Released under titles including GetEven and Road to Revenge, the outsider action film Champagne and Bullets was written, directed, and starred in by John De Hart. The movie has earned comparisons to outsider classics like The Room due to its bizarre musical numbers, inexplicable character arcs, and unnatural relationships.
An Outsider Classic From John De Hart
There is a specific kind of cinematic curiosity where ambition vastly outstrips resources, ability, and self-awareness.
Hart served as the writer, director, and star of the film, casting himself as Rick Bode. His creative fingerprints are stamped across every frame, establishing a singular, unhinged tone from the very beginning. Early in the proceedings, Hart performs a bizarre musical number titled The Shimmy Slide. Hart was reportedly pumped full of painkillers after throwing out his back during this period, leaving him looking stiff and as though he was looking around the room as if he were only performing under the threat of violence. Despite this lifeless performance of a cringy country rocker, it is far from the most awkward scene in the 90-minute runtime.
Fired Cops, Prison Bleach, and Satanic Cults
The relationships and interactions between characters in Champagne and Bullets match the unnatural cadence of The Room. The plot kicks off immediately when Bode and his partner, Huck Finney, lose their badges just five minutes into the movie. That swift termination triggers an alarmingly quick mental decline for Finney, who is simultaneously navigating a divorce after discovering his wife has been sleeping around.
Finney’s subsequent downward spiral defies standard narrative logic. It has been reported that he fires a handgun through his bills, drinks bleach to get out of prison, and seemingly starts a cult. Not to be outdone, a substantial portion of the film’s plot revolves around the reemergence of Bode’s old girlfriend Cindy, who is fleeing a satanic coven that sacrificed a human baby
.
The Staging of Action and Romance
While Champagne and Bullets is ostensibly billed as an action film, those elements take a back seat. The fight scenes are few, far between, and staged with all the believability of a theme park stunt show. Hart’s true interest lay elsewhere: cramming in gratuitous nudity.
The movie features three uncomfortably long sex scenes between Hart and costar Pamela Bryant, who plays Cindy. All three sequences are set to songs sung by Hart himself. In total, these intimate moments consume 12 minutes of the film’s 90-minute runtime. One particular scene taking place in a jacuzzi apparently led Hart’s girlfriend at the time to break up with him. (The reporting also carries a warning that a separate scene, not involving Hart and Bryant, depicts a sexual assault.)
Alternate Titles and Enduring Legacy
Over the years, the film has circulated under alternative titles alongside its primary heading. Champagne and Bullets was also released under the names GetEven and Road to Revenge. Whether viewed under its original banner or its alternate titles, the film endures as a marvel of outsider filmmaking, defined entirely by John De Hart’s uncompromising and singular vision.
