Crossroads (1986)

Eugene Martone (Ralph Macchio) is a classically trained guitar student in The Juilliard School. He's in search of the legend of Robert Johnson. He finds Willie Brown (Joe Seneca) locked away in an old age home. Willie claims to have recorded with Robert Johnson back in the day. Eugene agrees to break him out, and back to Mississippi. In return Willie agrees to help record Robert Johnson's long lost 30th song. On the road, they encounter 17 year old runaway Frances (Jami Gertz).I love the music but the drama is paper thin. It's a road trip adventure. It's not particularly fun or funny or dramatic. All three people start off as disgruntled malcontents. Ralph Macchio comes off as a clueless brat. Jami Gertz isn't as clueless. And Joe Seneca is just a grumpy old man.There is a distinct lack of drive. There's got to have some kind of time constraint or a bad guy chasing. The whole thing is a series of meandering incidences. I think Willie probably should have told the whole story to start, and put some time constraint on it. Then they could have the excitement of the quest. Or else make it a horror as Willie is chased by the Devil. There are many ways to add drama to this story and they used none of them.While I love the music, I can't help but notice that it's Ralph Macchio on the screen. It's my one complaint about the guitar battle. I just can't believe that Macchio could play. But I would barely recommend this for the music.

Having just come back from a road trip in the Southern US, the first cinematographic need was for some movie set in those fascinating Mississippi landscapes, and "Crossroads" was one of them. The first opening blues notes make you enter the mood of a lazy, sweet, melancholy, sun-beaten land where people can still today feel till the utmost the pleasure of a music that gets under your skin and makes you shiver. It's the story of a young white boy dreaming of becoming a great blues guitarist, looking for a lost song by Robert Johnson, one of the greatest blues men, ever. The boy knows that the still living harmonica player Willie Brown was a partner of the legendary blues musician Robert Johnson, manages to find him in a nursing home and makes a deal with the old man. He'll help him come back a crossroads where he had once signed a pact with the devil to become a great musician, if the old man teaches him the lost Johnson song. It's a movie about the need to go that land, to the Mississippi delta, to see, feel the places where blues had its origins. It's also the story of an odd friendship between two generations, two worlds, but united by the same passionate longing for a music, a mood that only that music can fully express. And indeed the good soundtrack, makes a difference, sly and pleasant to be listened. Willie once tells the boy the meaning of blues and says: "The blues ain't nothing' but a good man feelin' bad, thinking' 'bout the woman he once was with". Maybe...But if you have a chance, go to Clarksdale (MS) where three crossed guitars at a crossroads, mark where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to play his own blues, and don't miss some live blues at Red's, not far from that same crossroads: you will taste some amazing live blues music, enjoy the company of hearty people, and experience some real South.

Crossroads delivers an old fashioned piece of classical storytelling, about even older stuff, and added to that it's also a film that in itself has aged very favorably. For one thing, the blues is as obscure, and the mythology of it as unspoiled and seductive, now as it was then. But it's also a kind of forgotten film that one therefore can see today in a kind of piece and quiet. To me it became a fairly nostalgic experience. It reminded me of how much heart the American films of the 80's had, when they were at their best. At the time, it looked like the great American cinema had died to pave the way for the soulless blockbuster and to an extent that was indeed true. But there was also a great sense of joy to the best of these films, they were designed to have a broad appeal but they still managed to be personal. They told stories about young people that were emotional, even intimate at times, but always with a sense of authenticity. They weren't deliberately clever, but they didn't shy away from the darker realities of the world. Neither did they deny positivism and traditional values. Right and wrong. Good and evil. Family. Love. Fight for your passions. These were films with big hearts.Ralph Macchio's entire presence embodies this era, I think. Severely typecast in Crossroads, a film he starred in between the first and second of the Karate Kid movies, he does another bright, talented but inexperienced teenager, in a coming-of-age story where he is to learn the true nature of himself, his talent and the life that talent will require.What makes Crossroads special though is that it's not a film about karate, it's a film about something as under-represented in film as blues. Macchio is a kid playing classical guitar at Julliard in New York, but in secret he's in love with the scratchy Mississippi tunes coming from Richard Johnson. He tracks down an old harmonica playing fox from these days, an 80 year old "blues man" called Willie Fox who laughs him in the face when he shows up with his guitar saying he's born and raised at Long Island. Willie's got a point though, and he knows a heluvalot more about the blues than Macchio's kid (who's name is Eugene, but quickly changes it to 'Lightning Boy'). This kid's got a good heart - as did Billy in Gremlins and Marty in Back to the Future and Macchio in The Karate Kid for that matter - but he's in love with his own illusions and has no concept of what it means to hitch hike hobo style 200 miles on Highway 61, or do some rough business to find money, or to make a deal with the devil, or to have a cutting head-duel with one of his disciples. Willy's first task is for him to arrange a great escape from the nursing home Willy's in. "What, are you trying to get me arrested". Such a city boy mentality!After escaping the nursing home they hit the road deeper down a mythological landscape of blues, looking for "the last song" that Richard Johnson supposedly once wrote. Most of this follows a very traditional wandering-man/roadmovie storyline. They pick up a runaway girl (Jami Gertz), meet some shabby hotel men, crooked cops, they get in arguments with each other, they make up, they make out, as they get closer to the there's some unexpected and intriguingly, supernatural Faustian themes and finally a showdown ending with a kind of real, authentic Guitar Hero duel featuring real life rock hero Steve Vai.This is a film I felt very strongly at home with. Yes it does cover familiar grounds, but it's passionately drenched in the world of the kind of music that I love and, much like Macchio's character, have been dreaming as a far away myth when I was younger. Also, directed by the good and professional Walter Hill it's the kind of well made film that you cannot take for granted these, or any, days. It's a great 80's movie, less flashy than the Spielberg-Lucas-Zemeckis productions and more culturally ambitious and serious minded. Indeed, it's even rated R. That's certainly part of it's charm. It once again reminds me of the feeling that the good films of this decade were made in a kind of honesty. The invention of PG-13 changed all that. Not immediately, but gradually it became a marketing goal rather than just a matter of causality. Crossroads was Rated R, because the kids use some four letter words and there's alcohol, some violence, real emotions, nothing upsetting but, basically, as real as the story requires to be. This is simply not a censored down depiction of reality. It's kind of a breath of fresh air to see it, despite the bittersweet notion that an R rating wouldn't be considered had it been released today. It would have been a movie about the blues without any soul.

At the crossroads Robert Johnson, the greatest blues guitarist of all time, sold his soul to the devil for talent and fame, so the legend goes. "Crossroads" is a bow to the great blues musicians and the myths surrounding them. The movie was made in the middle of the 80's but thankfully director Walter Hill avoided including too much of what was hip at the time and concentrated on the classy, timeless coolness of the blues. Even the devil, who plays a certain part in the story, isn't portrayed as some kind of cheesy monster, but appears as a regular guy with a sinsiter smile. On the other hand, this movie could only have been made in the 80's. It's the classic story of a young rookie meeting an old, grumpy legend and learning how to become a giant himself with a lacing of fantasy thrown into the mix. Ralph Macchio who had incidentally already been the "Karate Kid", a movie with a different subject but a similar setup, does a great job at mimicking to play the guitar. He has to act as if he was playing some really tricky stuff and he pulls it off quite well. In reality, Ry Cooder was responsible for all the amazing guitar work. If you're a guitar buff and own a Telecaster yourself (like I do), you'll find it delightful to see that guitar in action so much. What I like the most about "Crossroads" is that it takes all the clichés and myths of blues and handles them with a lot of dignity while never forgetting to move on with the story. The movie's heart is of course the guitar duel at the end, where Steve Vai makes a prominent appearance. It's the one scene that people will watch repeatedly, although it's also the scene, in which "Crossroads" reveals when it has been made. Such a finale just wouldn't be possible nowadays as shredding guitar heroes aren't popular anymore. I love the scene for what it is, but it's not set up well and the movie ends a bit too quickly afterwards.All in all "Crossroads" is no masterpiece, but it's certainly one of a kind. The most likable thing about it is that it doesn't seem like it was made for a huge commercial success, but for the love for its subject. This one's not just for blues geeks, but also recommendable to "normal" people.