Crossroads (1986)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Walter Hill

Writer:

John Fusco (written by)

Release Date:

14 March 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

'The Kid' keeps the legend alive....

Plot:

Ralph Macchio is Lightning Boy. A kid who can make a slide guitar sing. Blind Dog is an old pro who knows it. Together, they're headed to a place where deals are made. And legends are born.

Plot Keywords:

Guitar | Mississippi | Song | Legend | Deal With The Devil

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ralph Macchio	...	Eugene Martone
Joe Seneca	...	Willie Brown
Jami Gertz	...	Frances
Joe Morton	...	Scratch's Assistant
Robert Judd	...	Scratch
Steve Vai	...	Jack Butler
Dennis Lipscomb	...	Lloyd
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Bartender
John Hancock	...	Sheriff Tilford
Allan Arbus	...	Dr. Santis
Gretchen Palmer	...	Beautiful Girl / Dancer
Al Fann	...	Pawnbroker
Wally Taylor	...	O.Z
Tim Russ	...	Robert Johnson
Tex Donaldson	...	John McGraw

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (partial) | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:15 | West Germany:12 | Finland:K-12 | Norway:11 | Sweden:11 | USA:R | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Though the blues guitar sounds aren't truly coming from Ralph Macchio's fingers, the actor is actually playing note for note the music of Steve Vai and Ry Cooder. His fingering, slides and bends are precise until the "main" solo, which incorporates Paganini's 5th Caprice, in which it is obvious he is not fingering the correct location on the guitar, as well with the patterns, this can be seen since he uses mainly the same pattern (scale on the top frets, then another one in the bottom frets) and all the scale portion of it, the scales are shifting and changing sound, but his patterns remain the same.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Early in the film, Eugene puts a Robert Johnson tape into his tape player. The first track is listed as "Crossroads Blues." It should be "Cross Road"; the song title didn't become "Crossroads" until Cream covered the song in 1968.

Quotes:

Willie Brown: Oh, so the famous long island blues man come back for another visit, huh?
Eugene Martone: I have something that I think you'll be interested in.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Meat Loaf: Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

FEELIN' BAD BLUES

Great Movie, one of my all time favourites

Here in Australia at the moment we have a series on the Blues and last week they were talking about going down to the Crossroads and making a pact with the devil. All of a sudden I needed to find my old video tape of the movie 'Crossroads', taped from television when I first saw it in 1986. The movie is one of my all time favourites and I can watch it time and time again.

Ralph Macchio plays the role of a young teenager, finding the blues and wanting to be a blues player instead of classical guitarist that he is training for. Joe Seneca plays the role of Willie Brown and he lives that role as though he really is Willie Brown. The music played in the scene at the end where Eugene gets Scratch to tear up the contract for Willie's soul is magic and brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. Maybe there is a place for both blues and classical.