Crossroads (1986)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

First thing "Crossroads" brought to mind was The Devil Went Down to Georgia (incidentally the only Charlie Daniels song I know). It taps into the same mythology of brokered souls and damnation, but it's nicely packaged as a road movie. Jon Seneca quickly works his charms as the cantankerous elder, while Macchio proves his musicianship in scenes that make it easy for us to scrutinize. Hollywood movie or not, it's a treat to see him to head-to-head with Steve Vai.But even more than that, he's well-suited to a story of hard lessons and young heartbreak. In the end, it's the performances that really make this a fine movie.7/10

The plot in this movie is awful. It's annoying because every 10-15 minutes it's like the producer has to remind you that this is a movie about guitars.Frances, the temporary love interest, seems to be to squeezed into the plot for some reason, probably to give this movie a part love story. Eugene and Frances happen meet in a barn where Frances is not wearing any pants. However, she wears a top long enough. I hate her character and she does not deserve to be on the cover of the DVD. Frances has an attitude problem, and when she and Eugene fight, she storms off and Eugene comes over to comfort her. He says that he wants her to come with him and that he likes her. This scene is so clichéd and cheesy that I bury my head in hands.Then, they kiss and eventually makes it look like they slept with each other. I wonder to myself if she ever ended up pregnant?! Or maybe she brought condoms with her just in case she happens to meet some stranger she could randomly sleep with.Something that was really weird was when that old man wanted Frances to come in the shower with him. I can't remember properly but for some reason she started taking her shirt off anyway but Eugene shows up and she manages to escape. Another creepy thing is that all these weird old men throughout the movie start saying 'Oh you're pretty' and complimenting on her looks. Later on, she completely disappears out of the movie despite the romance between her and Eugene. She's gone at least.One thing that annoyed me is that in the middle of the movie, Eugene and that old dude go to the guitar shop and trade the acoustic guitar for the electric. The old dude traded something to pay for it. The guitar cost four hundred dollars! Four hundred dollars gone for a brand new guitar and some pick up thing. They could of spent it on food and shelter or at least got a second-hand.At the end of the movie, this guy, the 'devil' challenges Eugene against the top guitarist in the town. If Eugene wins, the old dude, who in the beginning lost his soul, gets it back and if he loses, gets his own soul taken.Asleep at that scene, I was awakened by the sound of a loud piercing guitar noise. My ears hurt. There is a dramatic moment where Eugene takes to the stage and plugs in his guitar. There is this guitar duel between him and that other guy that is the best in the town. It bored me to tears. There was also this girl randomly dancing around them. It sounded like two people childishly fighting on guitar hero. Thanks to clichés, we all know who is going to win. Yes, it's the hero of the story, Eugene from his skills he somehow got. I barely saw him learning any guitar skills and suddenly he becomes a professional.Bottom line, don't watch this movie unless you're a hardcore guitar fan and you enjoy watching old creepy perverted guys hit on young girls. Considering I'm more of a piano person, I give this one star for the guitar parts because there is probably skills I'm not aware of.

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.

In the 70's and 80's i seen most of Ralph Macchio's films,i loved them all. I remember Crossroads like it was made just a few years ago,i seen Crossroads in 1986. This was one of Ralph Macchio's best films i thought the story line and music were brilliant. I have seen Crossroads to buy on Amazon and i have decided to buy it, have a night in and remember my teens. Ralph Macchio is a great actor and for me,growing up in the 70's and 80's was the best years of my life,the music the films and actors like Ralph Macchio made it all worth while. Ralph Macchio plays a brilliant part in Crossroads,watching him find himself and where he wants to go and what he wants to do with his life are all part of watching this film. His relationship between Ralph and Joe really comes through in this film and the more times you see Crossroads the more you get to like it. I have never seen another film like this since watching Crossroads. Films like this just aren't made anymore and actors like Ralph Macchio are very very rare.