Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Kris Kristofferson | ... | Rubber Duck | |
Ali MacGraw | ... | Melissa | |
Ernest Borgnine | ... | Dirty Lyle / Lyle Wallace | |
Burt Young | ... | Pig Pen | |
Madge Sinclair | ... | Widow Woman | |
Franklyn Ajaye | ... | Spider Mike | |
Brian Davies | ... | Chuck Arnoldi | |
Seymour Cassel | ... | Governor Haskins | |
Cassie Yates | ... | Violet | |
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Walter Kelley | ... | Hamilton |
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Jackson D. Kane | ... | Big Nasty (as J. D. Kane) |
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Billy Hughes | ... | Pack Rat (as Billy E. Hughes) |
Whitey Hughes | ... | White Rat | |
Bill Coontz | ... | Old Iguana (as Bill Foster) | |
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Tommy J. Huff | ... | Lizard Tongue (as Thomas Huff) |
While driving through the Arizona desert, Albuquerque based independent trucker Martin Penwald - who goes by the handle "Rubber Duck" - along with his fellow truckers "Pig Pen" and "Spider Mike", are entrapped by unscrupulous Sheriff Lyle "Cottonmouth" Wallace using a key tool of the trucker's trade, the citizens' band (CB) radio. Rubber Duck and Cottonmouth have a long, antagonistic history. When this encounter later escalates into a more physical one as Cottonmouth threatens Spider Mike, a man who just wants to get home to his pregnant wife, Rubber Duck and other the truckers involved, including Spider Mike, Pig Pen and "Widow Woman", go on the run, figuring the best thing to do being to head to New Mexico to avoid prosecution. Along for the ride is Melissa, a beautiful photographer who just wanted a ride to the airport. As news of what happened spreads over the CB airwaves, other truckers join their convoy as a show of support. Cottonmouth rallies other law enforcement officers ... Written by Huggo
Great film! This was one of the few American films that got broadcasted on TV here in Hungary in the late 80s socialist era. I was about 8 then, and I remember, every kid played with Matchbox trucks and wanted to be a trucker...
But only now do I understand the essence of it... I think, this movie is the 70s epic of America - a kind of 'On the road put to film'. It deeply revolts against the conformism of the late 70s. After the 60s the rebellion of the "beat generation" slowly expired giving way to the "disco age". I think, Convoy brings back some of the finest ideas and emotions of the 60s, depicting numerous social-political-economic problems of the 70s...
Also, it has an even more important message: it is the revolt of the average citizen, or the working man against the political elite. They say, they have our - the people's - well being on our minds. And we might be dull enough to believe them... We work hard, while they stuff their own pockets with our money and have nothing on their minds but doing that and ways of being able to maintain their power. I think, that is an ever-present problem in each and every country, no matter rich or poor, democratic or dictatorical. So the true message of Convoy is: REAL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!