Six-String Samurai (1998) – The Film Buff Review of a independent masterpiece

Six String Samurai (1998) – A Cult Classic That Deserves Way More Respect

If you haven’t seen Six String Samurai, stop what you’re doing and watch it right now. It’s currently free on YouTube, and it’s one of the most wildly original, visionary independent films ever made.

Directed by Lance Mungia and starring martial artist/stuntman Jeffrey Falcon (who also handled set design), Six String Samurai was made for a reported $2 million and somehow looks like a $30 million production. It’s a post-apocalyptic rock ‘n’ roll samurai western that throws Mad Max, The Warriors, The Crow, and Buddy Holly into a blender and somehow makes it all work perfectly.

The Setup

After the Soviet Union nukes America, the only free zone left is the neon wasteland ruled by Elvis in Las Vegas. Buddy Holly–looking guitarist and swordsman Jeffrey Falcon (great name, by the way) sets off across the desert on a hero’s journey to become the new King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Along the way he battles mutant gangs, death rockers, and a literal personification of Death itself, all while a killer ska/punk soundtrack (including the phenomenal Red Elvises) blasts.

The film is light on dialogue but heavy on style: epic desert vistas, creative practical effects, razor-sharp fight choreography, and some of the coolest framing and blocking you’ll see in any indie movie. The famous “Astronauts” sequence in the torn-fabric wasteland is pure cinematic joy.

Why It Hits Different

Six String Samurai feels like it belongs on a double bill with The Crow, Blade, Dark City, or The Matrix. It has that same late-’90s mythic energy. The opening narration alone is legendary. Mungia and Falcon created a fully realized world where 1950s rock culture never evolved past the atomic apocalypse — and it works because they commit to the bit 100%.

It’s also ridiculously rewatchable. The music-video-style sequences, the constant forward momentum, and the sheer cool factor keep it firing on all cylinders. Yes, the final battle has a couple of rough edges (budget shows up a bit), but even then the blocking and composition are so strong it barely matters.

The Tragedy

This movie should have been the next Clerks or Slacker — the indie breakout that launched its creators into the big leagues. Instead, it became a cult item that most film buffs have never even heard of. Mungia later directed The Crow: Wicked Prayer (which is… something), but neither he nor Falcon got the career they deserved after this. That’s criminal.

Bottom line: Six String Samurai is essential viewing for anyone who claims to be a real film buff. It’s proof that with vision, resourcefulness, and pure passion you can make something that feels bigger and cooler than most studio movies.

Recommended triple feature: The Crow → Six String Samurai → Cyborg (JCVD)

Turn it up loud, grab a cold one, and enjoy one of the most badass independent movies of all time. Rock ‘n’ roll never dies — it just picks up a sword and heads to Vegas.

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Quiet on the set speed down production stage one action. >> What is up my fellow film? All all apologies. Late drop today. A lot happened. It’s just been a wild morning and I thought there was going to be more of a window to record this. Uh the wild thing is I wanted to do six string samurai. I wanted just to drop it today. I hadn’t recorded it, but I had other things in queue, so I bumped everything. And then when I don’t record for the episode early enough to to drop by 8 a.m., I have to bump my YouTube episode

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because there’s roughly a 2hour break with all of that. AK Patterns, TGIF, welcome back. I’ve tried to record this episode multiple multiple times. It just seems like it’s it’s always a failure on some level. And the reason for that is we can talk about the genius and the brilliance of Lance Mangua. This is our director of Six String Samurai. When I was watching Six String Samurai recently on YouTube, it’s available for free on YouTube. Just watch the freaking thing. I’m saying to

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myself, man, like the we put this movie with The Crow, with Blade, with The Matrix, with Dark City. It fits perfectly. And then I later find out that our our director, well, he directed one of the Crows, the Eddie Furlong one with Tara Reed and Dennis Hopper, Crow, Wicked Prayer, Angel from Buffy’s in this freaking movie. Uh, it’s viral. People make fun of it. I I can’t speak on it. Now, the the the next Crow where where the dude ends up on death row. I’ve seen it. Haven’t done episodes on it. Uh,

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around the time of the Crow remake. I I wanted to do a little bit of a Crow week. Uh, didn’t quite get there. I wanted to even do Stairway of Heaven, the the Crow TV show. Wicked Prayer is now on my list. Uh, I I have to watch this movie. After experiencing Six String Samurai made for $2 million, Lance was able to secure the the final money he needed to make Six String Samurai through the festival circuit. He he got attention, won a Sundance. Uh, was it Garden for Rio? Garden for Rio. Two years prior.

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Let’s Let’s just make sure. Let’s let’s we get some of our garden for Rio 1996. So he wins he wins gets the money. Two years later we get one of the best post-apocalyptic movies ever. We can put six string samurai along with all the road warriors. Fist of the North Star, The Road, Children of Men, Book of Enoch, or Book of Eli, Denzel Washington. If you want a triple feature, I would watch The Crow because Crow is a little bit posted, but I would just watch the Let’s just watch The Crow. The Crow, Six

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String Samurai, and John Clo Dame Cyborg. It is. That would be I mean Six String Samurai John Claude Cyborg is like that’s the freaking movie. Both of them too like both martial art movies too. Perfect. Six R String Samurai looks like a $30 million movie. Six String Samurai has one of the best opening narrations or prologues which is the Russians attack the US and what is left that’s not controlled by the Russians is El Elvis and Las Vegas and now we see a little bit of this like music culture which our star Lance

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Falcon which is maybe the great uh Jeffrey Falcon I’m sorry Jeffrey Falcon still a great name Lance Falcon would have been better but Jeffrey Falcon He’s a martial artist. He’s a stunt stunt man. He has spent time overseas. This guy looks like Buddy Holly. we have this concept of like you know kind of like similar to how like steampunk or uh even you know a good example would recent would be the idea of like the world of the new Fantastic 4 movie which is Reed Richards uh creates and and invents everything in the 60s

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and the world doesn’t quite evolve past the 60s like in steampunk it’s like well we’re just going to lock everything into Victorian uh steam driven London UK, London Town UK and not now as a viewer, as a part of the audience, it, you know, like it takes it takes a little bit to just absorb that and to go with it. Uh I things like Mortal Engines, the the Peter Jackson produced movie didn’t quite land. And I think that’s one of the the reasons it’s hard to tell uh to sell people on a fantasy world

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that doesn’t quite have the concept uh built into it of evolution. And this is a little bit of like the Star Wars problem or even what we see in Star Trek where you know we’re in the fantasy environment but we’re locked in and the slow evolution of technology, society and all these other things are just not present. It’s it’s a it’s a hard concept for audiences to really swallow because in our daily lives we absorb and we see and we witness the opposite of what some of these fantasy worlds are dictating. Some

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of them some of them are wild enough to just go with. I believe six string Samurai is wild enough to go with where we’re done with the movie. We have passed the torch or the sword if you will. We want more. We want more of this story. what these guys were able to do with $6 million. And there’s so much credit that goes to Jeffrey Falconee, our our star here, who uh is credited also as set designer where some of his sets are just sold. Uh he clearly at this time like experience. There’s

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things that he picked up. There’s things that he saw. Uh maybe he he knew who to call for a little bit of extra help. But there’s there’s one scene where he’s just going through these like astronaut because it’s a little bit like the Warriors. We’re on a journey. We’re on a quest to Vegas. You know, in the Warriors case, they’re have to making they have to make their way back home to Coney Island. And along the way, they’re going to run into crazy gangs. And one of the gangs

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are are these astronauts. They’re in like astronaut gear. He slays them all, but we’re in this like windy drape like torn fabric outdoor environment. It’s just freaking cool. But but the whole point of the movie is to get to Vegas. We have this music culture that is the language of the movie. We have a band uh what are they called? The Red Elvises which phenomenal there. There’s an early music sequence that runs like a music video. Call it MTV editing. I don’t really care. Uh Lance does such a good

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job in just staging everything. We can say because this movie is so watchable that it was perfectly scouted. Now, some issues at the end, the final battle on top of the hill with death and there’s like a little bit of a highway, a road, but they they found the roads they have to that’s the road to Vegas. Death is at the basically at the gate at the last steps to like get into V like right like so death is like guarding the gate to Vegas pretty much in this movie. You know maybe some some of that look

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could a little bit better but even at the end Lance does such a great job in blocking everything where uh from corner to corner of the screen of the frame it feels full. It feels real. And to do this for $2 million, to do this with the resources that we know that these guys have, had to have the vision to know how you’re going to go about to shoot death and his gang and have them be faceless and just have them move in a certain way, but have them look like in in a way a special effect. AK Patter. This is one of the most

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visionary independent movies. One of the most visionary movies period. I will put Six String Samurai as a visionary work up against anything you know for Prometheus or Bladeunner for example that is easily labeled as visionary. This is what visionary film making is all about. This is what independent film making is all about. And to roll back to some of the music, the style of music in this movie, it’s scar. It’s Money Money Boss Tones. It’s Zootsuit Riot. Uh it’s a little bit what we see in Jim Car’s

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The Mask movie, you know, like earlier in in the 90s. And what happens like the independent movie, Scum Music fades away. It it just uh bleeds into forgetfulness like the true independent American movie has. Now given people have crowdfunded they’ve they’ve made movies but there was something about uh and the way that we look at how Lance got the money for this there was a competitive nature to break into Hollywood through the best content possible through the best thing you could make. Kevin Smith did it with

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clerks and we saw it with slackers and by all intentive means this movie was supposed to and should have been next in that line. Now, why it didn’t happen is it’s it’s unfathomable. And I don’t want to upset myself. I don’t want to research uh any interviews because if if that if that question gets answered, I’m probably going to get pissed off. I don’t see how Six Ring Samurai doesn’t get uh the we’re talking about Jeffrey Falcon. We’re talking about Lance are

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are two guys. how these two guys don’t get deals with Dimension, New Line Cinema, MirrorMax, uh you know, Fox Search Light, Sony Picture Classics, whatever, uh Mirmax, whatever independent entity was coming up from some of these bigger studios or the ones that were built from the ground up, something like New Line Cinema before they were acquired by by Warner Brothers. It’s beyond me. I watch this movie and I’m thinking about the crow the entire time. I’m just like, man, this is such a great movie to pair with

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with The Crow. Uh I I just there’s just solutions visually that that both of these filmmakers are are finding together but separately. And right like that’s a justosition, but then there’s a congruency at the same time. Opposites can be true from time to time that I was just like falling in love. And I researched Lance and and Lance did direct Crow Wicked Prayer and then he becomes like a producer production guy. Uh I I’m thinking this guy’s going like had to have done some movies I’ve heard

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of before outside The Crow Wicked Prayer. So I get like a little upset. I get a little bit pissed that Lance’s career didn’t leaprog into like this other area, this other zone, because I feel the world of Six String Samurai is just so well put in front of our face and and we have a movie with limited dialogue, but we have great sound effects and we have great choreography and and great cinematography and fantastic music and uh we don’t expect our independent movies to be uh so glued

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and grounded to music as this one is, then on top of it be post-apocalyptic, this is impossible. Like when we look at this movie, just if we were to write the bullet points on a on a whiteboard, it just seems impossible to make. Six Ring Samurai is one of the greatest independent movies of all time. It’s one of the most visionary movies of all time. Anyone that’s a film buff would see this. And anyone that doesn’t or never heard of this movie is not a film buff. And that that’s that’s what

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Fridays are all about. We’re about the in my view a lot of the movies that matter. Fridays are independent movie days. But I think I feel that if a movie is independent enough, it it transcends being labeled as an independent movie. Just simply becomes a film, a movie or in this case, an experience. AK Powers, TGIF, thanks for sticking with me. It was a rough one to get this one out today. I’ll tell you that right now. AK Patterns, I love you guys. Rock and roll. Okay, that’s a wrap.

PETER A DELUCA AKAPD

AKAPAD is a versatile thinker known across Philadelphia, Europe, and even in the vast Multiverse as The Electic One. By day, he excels as an IT Mastermind, assisting individuals, both big and small, with a wide range of simple and complex solutions. In contrast, he is also a talented illustrator, a passionate comic book enthusiast, a creative content creator, and an active live streamer. Additionally, his podcast, “AKAPAD The Film Buff Podcast,” boasts an impressive catalog of over 500 episodes available on nearly every major platform.