' is just being silly.

Amateur Dramatics without a story

[malcolmgsw · 3/10 · 18 July 2020]

Given that the people behind the camera would have been trained in their skills why should this not apply to the actors I front of the camera.There is really no story and the dialogue is terse.This though does not prevent long scenes with little pace or purpose..All in all a pointless exercise

Realistic but inert

[ofumalow · 5/10 · 12 February 2023]

It was interesting to see this long-forgotten independent English feature, which was barely seen when it came out. But the kind of over-excitement that tends to pronounce any "rediscovered" film some kind of classic would really be wrong-headed in this case. The main problem is that while it's understandable to want to cast nonprofessionals in order to get a more "realistic" ambiance in this kind of drama, you still have to give them SOME kind of basic training so they don't look like deer before headlights in front of the camera, just reciting their lines and holding themselves stiffly as if for a still photo. And that's exactly what happens here.

The adults playing parents are OK, but the juveniles are stilted, and the two who were deemed good-looking enough to be leads are so wooden we feel nothing for them. Eventually the barely-there plot hinges on their running away to have some alone time (since both their single parents are hostile towards their being together), and I guess we're meant to root for Young Love, but these two can't express anything--whether love, lust, or just some basic intelligence.

The only real point of interest is the location shooting, and glimpsing a side of (East) London that obviously never got the least "Swinging." There's also a decent enough rock soundtrack. But whether we're focused on the mildly criminal doings of the first half or the runaway couple of the second, there's no narrative tension, and the actors are stiff as boards. A 5 is actually a very generous rating in terms of any entertainment or dramatic value, but I boosted it up from a 4 just for the sake of it providing a time capsule.