Movie Review: Convoy (1978)

Genre: Anti-Authoritarian Action Comedy  

Director: Sam Peckinpah  

Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Burt Young  

Running Time: 111 minutes  

Synopsis: On the open highways of Arizona, trucker Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald (Kris Kristofferson) tangles with photographer Melissa (Ali MacGraw) in her speedy convertible. At a truck stop she sells the car and becomes his passenger. When corrupt Sheriff Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine) shakes down Rubber Duck and his trucker friends "Pig Pen" (Burt Young) and "Spider" Mike (Franklyn Ajaye), a brawl ensues. The truckers flee and motor into New Mexico, where they are joined by many other disgruntled truck drivers. The convoy becomes a public spectacle and political headache.

What Works Well: Freedom expressed as enjoyment of the open road is both nostalgic and poetic, and the kinetic visual imagery of massive trucks roaring down the highway under gorgeous skies is impressive. Cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr. also excels in capturing countless stunts involving crashing police cars and overturning trucks. The movie was inspired by the fun 1975 C.W. McCall song of the same name.

What Does Not Work As Well: There is no plot to speak of, and no meaningful characters beyond cartoon cut-outs (Ernest Borgnine suffering most from peak buffoonery). The script generally consists of CB radio chatter, and the movie invests in exactly one scene to spell out - straight to the camera - a cacophony of grievances (high gas prices, low speed limits, corrupt law enforcement, the Vietnam War, Nixon, Rockfeller). The final act steps into the ridiculous, bringing in heavy weaponry and big explosions for the sake of spectacle.

Key Quote:

Melissa (referring to the huge convoy of trucks behind Rubber Duck): But they're all following you.

Rubber Duck: No, they ain't. I'm just in front of them.

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Movie Review: The Getaway (1972)

An action film trading on star appeal, The Getaway offers reasonably slick and fast-paced entertainment, but all the stunts, squealing tires and shoot-outs cannot conceal the limited substance.

In Texas, prisoner Doc McCoy (Setve McQueen) is denied parole four years into serving a ten year sentence for armed robbery. Unable to tolerate life behind bars any longer, Doc instructs his wife Carol (Ali MacGraw) to strike a deal at any price with sleazy businessman and master crime lord Jack Beynon (Ben Johnson). Beynon pays off the right people, Doc is released and Beynon connects him with hoodlums Rudy (Al Lettieri) and Frank (Bo Hopkins) to plan and execute a bank robbery.

The heist is messy and several dead bodies are left behind. Doc and Carol find themselves on the run with a bag full of $500,000, trying to make it to the Mexico border, with the authorities, a wounded Rudy, and Beynon's men all on their trail. Doc then uncovers a nasty secret that severely strains his relationship with Carol, while Rudy takes veterinarian Harold (Jack Dodson) and his wife Fran (Sally Struthers) hostage as he mounts his own chase for the stolen money.

Directed by Sam Peckinpah and written by Walter Hill adapting a Jim Thompson book, The Getaway perfectly exploits McQueen's star wattage. A bad guy with good guy looks and less evil intent than all the other bad guys, Doc McCoy oozes McQueen's customary coolness. The film is more about watching McQueen slice through the Texas landscape with the company of a blazing shotgun and a smoldering MacGraw, and less about plot, character or context.

The actual events of the film are quite thin on the ground. The Getaway is a two hour post-hold-up chase, with plenty of padding and fairly ridiculous distractions. The supposedly sharp Carol allows herself to be duped by a rail station conman, triggering a long ordeal for Doc to regain control of the bag full of money. Meanwhile, Rudy's quest for revenge gets bogged down in a tiresome and ill-conceived attempt at dark and sexual humour with Harold, Fran and a pet cat.

But the action scenes are what matter, and Peckinpah conjures up some fine set-pieces. The bank hold-up and its immediate aftermath is tense mayhem, Doc and Carol tangle with the local police in a couple of small towns, they have to extract themselves from a truck full of garbage, and the final showdown at an El Paso hotel is a satisfyingly bullet-riddled conclusion to all the running around.

MacGraw and McQueen fell in love while filming, and while there is undoubted chemistry between them, the sparks cannot hide MacGraw's atrocious performance. Although Hill's script contrives to supply her with the worst lines, her wooden delivery and blank expressions expose a model trying to be an actress and failing miserably. Al Lettieri leaves an impression as the sweaty and unrelenting hoodlum who simply will not give up the chase, while Slim Pickens makes a late appearance near the border.

But with McQueen exuding his sizzling brand of dominant magnetism, The Getaway can get away with sub-par content in almost all other departments.

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Movie Review: Love Story (1970)

Boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy marries girl, girl supports boy, girl dies. As straightforward as romantic tragedies get, Love Story is exactly what is says on the tin: a doomed love story, manufactured with the sole purpose of crashing a happy union onto the rocks of the ultimate calamity. Based on the best-selling book by Erich Segal, who also wrote the script, the story struck a chord and the movie became a cultural phenomenon.

Oliver Barrett (Ryan O'Neal), a rich Harvard graduate and feisty hockey player on his way to law school, meets Jennifer Cavalleri (Ali MacGraw), a spirited Radcliffe College music student. She is vivacious, artsy, and has a sharp wit that turns every conversation into a jousting match. Jenny's social background is several steps lower than the snooty Harvard class that Oliver belongs to, but this does not stop them from falling madly in love.

Oliver has a dysfunctional relationship with his stern father (Ray Milland), and Oliver's romance with Jenny does not help matters: Oliver's parents perceive her to be beneath them. Oliver becomes completely estranged from his father, and goes ahead and marries Jenny. As Oliver goes through law school, Jenny works as a teacher to support them. He graduates and takes a position with a prestigious New York law firm. All seems to be going well and they plan on starting a family, until Jenny is diagnosed with a fatal disease (likely cancer, although this is never mentioned in the film): she has very little time left to live.

Love Story has some points of irritation: for all her fresh-faced appeal Ali MacGraw's performance is almost theatrical in its grandiose delivery of every line; the famous musical love theme is over-used to distraction in the second half of the film; and Ryan O'Neal's default mode is that of the angry young man, no matter what is going on in his life.

And the infamously bad tag line "Love means never having to say you're sorry" has just gotten worse with time.

But director Arthur Hiller makes great use of Boston locations, and captures the spark of emerging love in the early scenes between Jenny and Oliver. More admirably, Love Story also takes the time to show the comforts of love and the tenderness between an established couple. A brief sofa scene with Jenny resting on Oliver while they each read a book grasps the essence of couplehood. And the scenes with Oliver's parents are deliciously uncomfortable, resonating with a mountain of never to be resolved issues between Oliver and his dad.

A cultural landmark for better or for worse, Love Story neither over-promises nor under-delivers. It is faithful to all elements necessary to create a heartbreaking romance.

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