Zachariah (1971 film)

Zachariah
Directed by	George Englund
Produced by	George Englund Lawrence Kubik
Written by	Joe Massot Phil Austin Peter Bergman David Ossman Philip Proctor
Starring	John Rubinstein Don Johnson Patt Quinn Dick Van Patten
Music by	Jimmie Haskell Mark Snow (song co-composer, "Grave Digger", as "Martin Fultermann") Michael Kamen (song co-composer, "Grave Digger") John Rubinstein ("Camino Waltz")
Cinematography	Jorge Stahl Jr.
Edited by	Gary Griffin
Distributed by	Cinerama Releasing Corporation (1971, original) MGM (2004, DVD)
Release date	1971
Running time	93 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,200,000
Box office	$625,000

Zachariah (1971) is a Western film starring John Rubinstein as Zachariah and Don Johnson as his friend Matthew as two gunfighters journeying through the American West.

The film is loosely based on Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha, surrealistically adapted as a musical Western by Joe Massot and the members of The Firesign Theatre comedy troupe.

This film was billed as, "The first electric Western." It features appearances and music supplied by rock bands from the 1970s, including the James Gang and Country Joe and the Fish as "The Cracker Band." Fiddler Doug Kershaw has a musical cameo as does Elvin Jones as a gunslinging drummer named Job Cain.

Cream's drummer Ginger Baker and The Band were originally scheduled to be major players in the film.

The Minneapolis group White Lightnin' performs their rock and roll version of the William Tell Overture on the soundtrack and the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble perform Grave Digger. The soundtrack features songs by the James Gang, Joe Walsh, and Country Joe and the Fish.

The soundtrack album was released as a vinyl LP by Probe Records, a subsidiary label owned by ABC Records.

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