Absolutely Fantastic

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I have to say, the karate kid we all know, can play guitar. I swear, from the moment he picked up that guitar, I was immediately blown away by his performance. I have never seen Ralph Macchio play a guitar or even an electric one before! Its funny when you realise, this underrated actors truly do have hidden talents!Joe Seneca really played well on the harmonica. I suppose he got someone professional to record the tune for him, but still, he managed to blow everyone away too! I didn't like the fact his character was so mean to Macchio's character by calling him horrible name like "The long Island Boy" or even "Lightening Boy". I honestly wish he used the other characters name, its awful irritating to realise an old man is calling a young boy names for absolutely no reason!I seriously wish Macchios character and Gertz' character ended up being together. I suppose they were the same age then but still, it would be so sweet to have them become a couple on this!If you feel like you're in a blues mood today, take a chance to look at this movie!

I love the Blues. It's been with me since I was 12. And although I have broadened my musical horizon considerably over the past decades, it still is the Blues, be it electric or acoustic, that sounds like "Home" to me. From what I have seen and heard in Walter Hill's movies - "The Wanderers", "Streets of Fire", "48 Hours" are the ones that immediately spring to mind - I believe he loves the same kind of music that I love. I bought the "Crossroads" soundtrack LP right after I saw the movie back in the Eighties. I must have listened to the title track a hundred times, trying to figure out and then playing to Ry Cooder's fantastically grooving riff.I hated the movie, though. I recently saw it again and I still don't like it. I feel, Hill did the Blues a disservice.Sure enough, the movie obviously was made with the best intentions. Not only does it celebrate the Blues and especially Mississippi Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson. It also makes the case for cultural open mindedness by demonstrating the virtues of stylistic cross-pollination: Juilliard School needs to understand that the Blues is as valuable as Mozart, and our "hero" wins the final guitar battle by applying his extraordinary classical chops.So, I can sympathize with the message Walter Hill sends here. And the story is kept on an acceptable level of suspense: Will our hero become friends with Willie Brown, the old blues harmonica player who supposedly performed with Robert Johnson way back when? Will he find Johnson's 30th song? In the end, will he save his soul?Still, the movie made me cringe. There are two main reasons: leading actor Ralph Macchio, and the story's ridiculous climax. Macchio seemingly cannot shake off the feeling he is being watched. The camera makes him feel awkward. In my eyes, he never loses his self-consciousness. Yes, his role does require a certain amount of insecurity and goofiness - but being insecure actor is not the same as being able to convincingly incorporate it in the role you are playing.Worse, still, is the duel of the guitars at the end, which will decide our hero's fate. Two guitar players take turns at shredding, like boxers exchanging blows - and at the end there is an unquestionable winner, because one guy wasn't able to play some high notes and bend his e-string high enough? Give me a break. At the climax of the story we are presented with a ridiculous caricature of musicianship. Which in my mind is the direct opposite of what Hill wanted to achieve.

Eugene Martone (Ralph Macchio) is a classically trained guitar student in The Juilliard School. He's in search of the legend of Robert Johnson. He finds Willie Brown (Joe Seneca) locked away in an old age home. Willie claims to have recorded with Robert Johnson back in the day. Eugene agrees to break him out, and back to Mississippi. In return Willie agrees to help record Robert Johnson's long lost 30th song. On the road, they encounter 17 year old runaway Frances (Jami Gertz).I love the music but the drama is paper thin. It's a road trip adventure. It's not particularly fun or funny or dramatic. All three people start off as disgruntled malcontents. Ralph Macchio comes off as a clueless brat. Jami Gertz isn't as clueless. And Joe Seneca is just a grumpy old man.There is a distinct lack of drive. There's got to have some kind of time constraint or a bad guy chasing. The whole thing is a series of meandering incidences. I think Willie probably should have told the whole story to start, and put some time constraint on it. Then they could have the excitement of the quest. Or else make it a horror as Willie is chased by the Devil. There are many ways to add drama to this story and they used none of them.While I love the music, I can't help but notice that it's Ralph Macchio on the screen. It's my one complaint about the guitar battle. I just can't believe that Macchio could play. But I would barely recommend this for the music.

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.