Back Roads (1981)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

just watch it!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

What a profoundly beautiful film I just saw. It's a romance along with some dark situational drama that goes along perfectly.The film is the tale of a middle-aged sex worker Amy Post(Sally Field) and a drifter and ex-boxer Elmore Pratt(Tommy Lee Jones)who gets the occasional boxing match in the places he visits.The film tells the story of how these two characters meets and from that single encounter will form a bond that will last forever. As I have already said it is a beautiful film and I am a romantic at heart.Martin Ritt a seasoned director, really makes us feel that we are in the middle of the events that unfold in the film. I have seen two of Ritt's earlier films that I also recommend you see: Hud(1963 starring Paul Newman) and Norma Rae(1973 starring Sally Field and based on a true story).

Back Roads", a pointless movie which lacks direction and is void thematically, concerns a cross-country journey of discovery that is uninspired and uncovers little. Screenwriter Gary De Vore's would be road movie tells the story of a two people from Mobile, Alabama who head out to California to try and start their lives anew. The weak plot leaves little for Martin Ritt (director) to work with, and he is unable to swing the film into gear (it couldn't choose one) with any real force.The pairing of Sally Field, who does reasonably well in this unusual role, and Tommy Lee Jones is never romantically moving, and the duo can make little of the sparse comedy and ineffective drama. David Keith drops by in a supporting role, but his meaningless character leaves him floundering.De Vore made nothing of the subplot involving Miss Field's little boy.Saturday, June 10, 1995 - Video

Years ago, when the movie trailer ran on television, it was touted as a "wacky road comedy." SPOILER: They used this one scene where the two characters are trying to jump on a moving train and ultimately end up in a mud puddle. END OF SPOILER. Yes, that scene was funny in a slap-sticky kind of way, but it also set the audience up to expect a totally different movie. I didn't watch it at first; those two actors just didn't scream comic foils to me; eventually, it was on TV and I watched it expecting a comedy. I hated it! The grubby sadness of these characters' lives just didn't strike me as funny. Melancholy, seedy, frustrating--yes; Funny? No. Years pass. It's on TV again. I decide to watch it and forget that the ads and reviews and video stores place it in the comedy section. This time I liked the film so much better. I eventually got the DVD and have enjoyed it every time I've seen it. Don't get me wrong: It's no classic; but, if you expect a character study instead of romantic comedy, you might enjoy it more. Oh, and I'm embarrassed to confess that I even hated the theme song so much that I wondered if the singer got the job because she was related to the producer or something. Now,I realize the bittersweet lyrics and pleasant, but world-weary singing suit the movie perfectly. Again, if you're not expecting a comedy and can get modern movie themes' bombast out of your ears, it's another melancholy pleasure one can glean from this film.

Hi. Long time ago I was on a Swedish ship, a general cargo ship on a trip from England to Brownsville, Texas. It was a bad ship, and it ended in a one-way ticket back to Sweden, paid by the Swedish embassy, but, however, there were some Mexican hookers visiting our ship every day during our stay, very friendly and "speakable", but one day when they came aboard one of them shouted "I'm a movie star", and she explained that she had a part in a film called "Crossroads" (later I found out that it was called Back Roads), featuring Sally Field. As the years went by I looked for this film but never found it, until today(!) 14th March 2007, when they showed it on cable television...fantastic! After all, she wasn't lying! A little story on the first day of spring here in Sweden. Yours Rune Carlsson