Crossroads (1986 film)
Encyclopedia
Crossroads is a 1986 film starring Ralph Macchio
, Joe Seneca
and Jami Gertz
, inspired by the legend of blues musician Robert Johnson.
The film was written by John Fusco and directed by Walter Hill and featured an original score featuring Ry Cooder
and Steve Vai
on the soundtrack's guitar, and harmonica by Sonny Terry
. Vai also appears in the film as the devil's guitar player in the climactic guitar duel.
Fusco was a traveling blues musician prior to attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
where he wrote "Crossroads" as a masterclass assignment under screenwriting legends Waldo Salt
and Ring Lardner, Jr.
The student screenplay won first place in the national FOCUS Awards (Films of College and University Students) and sold to Columbia Pictures while Fusco was still a student.
) has a fascination for the
blues
while he studies classical guitar
at the Juilliard School
for Performing Arts in New York City
. Researching blues and guitar music brings famed Robert Johnson's mythically creative acclaim to his attention; especially intriguing are the legends surrounding exactly how Johnson became so talented, as well as a famed "missing song" that was lost, supposedly evermore, to the world.
In his quest to find this song, he discovers old newspaper archive clippings revealing that Johnson's longtime friend, musician Willie Brown
, is alive and incarcerated in a nearby minimum security hospital. Eugene goes to see him. After Willie denies several times that he is that Willie Brown, he finally admits his identity after hearing Eugene play some blues (though Willie notes that Eugene "plays with no soul"). Willie then says he knows the missing Robert Johnson tune in question but refuses to give it to Eugene unless the boy breaks him out of the facility and gets him to Mississippi
, where he has unfinished business to settle. Eugene agrees and they head south, but the boy soon realizes that Willie is constantly running minor scams such as claiming that he has more money than he actually has in order to cover their bus tickets. With no money, they end up “hoboing” from Memphis to rural Mississippi.
During their quest, Eugene and Willie experience the blues legacy of Robert Johnson first-hand, taking part in an impromptu jam session at a roadhouse (or "juke joint
" as "Blind Dog" Willie puts it), where Eugene gets the nickname of "Lightning" because of his musical skill. Eugene is deeply impressed and his feelings of the authenticity of Willie being an old bluesman takes firm hold in his mind. A romantic interest surfaces in the guise of a hitchhiker, Frances (Jami Gertz
), who follows them. She and Eugene end up sharing a tender moment in a hayloft. She soon thereafter becomes miffed at the mission at hand and abandons the two men, leaving Eugene saddened, but now with a true feeling for the blues, as he plays on an old Fender Telecaster
guitar and a Pignose
amplifier.
They ultimately reach their location in Mississippi: a rural crossroads in the middle of nowhere, where Willie reveals several secrets. There is no missing Johnson song for Eugene to learn, but Willie tells the boy that he has proven himself far beyond what learning any blues song could ever teach him. Willie also hints that his musical ability (specifically, the harmonica) and the musical ability of Robert Johnson came about because of deals with the devil made at this very location. The Devil himself (nicknamed "Scratch
") shows up and says that the contract for Willie's soul is still valid, even if Willie is ultimately unsatisfied with how his life turned out.
Eugene, somewhat skeptical of the whole exchange and situation, steps into the conversation to help Willie. The Devil offers a challenge: If Eugene can come to a special concert and win a head-cutting guitar duel against his ringer guitarist (Steve Vai
in the role of "Jack Butler"), then Willie gets his soul back. If Eugene loses, then Eugene's soul is now forfeit. Still skeptical of everything, Eugene unwisely agrees to the deal, despite Willie's protests. Willie and Eugene are transported to a music hall, where metal-blues guitar master Jack Butler, who also sold his soul for musical ability, is wowing the crowd with his prowess.
Eugene and Jack Butler begin their blistering guitar duel, and Eugene is eventually able to win the battle by falling back on his classical training and performing music that his opponent cannot match. Willie's soul is free, and he and Eugene are transported back to Mississippi, where they start walking again, uncertain of the life ahead of them.
in his review stated that the movie "borrows so freely and is a reminder of so many other movies that it's a little startling, at the end, to realize how effective the movie is and how original it manages to feel despite all the plunderings." He praised the film's acting and music, giving the movie 3.5 stars out of 4.
Ralph Macchio
Ralph George Macchio is an American actor, best known for his roles as Daniel LaRusso in the Karate Kid series, Bill Gambini in My Cousin Vinny, and Johnny Cade in The Outsiders. He is also known to American television audiences for his season five recurring role as Jeremy Andretti on the...
, Joe Seneca
Joe Seneca
Joe Seneca was an American film and television actor who had a lengthy Hollywood career, portraying bit parts in many major films and television sitcoms spanning from the 1970s to the 1990s....
and Jami Gertz
Jami Gertz
Jami Beth Gertz is an American actress. Gertz is known for her early roles in the films Sixteen Candles, Crossroads, The Lost Boys, Less Than Zero, the 1980s TV series Square Pegs with Sarah Jessica Parker, and 1996's Twister, as well as for her role as Judy Miller in the CBS sitcom Still Standing...
, inspired by the legend of blues musician Robert Johnson.
The film was written by John Fusco and directed by Walter Hill and featured an original score featuring Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
and Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
on the soundtrack's guitar, and harmonica by Sonny Terry
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry was a blind American Piedmont blues musician. He was widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.-Career:Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia...
. Vai also appears in the film as the devil's guitar player in the climactic guitar duel.
Fusco was a traveling blues musician prior to attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
where he wrote "Crossroads" as a masterclass assignment under screenwriting legends Waldo Salt
Waldo Salt
Waldo Miller Salt was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism.-Early life and career:...
and Ring Lardner, Jr.
The student screenplay won first place in the national FOCUS Awards (Films of College and University Students) and sold to Columbia Pictures while Fusco was still a student.
Plot
Eugene Martone (MacchioRalph Macchio
Ralph George Macchio is an American actor, best known for his roles as Daniel LaRusso in the Karate Kid series, Bill Gambini in My Cousin Vinny, and Johnny Cade in The Outsiders. He is also known to American television audiences for his season five recurring role as Jeremy Andretti on the...
) has a fascination for the
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
while he studies classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
for Performing Arts in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Researching blues and guitar music brings famed Robert Johnson's mythically creative acclaim to his attention; especially intriguing are the legends surrounding exactly how Johnson became so talented, as well as a famed "missing song" that was lost, supposedly evermore, to the world.
In his quest to find this song, he discovers old newspaper archive clippings revealing that Johnson's longtime friend, musician Willie Brown
Willie Brown (musician)
Willie Brown was an American delta blues guitarist and singer.- Life and career :Born Willie Lee Brown in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Brown played with such notables as Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson. He was not known to be a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians...
, is alive and incarcerated in a nearby minimum security hospital. Eugene goes to see him. After Willie denies several times that he is that Willie Brown, he finally admits his identity after hearing Eugene play some blues (though Willie notes that Eugene "plays with no soul"). Willie then says he knows the missing Robert Johnson tune in question but refuses to give it to Eugene unless the boy breaks him out of the facility and gets him to Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, where he has unfinished business to settle. Eugene agrees and they head south, but the boy soon realizes that Willie is constantly running minor scams such as claiming that he has more money than he actually has in order to cover their bus tickets. With no money, they end up “hoboing” from Memphis to rural Mississippi.
During their quest, Eugene and Willie experience the blues legacy of Robert Johnson first-hand, taking part in an impromptu jam session at a roadhouse (or "juke joint
Juke joint
Juke joint is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly...
" as "Blind Dog" Willie puts it), where Eugene gets the nickname of "Lightning" because of his musical skill. Eugene is deeply impressed and his feelings of the authenticity of Willie being an old bluesman takes firm hold in his mind. A romantic interest surfaces in the guise of a hitchhiker, Frances (Jami Gertz
Jami Gertz
Jami Beth Gertz is an American actress. Gertz is known for her early roles in the films Sixteen Candles, Crossroads, The Lost Boys, Less Than Zero, the 1980s TV series Square Pegs with Sarah Jessica Parker, and 1996's Twister, as well as for her role as Judy Miller in the CBS sitcom Still Standing...
), who follows them. She and Eugene end up sharing a tender moment in a hayloft. She soon thereafter becomes miffed at the mission at hand and abandons the two men, leaving Eugene saddened, but now with a true feeling for the blues, as he plays on an old Fender Telecaster
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
guitar and a Pignose
Pignose
Pignose-Gorilla, commonly known as Pignose, is a manufacturer of portable, battery-powered guitar amplifiers, as well as other musical-gear such as A.C.-powered practice amps and guitars.-Legendary 7-100:...
amplifier.
They ultimately reach their location in Mississippi: a rural crossroads in the middle of nowhere, where Willie reveals several secrets. There is no missing Johnson song for Eugene to learn, but Willie tells the boy that he has proven himself far beyond what learning any blues song could ever teach him. Willie also hints that his musical ability (specifically, the harmonica) and the musical ability of Robert Johnson came about because of deals with the devil made at this very location. The Devil himself (nicknamed "Scratch
Old Scratch
Old Scratch or Mr. Scratch is a folk name for The Devil in the local legends of New England and pre-Civil War America. It is possible that the local legends containing this name were influenced by Faustian stories brought to North America by German immigrants.Old Scratch is also referred to in The...
") shows up and says that the contract for Willie's soul is still valid, even if Willie is ultimately unsatisfied with how his life turned out.
Eugene, somewhat skeptical of the whole exchange and situation, steps into the conversation to help Willie. The Devil offers a challenge: If Eugene can come to a special concert and win a head-cutting guitar duel against his ringer guitarist (Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
in the role of "Jack Butler"), then Willie gets his soul back. If Eugene loses, then Eugene's soul is now forfeit. Still skeptical of everything, Eugene unwisely agrees to the deal, despite Willie's protests. Willie and Eugene are transported to a music hall, where metal-blues guitar master Jack Butler, who also sold his soul for musical ability, is wowing the crowd with his prowess.
Eugene and Jack Butler begin their blistering guitar duel, and Eugene is eventually able to win the battle by falling back on his classical training and performing music that his opponent cannot match. Willie's soul is free, and he and Eugene are transported back to Mississippi, where they start walking again, uncertain of the life ahead of them.
Cast
- Ralph MacchioRalph MacchioRalph George Macchio is an American actor, best known for his roles as Daniel LaRusso in the Karate Kid series, Bill Gambini in My Cousin Vinny, and Johnny Cade in The Outsiders. He is also known to American television audiences for his season five recurring role as Jeremy Andretti on the...
as Eugene Martone - Joe SenecaJoe SenecaJoe Seneca was an American film and television actor who had a lengthy Hollywood career, portraying bit parts in many major films and television sitcoms spanning from the 1970s to the 1990s....
as Willie Brown - Jami GertzJami GertzJami Beth Gertz is an American actress. Gertz is known for her early roles in the films Sixteen Candles, Crossroads, The Lost Boys, Less Than Zero, the 1980s TV series Square Pegs with Sarah Jessica Parker, and 1996's Twister, as well as for her role as Judy Miller in the CBS sitcom Still Standing...
as Frances - Joe MortonJoe MortonJoseph Thomas "Joe" Morton, Jr. is an American stage, television, and film actor.-Early life:Morton was born in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York. He is the son of Evelyn, a secretary, and Joseph Thomas Morton, Sr., a U.S. army intelligence officer. Because of his father's...
as Scratch's Assistant - Robert Judd as Scratch
- Steve VaiSteve VaiSteven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
as Jack Butler - Dennis LipscombDennis LipscombDennis Lipscomb is an American actor.Lipscomb's first feature film was Union City . From the early 1980s to the 1990s, Lipscomb appeared in key roles in various motion pictures including Eyes of Fire , WarGames , The Day After , A Soldier's Story , Amazing Grace and Chuck , Sister, Sister , The...
as Lloyd - Harry Carey, Jr.Harry Carey, Jr.Harry Carey, Jr. is an American film actor. He appeared in over 90 films. He is mostly remembered for appearing in Western films — notably those by his friend John Ford — and in television programs.-Early life:...
as Bartender - John HancockJohn Hancock (actor)John Hancock was an American film and television actor.Born in Hazen, Arkansas, Hancock is possibly best remembered for his role as "Scotty" in the ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generations...
as Sheriff Tilford - Allan ArbusAllan ArbusAllan Arbus is an American actor notable for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman on the television series M*A*S*H.-Early life:...
as Dr. Santis - Gretchen PalmerGretchen PalmerGretchen Palmer is an American television and film actress. She has had recurring roles in television series such as The Joe Schmo Show and The Parkers, and has appeared in films including Trois and I Got the Hook Up . She also appeared on The Young and the Restless as Serena.-References:...
as Beautiful Girl / Dancer - Al Fann as Pawnbroker
- Wally Taylor as O.Z
- Tim RussTim RussTimothy Darrell "Tim" Russ is an American actor, film director, screenwriter and musician. He is known for his roles on Star Trek: Voyager, as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, Samantha Who?, as Frank, and on the Nickelodeon live-action teen sitcom iCarly, as Principal Franklin, a recurring...
as Robert Johnson - Tex Donaldson as John McGraw
- Guy Killum as Willie at 17
- Akosua BusiaAkosua BusiaAkosua Busia is a Ghanaian actress who now lives in the U.S..The daughter of Kofi Abrefa Busia, the ex-prime minister of the Republic of Ghana, Akosua is the daughter of a prince of the royal family of Wenchi, a subgroup of the Ashanti. She herself is not a princess, since the Akans of Ghana...
as Woman at Boardinghouse - Edward WalshEdward WalshEdward Walsh was an Irish poet, born at Dunhallow in North Cork in 1805; died at Cork, 6 August 1850.When little more than a boy he showed great intellectual gifts, and in 1830 was private tutor in County Cork...
as Harley Tethune - Allan Graf as Alvin
Reviews
The film was well reviewed by critics and has a 79% certified "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
in his review stated that the movie "borrows so freely and is a reminder of so many other movies that it's a little startling, at the end, to realize how effective the movie is and how original it manages to feel despite all the plunderings." He praised the film's acting and music, giving the movie 3.5 stars out of 4.
External links
- Crossroads - Arlen RothArlen RothArlen Roth is an American guitarist. His first solo album won the Montreaux Critics' Award for Best Instrumental Album of the Year in 1978. He was Guitar Player magazine's top columnist from 1982 to 1992...
's page about the shooting of the film