The Burnzo Diaries: REPO MAN: IT’S NOT JUST A MOVIE, IT’S A WAY OF LIFE

My earliest memory of being aware that the movie Repo Man actually existed was probably from somewhere back in the late-1990s or maybe very early-2000s. A VHS copy of Repo Man suddenly appeared one week at my local library and I probably never would have given it a second glance had the box art not been so cool-looking. It was immediately apparent from the green box, thrashy-looking Repo Man font and bad-ass look of Emilio Estevez folding his arms with attitude that this was a movie I should probably be watching.

The box art (front and back) for the Repo Man VHS.

So I did, indeed, borrow Repo Man from the library, popped it into my VCR, but I remember not getting very far into it. At the time, I guess I wasn’t ready for this movie, I suppose because it was just too different from what I was used to. It was immediately clear that this was no normal comedy, action, science fiction or whatever the hell it was. It was too different and, to be honest, I was kind of dumb back then and ‘different’ turned me off.

Despite being turned off from how "different" Repo Man was, I did still dig the opening titles right from the outset.

Maybe a couple years or so went by and the next memory I have of being made aware of Repo Man’s existence (other than seeing it at the local library) was from my brother who happened to mention the movie to me one day and he said it was considered to be a “punk film.” I was very much into punk music at the time (e.g. Misfits, Ramones, the Unseen, Rancid, etc.), so I thought, shit, I must see this movie Repo Man, since it must be about punks!

So I gave the movie another try. I can’t remember if I ever got through the entire movie this time around, but I still remember not being all that into it, mainly because—that’s right—it was different. I also spent the whole time searching for punks like I was reading a Where’s Waldo? book, and although there is some punk music in the film and one or two mohawks make an appearance, I didn’t think there was enough “punk” stuff in the film to be deemed a “punk film.”

One of the mohawks that makes an appearance in Repo Man.

Of course, the mistake I was making was that I was taking “punk” too literally and thought the film was going to be nothing but spiked hair, studded leather coats with butt flags, fishnet stockings and Doc Martens. But this movie was mostly about a group of non-punk men repossessing cars. Not what I expected. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it was considered to be a punk film because it was irreverent, subversive, unconventional and just flat-out weird.

Fast-forward to my junior year of film school at Boston University. I was taking some kind of screenwriting course (possibly called “Screenplay Literature”?), but we didn’t write any screenplays in this class; we simply read one screenplay after another … after another, ones from all sorts of classic movies. Dozens of them.

The semester was divided up into different “Ages” of cinema. I may not have all these details right, but I believe there were three or four Ages: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Lead. I probably have my class syllabus somewhere and could check on this, but it’s possible these Ages were based on the time period in which these films were made, Bronze being early-20^th century films, Silver being 1940s-area films, Gold being mid-to-late 20^th century and then Lead being later 20^th century films.

But it’s also possible these “Ages” had nothing to do with the time in which they were made but more to do with the tone of the films. For example, Gold Age films depicted the world from a very optimistic viewpoint. But Lead Age films depicted pretty much the exact opposite, a cynical dystopian view of the world and especially America, or, even more especially, the American dream.

All I know is that Repo Man was categorized, at least in my “Screenplay Literature” class, as a Lead Age film, basically because it depicted America as being whacked out of its mind and the American Dream as being more like a nightmare, a kind of East-Los-Angeles, Skid-Row-like hellscape that was filled with junkyards, rusting cars, and broken-down dreams.

It was around the time of me reading the screenplay in this class that I began falling in love with Repo Man. The script by Alex Cox was so well-written, so funny and the dialogue was so fresh. I remember thinking to myself that, “Oh, I didn’t realize a script could be written like THIS!” Because even the script, if I remember correctly, had a very punk attitude. Although well-written and well-structured with formatting that (I think) was acceptable for its time, it almost felt like some street punker decided to have some fun and write a screenplay. It didn’t feel like it was written by somebody who was under the pressure to please anybody, like a studio or even an audience. It felt like something somebody wrote just for the hell of it and if somebody else happened to like it? Well, all the better.

The Repo Man screenplay.

After I read and loved the script, I of course got inspired to go back to my local library, borrow the Repo Man VHS yet again and, this time, I watched the movie all the way through once, twice, maybe a few times.

By my senior year in college, Repo Man was officially one of my favorite movies.

What is so great about Repo Man is that it is, in one word, wacky. And it’s not even that great of a story. To this day, I can’t easily summarize the plot to anybody. Basically, it’s about an 18-year-old punk named Otto who needs money, so he stumbles into a job repossessing cars. While still new to the job, a BOLO goes out to all the repo men, I think by the FBI or some other secret government agency, letting Otto and his other fellow repo men know that there is a stolen 1962 Chevy Malibu on the loose somewhere in Los Angeles and there is a $20,000 reward for anybody who repossesses it. What Otto and the other repo men don’t know is that this vehicle has been stolen by a nuclear physicist who designed the neutron bomb. He went crazy, had a lobotomy, went crazier, and stole a bunch of dead alien bodies from an Air Force base in New Mexico. Otto does eventually end up tracking down the Chevy Malibu by the end of the movie, then he hops into the car with a weird man named Miller who works in the repo yard, the car turns into a spaceship and they fly off into the nighttime skies of Los Angeles, maybe even travel through time? Did I get it right? Something like this?

The Chevy Malibu spaceship.

Yes, the plot is ridiculous, makes little sense at times, but that’s not what’s important anyway. What makes Repo Man a good movie is not its story but its characters, its tone and, yes, its wackiness. The movie absolutely, one-hundred-percent does not give one flying fuck. It does not take itself seriously. It was clearly not made for entertaining the lowest common denominator of a general audience. It was not made to gross loads of money, either. In fact, one has to wonder how this movie even GOT made and was eventually distributed by Universal Pictures. What was Universal smoking when they decided to release this thing? Of course, I’m glad they did release it and it probably paid off for them in the long run since Repo Man is now considered a cult classic. But this film definitely did not have “big opening weekend” written all over it. So it’s a wonder Universal ever even considered releasing it, let alone actually released it.

I’m sure many people liked Repo Man the first time they saw it, but I think the majority of people were like me and didn’t know what to quite make of it at first. But then it grew on them. And grew on them some more. And then it grew on a lot of people over a gradual amount of time, and this is why the movie eventually became a cult classic.

More than anything else, I think what fans like the most about Repo Man is its dialogue. Very few movies out there are as quotable as Repo Man is. The greatest lines include but are not limited to:

DEBBI: “Come on, Duke, let’s go do those crimes.”

DUKE: “Yeah … let’s go get sushi, and not pay!”

KEVIN: “There’s fucking ROOM TO MOVE as a fry cook.”

MILLER: “John Wayne was a fag.”

REPO MEN: “The hell he was!”

MILLER: “He was too, you boys. I installed two-way mirrors in his pad in Brentwood, and he come to the door in a dress.”

REPO VICTIM: “Are you going to give me my car or do I have to go to your house and shove your dog’s head down the toilet?”

OLLY: “Oh, yeah, you’re Fuckin’ A we ripped your car, asshole! You want to know who told us where it was? Your goddamned brother!”

And then there are all the lines that use the word “dildo” in them, which, for some reason, are among my favorites:

OTTO: “I’m a Repo Man.”

LEILA: “What’s that?”

OTTO: “It’s a re-possessor. I take back cars from dildos who don’t pay their bills. Pretty cool, huh?”
LEILA: “No.”

BUD: “Goddamn-dipshit-Rodriquez-gypsy-dildo punks! I’ll get your ass.”

BUD: “Don’t care how long it takes, dildos! Repo Man’s got all night, every night!”

In short, the dialogue is extremely bizarre-yet-hilarious and there is a strange kind of freedom in that. Yes, it is a very free film. One of the first scenes in the movie features Otto stocking generic cans of “YELLOW CLING SLICED PEACHES” in a supermarket. His boss Mr. Humphries gives him a hard time about not spacing the cans properly, Otto gets pissed off, flips his boss off and then says, “FUCK YOU.”

Otto in the supermarket, right before he says "FUCK YOU."

That “FUCK YOU” basically sums up the entire attitude of Repo Man. Yes, on the surface, Otto is saying “FUCK YOU” to his boss, but this first act scene is really the film saying FUCK YOU to anyone who thinks the film is not spacing its cans properly, not behaving the way it’s supposed to be behaving. It’s basically saying I don’t care what you think of this film, if you think it’s weird, if you think it doesn’t make any sense, if you think it doesn’t fall into a classic genre. I don’t care if it can’t be labeled, if it can’t be canned, marketed, sold or whatever. Fuck you, this film is what it is and if you don’t like it or if you got a problem with it, then, well, FUCK YOU.

That is freedom right there, a true American spirit ironically in a “Lead Age” film about how dead the American spirit actually is.

Another great thing about Repo Man that I would be remiss if I didn’t mention but I think often gets overlooked is the cinematography. It’s really important to highlight how great of a job Director of Photography Robby Müller did on the film. The movie is filled with these beautiful shots depicting how ugly East Los Angeles was circa 1984. You can smell the dust, the rot, the rust, the decay and, of course, the smog. It’s strange how, through the movie, you find yourself marveling at the beauty of these “ugly” shots. Yes, there is an irony there: the ugly East LA landscapes are so beautifully shot.

One of the many "beautiful" shots showing East LA's ugliness.

Another "beautiful" shot of ugliness, downtown LA in the background.

A "beautiful" shot of the LA river.

Over the past 20-plus years, I have probably watched Repo Man dozens of times. Many of these viewings were on the library VHS, but then that VHS eventually disappeared when the library moved to a new building and got rid of all their VHS tapes. I eventually bought the DVD, then sold it out of financial desperation, only to buy the Criterion Blu-ray released in 2013 and then I did eventually buy a cheap used copy of the DVD again in 2025.

This photo was taken in 2013 when my
Repo Man Blu-ray arrived in the mail.

By the way, I currently own three Repo Man T-shirts. Two of them are old and faded by this point, but the third one is still in good condition and part of my bi-weekly wardrobe rotation. Just thought I would mention that. Nothing further about this.

To no surprise, Repo Man also became an enormous artistic inspiration for me. I think the influence of Repo Man is very much apparent in much—if not all—of my writing, especially one novel of mine in particular called Supermarket Zombies!. If you are a fan of Repo Man and then read my novel, the influence will be noticeable, I think. My novel has a similar bizarre vibe that, frankly, does not give a fuck. I even went so far as to call Supermarket Zombies! a “punk novel” specifically because Repo Man was always known as a “punk film.”

It’s hard to say whether Repo Man is my favorite film of all time, although it might be, or at least it’s a strong contender. But it is certainly, I think, without a doubt, the most influential film for me. I have many cinematic influences—the films of Kubrick, Hitchcock, Burton, Cassavetes and many others—but I think Alex Cox’s Repo Man influenced me more than any of the others.

Thinking back on it now, there was probably a reason why Repo Man kept calling my name way back when I first started noticing the VHS at my local library. It took me a couple tries to fully appreciate the movie, but I think our crossing paths was part of my destiny. On some spiritual level, the Repo Man VHS was sending out a sort of frequency, insisting that I needed to see it, that it was ESSENTIAL that I see it.

Or maybe my attraction to the movie had nothing to do with destiny and I just liked the cool box art.

Either way, Repo Man, I think will always function as a kind of muse for me. It is part of my brain and even part of my soul. The lines from the movie probably come in and out of my mind on a daily basis. Whenever I write a novel or a screenplay, I have Repo Man in my head, at least on a subconscious level. It keeps my mind open. It gives me the confidence to be bizarre. It makes me feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. It makes me feel like I fit in when I don’t really fit in.

And, really, what’s more “punk” than that?

Indeed, Repo Man isn’t just a movie; it’s a way of life. It’s about embracing weirdness. It’s about being unique. It’s about not conforming to the norm. It’s about NOT spacing those cans properly. It’s about liberation … freedom …

And, frankly, it’s about saying, “FUCK YOU.”

…

MATT BURNS is the author of several novels, including Weird Monster, Supermarket Zombies!, The Woman and the Dragon and Johnny Cruise. He’s also written numerous memoirs, including GARAGE MOVIE: My Adventures Making Weird Films, Lymey Bastard, My Raging Case of Beastie Fever, Jungle F’ng Fever: My 30-Year Love Affair with Guns N’ Roses, Bostonwood and I Turned into a Misfit! Check out these books (and many more) on his Amazon author page HERE.