Crossroads
by Walter Hill
List Price:
Our Price: $3.99
You Save: $6.00 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $2.98 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jami Gertz, Joe Morton, Joe Seneca, Ralph Macchio, Robert JuddDirector: Walter Hill
Brand: MACCHIO,RALPH
Cinematographer: John Bailey
Editor: Freeman A. Davies
Producer: Mae Woods
Producer: Mark Carliner
Producer: Tim Zinnemann
Writer: John Fusco
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-08-10
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
Movie Reviews of Crossroads
Movie Review: Wonderful, Atmospheric Blues Fantasy!
Summary: 5 Stars
CROSSROADS (Walter Hill's Blues film, NOT Britney Spears' self-indulgent 2002 fluff) is a terrific introduction to a uniquely American musical genre, with a remarkable cast and a dead-on southern 'atmosphere'. It has always astonished me that when released, critics were unable to look past Ralph Macchio's previous film work, and accept this gem on it's own merits, but it's subsequent status as a cult classic is certainly well-deserved, with films such as the Coens' O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? utilizing the Robert Johnson subplot and borrowing many of CROSSROAD's visual elements. Perhaps the film, with a magnificent Ry Cooder score, was just too far ahead of it's time, a strange criticism to apply to a Blues movie!
The tale involves young Long Island guitar prodigy Eugene 'Lightning Boy' Martone (Macchio), a rebel at the Julliard School with his passion for the Blues ("Primitive music," one professor sneers), on a quest to recover legendary guitarist Johnson's fabled "30th Song" of 1938. His research leads him to a NYC nursing home, where fabled harmonica player Willie Brown (the late actor/singer/songwriter Joe Seneca), a friend and collaborator of Johnson's, is confined. Promising to 'give' the song to the youngster if he can be "busted out" and returned to his Mississippi home, the pair are soon on a cross-country odyssey, with Martone learning about discrimination, the darker side of humanity, and love's loss (through a brief encounter with Jami Gertz, who was never lovelier), providing him with the core of sadness Brown says is essential to truly play the Blues.
The climax of the film is legendary; arriving home, Brown, who had 'sold his soul' to the Devil at the 'Crossroads' as a young man (just as his friend, Johnson, had), attempts to get 'Scratch' (skeletal Robert Judd) to tear up the contract. The Devil informs him that he will, only if Martone can defeat his Champion in a 'Guitar Duel'. If the youngster loses, his soul, as well as Brown's, will be lost, forever. Martone rashly agrees ("I don't believe any of this s*** anyway!"), and he and Brown find themselves in a broken-down church converted into a dance hall, with demons and lost souls cavorting to the rock strains of insanely talented Jack Butler (Frank Zappa guitarist/composer Steve Vai). With only his love of the Blues, Julliard training, and Brown's 'ju-ju' to aid him, the humbled Martone must play for far more than his life, in a 'Duel' (with the amazing Vai actually playing both guitar parts) that is so fabulous that it is unbelievable that it was NOT included in the soundtrack album of the film!
Walter Hill was no stranger to music-themed fantasies (he also directed another 'ahead of it's time' cult film, STREETS OF FIRE), and with CROSSROADS, he took a simple storyline, and turned it into an unforgettable musical cinematic experience.
That the film is FINALLY on DVD is a MAJOR cause for celebration...now, let's hope an expanded "Special Edition" with added bonus features, will follow!
Summary of Crossroads
Eugene Martone (Ralph Macchio, The Karate Kid & The Karate Kid Part II) struggles with the devil and his destiny when he goes down to the Crossroads in this contemporary drama. With a potent blend of adventure, romance, and music, the film takes gifted young guitarist Martone into a dangerous and challenging new world. Obsessed with unlocking the mysteries of the blues, the fledging musician finds cantankerous Willie Brown (Joe Senaca), a master of the blues harmonica, and frees him from prison. The unlikely duo hobos from New York to Mississippi as Martone searches for runaway Frances (Jami Gertz, Quicksilver). With a rich mixture of Delta blues and driving rock produced by Ry Cooder, the film takes Martone and Brown on an intense odyssey that leads them to a dramatic climax at the Crossroads.The legend of Mississippi blues master Robert Johnson has served as a fountainhead for generations of blues and rock musicians, as well as a powerful fable for the dark, often violent mysteries of delta blues. Johnson's mythic deal with the Devil, in exchange for his extraordinary musical gifts, has become a fixture in blues lore and an example of the enduring pull of superstitions that can be traced back to Mother Africa and Yoruba deities. Producer-director Walter Hill (The Long Riders, Streets of Fire) sought to put this uniquely American mystery on film, but when he was unable to secure a script devoted directly to Johnson himself, Hill bravely decided to proceed with a more oblique, allegorical story that retold the Satanic bargain through a fictionalized drama set in the present day. In this 1986 feature, the hero is Eugene, a classically trained guitar virtuoso pulled toward the earthier powers of blues. When he stumbles across a lost blues legend, Willie Brown (a real blues figure and Johnson peer known for his partnerships with Charley Patton and Son House, among others), Eugene begins an odyssey back to the delta country and the crossroads of the title, where both Willie and Johnson had traded their souls for blues power, to help the surviving bluesman renegotiate terms.
An opening sequence, shot in sepia-toned black and white, dramatizes Johnson's own supernatural encounter, as well as one of the bluesman's historic Texas recording sessions, and Hill's visuals combine with frequent collaborator Ry Cooder's reliably authentic slide guitar to offer a promising glimpse of cinematic conjury. Even the satanic villain--a grinning huckster named Scratch--honors the trickster figure familiar to African American superstitions, rather than a generic devil. Willie Brown (Joe Seneca) is likewise a convincing link to the blues past, but Hill's central casting choice--Ralph (The Karate Kid) Macchio--sacrifices all for marquee value, a Hobson's choice that casts a shadow of unintended parody across the film. Macchio's earlier character, not Scratch, haunts this film, and even a nifty duel between Eugene, his slashing fretwork supplied off-camera by Cooder, and Scratch's ax-wielding henchman, heavy metal virtuoso, and one-time Frank Zappa protégé Steve Vai, can't safely rescue the film. --Sam Sutherland
Similar DVD Movies
Cujo (25th Anniversary Edition)Lions Gate; Release date: 2007-09-25; DVD
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops:
Mother LodeWHV; Release date: 2011-03-29; DVD
Best price: $4.85
Price in other shops:
Crossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2007Alfred; Release date: 2007-11-20; DVD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Angel Heart (Special Edition)LIONS GATE HOME ENT.; Release date: 2004-05-18; DVD
Best price: $4.19
Price in other shops:
Purple RainWarner Brothers; Release date: 1997-06-25; DVD
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
The Charge of the Light BrigadeWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-03-27; DVD
Best price: $3.33
Price in other shops:
Eddie and the Cruisers / Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature)TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2008-06-10; DVD
Best price: $7.19
Price in other shops:
Ry Cooder - Crossroads: Original Motion Picture SoundtrackRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.42
Price in other shops:
Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the CrossroadsSony; Release date: 2003-07-22; DVD
Best price: $7.39
Price in other shops:
The Search for Robert JohnsonJOHNSON,ROBERT; Release date: 2000-10-31; DVD
Best price: $5.13
Price in other shops: