Night of the Lepus - reviewed at All Consuming

i’d been wanting to see this movie for a long time, but it’s hard to find, and i finally rented it from Netflix. When i saw the Matrix with my brother-in-law he pointed out that it’s playing on the tv when Neo is talking to “there is no spoon” boy in the Oracle’s living room. He told me that it was filmed in Ajo, Arizona… which is kind of true.

i grew up in Ajo and only recognized that they were actually in Ajo during one scene, when all the cops were driving through the town’s one light next to the Plaza. The characters would talk about the “university” in Ajo and then show UofA, which is in Tucson and is upwards of a three hour drive away. i did recognize that the desert is typical of southern Arizona (in one scene A Mountain appeared to be in the far background). In one scene it looked like the “highway” that a character was turning into was actually Ten Mile Wash (a huge wash that crosses the highway ten miles outside of Ajo city limits). i don’t know of any gold mines in the area, though there are some near Yuma the mine in Ajo is copper. The drive in movie may have actually been Ajo’s, but that was torn down before we moved there. On the wall at the sheriff’s station is a map that does appear to be of Ajo, but it only shows some of the streets and doesn’t even depict the huge open pit mine, Rasmussen, or the five acres area. The airport may have been Ajo’s and i think i recognize the location where the picnicing family was mauled as being a picnic area near the shooting range. But not much of this movie was filmed in Ajo at all, though they mention the town a lot. A lot of the scenes were filmed at the junctions of highways 82 and 83, which is actually southeast of Tucson between Nogales and Sierra Vista near a town called Sonoita.

Of the movie itself: they actually do a good job of making the rabbits look huge (considering when this was filmed): they aren’t particularly scary though, and of course we have to have the obligatory “huge” footprint in the dirt for the 150 pound bunny (all the people i know who weigh 150 don’t leave tracks like that!). The dialogue and plot is predictable and campy (as i would also expect of the period). Worth a look see i guess, especially if you come from Arizona.

The funny thing about rabbits in conjunction with Ajo is that if you drive from Gila Bend to Ajo at night during the summer you are quite likely to see upwards of one hundred rabbits commit suicide in a forty mile stretch. The stupid buggers run for the headlights and are of course ran over and there is nothing you can do to avoid them. So perhaps a better way to deal with a desert overrun with rabbits is not to poison them or give them hormones: it’s to go cruising late at night with your friends. (;