By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos and video copyright Paramount Pictures
It’s funny how over rimw your perspective chnages with what you like and don’t like. If you are familiar with the Time Warriors and Beyond website then you know I LOVE Silver Bullet. From the very first time I saw it I fell in love with it. It wasn’t until years later I read the novella it is based on and the movie is far tighter and superior. Hero of the story is Marty who cannot walk and relies on a wheelchair. Everything in his life is designed around his disability which pisses his sister off as their parents think she is Marty’s keeper. The most telling sequence of how Marty feels about his condition is when he watches a baseball game of kids his age. There is no dialogue but ti is clear that Marty hurtss at the fact he cannot join in.
It’s my birthday and it is my first as an amputee. I had a below the knee amputation just over a month ago and have been confined to one room since being discharged poorly by the hospital even though I told them my home was not disabled friendly. I fully intend to get a new limb once everyhting is healed so I’m not in the same position as Marty. But I see the disabled ramp outside his home, how his chair has to fit into the car and how he transfers from one chair to another. But the difference is the wheelchair given to me is the wrong one so it has not used at all. Plus mine is not a super speed motorbike like Marty. Marty has the Silver Bullet thanks to his wild Uncle Red played by Gary Busey. It gives Marty a freedom most do not have at all and unknowingly, Uncle Red saves his life.
Now Silver Bullet is all about a werewolf killing people in a small town and Marty almost joins that list but for the fact he spears the wolf in the eye with a rocket firework and is able to escape in his motorbike wheelchair. Now if it was me I’d be eaten in a second but at least I’d go down beating the wolf with a crutch.
But I will walk again, I’m determined so patience is a great but strained virtue. But what gets me every time is when Marty discovers that Reverend Lowe is the werewolf. He sends him notes telling him to kill himself which only angers the priest. So as the man grows closer to the full moon, the wolfier he gets. Lowe is near to the full moon so his dark side decides to kill Marty to keep his secret. What entails is a superbly exciting sequence where Marty is chased by Lowe in his car.
Lowe smashes the wheelchair into the bridge so Marty will fall and drown in the river. But Uncle Red has done a great job on the Silver Bullet and made it strong enough to keep his nephew safe. Marty manages to escape but is running out of fuel. He ends up trapped on a deserted derelict bridge. Lowe gets out of his car and walks towards Marty saying he is going to have an accident and that he cannot help it as his secret must not get out. Even the wolf serves the will of God. Again my crutch would be swinging but Marty trembles in terror as Reverend Lowe walks closer and closer…..
The Time Warriors and Beyond 