Convoy | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sam Peckinpah |
Screenplay by | B. W. L. Norton |
Based on | "Convoy" by Bill Fries Chip Davis |
Produced by | Robert M. Sherman |
Starring | Kris Kristofferson Ali MacGraw Burt Young Madge Sinclair Franklyn Ajaye Ernest Borgnine |
Cinematography | Harry Stradling, Jr. |
Edited by | John Wright Garth Craven |
Music by | Chip Davis |
Production company | |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
Country | United States [1] [2] |
Language | English |
Budget | $12 million |
Box office | $45 million [3] |
Convoy is a 1978 American road action comedy film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Burt Young, Madge Sinclair and Franklyn Ajaye. The film is based on the 1975 country and western novelty song "Convoy" by C. W. McCall. The film was made when the CB radio/trucking craze was at its peak in the United States, and followed the similarly themed films Moonfire (1970), Duel (1971), Deadhead Miles (1973), Hijack (1973), White Line Fever (1975), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), La Menace (1977) and Breaker! Breaker! (1977).
The film initially concerns truck drivers being extorted by a sheriff in Arizona. One of them punches the sheriff during a brawl. Several rebellious truckers then attempt to cross the state line to New Mexico, while being pursued by the police. They also make plans to rescue an ally who is held captive in Texas, and who has been the victim of police brutality. It was first released in Japan on June 10, 1978, and it was released June 28, 1978 in the United States by United Artists. The film received mixed reviews from critics; however, it was the most commercially successful film of Peckinpah's career.
In the Arizona desert, truck driver Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald is passed by a woman in a Jaguar XK-E, then runs into fellow truck drivers Pig Pen/Love Machine and Spider Mike. Another "trucker" had informed them over the CB radio that they are okay to increase their speed. The "trucker" turns out to be Sheriff "Dirty" Lyle Wallace, a long-time nemesis of the Duck, who extorts them for $70 each.
The truckers head on to Rafael's Glide-In where the Duck's sometime girlfriend and Lyle's wife, Violet, works as a waitress. Melissa, the driver of the Jaguar, is also there; her car broke down and she had to sell it and some of her belongings in an effort to reach Dallas, as she is on her way to look for a job. The Duck offers Melissa a ride; Violet is unimpressed and ushers him away to give him a special birthday present. While they are away, Wallace shows up at the Glide-In checking plates. Pig Pen and Spider Mike start making fun of Wallace over the diner's base-station CB radio, leading to Wallace attempting to arrest Spider Mike for vagrancy. The Duck enters and tries to smooth things over, but Mike punches Wallace when he tries to arrest him for some vagrancy charge. This leads to a brawl in the diner when some troopers arrive to assist Wallace. The assorted truckers prevail and decide to head for the state line to avoid prosecution while messing with the police cars while the cops are knocked out.
The truckers drive across Arizona and New Mexico, with Wallace in pursuit. Duck angers Wallace even further when he accidentally pushes him off the road and causes him to crash. When Wallace calls for reinforcements from the local police, Duck leads the truckers off the main highway and down a rough dusty desert trail, causing several of the police cars to crash, while Wallace's vehicle is crushed between Pig Pen and Spider Mike's rigs. As the rebellious truckers evade and confront the police, Rubber Duck becomes a reluctant hero.
The Governor of New Mexico, Jerry Haskins, meets Rubber Duck at his request, after being told that the Governor has ideas of using the National Guard on the convoy. About the same time, Wallace and a brutal Texas sheriff arrest Spider Mike (who had left the convoy to be with his wife after she gave birth to their son) in Alvarez, Texas. Wallace's plan is to use Mike as bait to trap Rubber Duck. A janitor at the jail, aware of the plan, sends messages by CB radio that Spider Mike has been wrongfully arrested and beaten. Various truckers relay the message to New Mexico.
Rubber Duck ends the meeting with Haskins and leaves to rescue Spider Mike. Several other truckers join him in heading east to Texas. The truckers eventually destroy half of the town and the jail and rescue Spider Mike. Knowing they will now be hunted by the authorities, the truckers head for the border of Mexico. On the way, Rubber Duck gets separated from the rest of the convoy when the others get stopped by a fake traffic accident staged by the local troopers. In a showdown near the United States-Mexico border, Rubber Duck is forced to face Wallace and a National Guard unit stationed on a bridge. Firing a machine gun, Wallace and the Guardsmen cause the truck's tanker trailer to explode, while Rubber Duck deliberately steers the tractor unit over the side of the bridge, plummeting into the churning river below, presumably sending Duck to his death.
A public funeral is held for Rubber Duck. A distraught Melissa is led to a school bus with several "long-haired friends of Jesus" inside. There she finds Rubber Duck in disguise sitting in the back - revealing that he had swum from the wreckage. The convoy takes to the road with the coffin in tow. As the bus passes Wallace, he spots the Duck and bursts into laughter.
Convoy was filmed almost entirely in the state of New Mexico. [5] Production began in 1977 when the CB radio/trucking craze was at its peak, made during the same period as such films as La Menace , Smokey and the Bandit , The Great Smokey Roadblock , Breaker! Breaker! , Handle with Care (1977 film) (all 1977), High-Ballin' and Steel Cowboy (both 1978), as well as the television series Movin' On (1974–1976) and B. J. and the Bear (1979–1981).
During this period of Sam Peckinpah's life, it was reported that he suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction. His four previous films, Cross of Iron (1977), The Killer Elite (1975), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), had struggled at the box office, and the director needed a genuine blockbuster success. [6] Unhappy with the screenplay written by B. W. L. Norton, Peckinpah tried to encourage the actors to re-write, improvise and ad-lib their dialogue, with little success. [7] In another departure from the script, Peckinpah attempted to add a new dimension to the film by casting a pair of black actors as members of the convoy: Madge Sinclair as Widow Woman and Franklyn Ajaye as Spider Mike. [8] When the convoy made a sharp turn at an intersection, the white 1972 Brockway 361 truck of Widow Woman accidentally tipped over, nearly crashing into a car. The scene was added to the movie with a joke about colors, and Widow Woman had to carry on as passenger.
Peckinpah's original rough cut of Convoy, assembled by Peckinpah and his long-time editor Garth Craven in early 1978, had an estimated running time of 220 minutes. According to the book If They Move ... Kill 'Em!: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah by David Weddle and the Convoy documentary Passion & Poetry: Sam's Trucker Movie, Peckinpah's rough cut did not have any musical score other than the title song and "Blow The Gates To Heaven" by Richard Gillis (who had previously worked with Peckinpah on The Ballad of Cable Hogue ). Jerry Fielding, who composed music for many of Peckinpah's previous films, was also hired to do the score for Convoy.[ citation needed ]
After a second screening of Peckinpah's rough cut, EMI executive Michael Deeley fired Peckinpah and Craven from the film in mid-March 1978 and promoted editor Graeme Clifford to supervising editor, to drastically reduce the running time of the film for a June 1978 release. Garner Simmons, author of Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage, said that EMI and Clifford's version of Convoy "cut the guts out of it". [9] [10] [ verification needed ]
Questioned about the production of Convoy during an interview in July 1978, Peckinpah is quoted as saying: "In preparing Cross of Iron I kept hearing on Armed Forces radio this song about “We'll hit the gate goin' 98, Let them truckers roll, Ten-Four!” and I said “By God, I'd like to be out on that highway!” And so I got out there, but I ended up not being there at all."
The picture finished eleven days behind schedule at a cost of $12 million, more than double its original budget.
The famous scene where the tanker truck goes off a bridge and explodes was filmed in Needles, California, on a one-way bridge over the Colorado River between Arizona and California. The Needles City Fire Department provided fire protection during this scene. The bridge was removed soon afterward, as a new span connected the two sides of the river.
Peckinpah has a cameo as a sound man during an interview scene. [11] Rubber Duck's truck is generally represented in the film as a 1977 Mack RS712LST, although several other Mack RS700L–series trucks were used as a double and as stationary props. [12] The restored 'Second Unit' 1970 Mack RS731LST on-camera–double truck tractor and the only original remaining tank trailer were to return in late 2023 to be on display at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri.
Pig Pen's truck is also generally represented in the film as a 1977 Mack Cruiseliner WL786LST, although a 1973 Kenworth K-123 was used as a stunt double [13]
The film was released in Japan in mid-June 1978 before opening in 700 theaters in the United States and Canada on June 28, 1978. [14] [15]
Though Convoy was a commercial success, and maintains a robust cult following, it received mixed reviews from critics upon its initial release. It holds an approval rating of 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 reviews. [16]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "has been made before much less expensively and much more entertainingly by directors with no aspirations to be artists. 'Convoy' is a bad joke that backfires on the director. He has neither the guts to play the movie straight as melodrama nor the sense of humor to turn it into a kind of 'Smokey and the Bandit' comedy. The movie is a big, costly, phony exercise in myth-making, machismo, romance-of-the-open-road nonsense and incredible self-indulgence." [17] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote, "Sam Peckinpah's 'Convoy' starts out as 'Smokey And The Bandit,' segues into either 'Moby Dick' or 'Les Miserables,' and ends in the usual script confusion and disarray, the whole stew peppered with the vulgar excess of random truck crashes and miscellaneous destruction ... Every few minutes there's some new roadblock to run, alternating with pithy comments on The Meaning Of It All. There's a whole lot of nothing going on here." [18] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "Save for a car sailing through the roof of a barn, 'Convoy' is sluggish entertainment, the first road race film in which I rooted for the cops against the good guys. Kristofferson's getting caught would have made a shorter and better picture." [19] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a multivehicle wreck of a movie" and "slack stuff, missing as a sizzling love story, missing as the kind of funny anti-authoritarian statement the song was, arriving well past the peak of the CB phenomenon, making no statement one way or the other about trucks or truckers." [20] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the film "suggests a shotgun misalliance of 'Billy Jack' and 'Smokey and the Bandit,'" and all Peckinpah could do with the "stupid material" was "to pretend he's getting somewhere by noisily spinning his wheels. More often than not even his visual pyrotechnics falls short, and he's left trying to rationalize nonsensical characters and conflicts by imposing his sentimentalities about men of war on them." [21] John Pym of The Monthly Film Bulletin was generally positive, writing, "What sets this apart from other recent citizen-band road movies is the skill with which Peckinpah redefines the artifacts of the Western, which is what Convoy transparently remains. It has lines of cavalrymen, a cattle drive, a secret trail to Mexico, a circular camp site, innocent bar-room fisticuffs and a hero who, while caring nothing for women, at the same time reveres the married man and his homestead ... The adroitness of mood is perhaps best characterized by the moment when, his audience having been softened by the surrounding exuberance, Peckinpah slips into place such a poignantly sentimental moment as the departure of Spider Mike for his hometown." [22]
Empire gave the film a 3 out of 5 stars, stating "A noisy but enjoyable destruction derby of a film, sadly with none of the subtlety, invention or skill of Spielberg's Duel ." [23]
The film grossed $4 million in Japan in its first 9 days. [14] Convoy was the highest grossing picture of Peckinpah's career, grossing $45 million at the United States and Canada box office. [3]
On April 28, 2015, Kino Lorber released Convoy on DVD and Blu-ray.
Features:
A paperback novelization of the film by screenwriter B.W.L. Norton ( ISBN 9780440112983) was published in 1978. A more serious edge and less humor was given to the film's story and there are some changes and additions, such as no mention of Spider Mike being African-American, a definite hatred between Rubber Duck and Wallace, a fight between Rubber Duck and Wallace after Spider Mike is broken out of jail, Widow Woman getting married (for the fifth time) and a background story given to Melissa.
David Samuel Peckinpah was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic The Wild Bunch received an Academy Award nomination and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institute's top 100 list. His films employed a visually innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence as well as a revisionist approach to the Western genre.
The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American epic revisionist Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates. The plot concerns an aging outlaw gang on the Mexico–United States border trying to adapt to the changing modern world of 1913. The film was controversial because of its graphic violence and its portrayal of crude men attempting to survive by any available means.
William Dale Fries Jr. was an American commercial artist who won several Clio Awards for his advertising campaigns. He was also a musician remembered for his character C. W. McCall, a truck-driving country singer that he created for a series of bread commercials while working for an Omaha advertising agency as an art director. Fries performed as McCall in a series of outlaw albums and songs in the 1970s, in collaboration with co-worker Chip Davis who also founded Mannheim Steamroller.
The Getaway is a 1972 American action thriller film based on the 1958 novel by Jim Thompson. The film was directed by Sam Peckinpah, written by Walter Hill, and stars Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, and Sally Struthers. The plot follows imprisoned mastermind robber Carter "Doc" McCoy, whose wife Carol conspires for his release on the condition they rob a bank in Texas. A double-cross follows the crime, and the McCoys are forced to flee for Mexico with the police and criminals in hot pursuit.
Smokey and the Bandit is a 1977 American action comedy road film starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams, and Mike Henry. The film marks the directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham.
Warren Mercer Oates was an American actor best known for his performances in several films directed by Sam Peckinpah, including The Wild Bunch (1969) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). Another of his most acclaimed performances was as officer Sam Wood in In the Heat of the Night (1967). Oates starred in numerous films during the early 1970s that have since achieved cult status, such as The Hired Hand (1971), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), and Race with the Devil (1975). Oates also portrayed John Dillinger in the biopic Dillinger (1973) and as the supporting character U.S. Army Sergeant Hulka in the military comedy Stripes (1981). Another notable appearance was in the classic New Zealand film Sleeping Dogs (1977), in which he played the commander of the American forces in the country.
Smokey and the Bandit II is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham, and starring Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Dom DeLuise, Sally Field, Mike Henry, Paul Williams and Pat McCormick. The film is the second installment of the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy in the Smokey and the Bandit franchise and a sequel to Smokey and the Bandit (1977).
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 is a 1983 American action comedy film and a spinoff/legacy sequel to Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Smokey and the Bandit II (1980). The film is the third and final installment of the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy in the Smokey and the Bandit franchise, starring Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Paul Williams, Pat McCormick, Mike Henry and Colleen Camp. The film also includes a cameo near the end by the original Bandit, Burt Reynolds.
A convoy is a group of vehicles traveling together for mutual support.
"Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C. W. McCall that became a number-one song on both the country and pop charts in the US and is listed 98th among Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time. Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts and one week at number one on the pop charts. The song went to number one in Canada as well, hitting the top of the RPM Top Singles Chart on January 24, 1976. "Convoy" also peaked at number two in the UK. The song capitalized on the fad for citizens band (CB) radio. The song was the inspiration for the 1978 Sam Peckinpah film Convoy, for which McCall rerecorded the song to fit the film's storyline.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 American revisionist Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah, written by Rudy Wurlitzer, and starring James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel, Katy Jurado, Chill Wills, Barry Sullivan, Jason Robards, Slim Pickens and Bob Dylan. The film is about an aging Pat Garrett (Coburn), hired as a lawman by a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid (Kristofferson).
Michael Dennis Henry was an American professional football linebacker and actor. He was best known for his role as Tarzan in the 1960s film trilogy and as Junior in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy.
David William Huddleston was an American actor. An Emmy Award nominee, Huddleston had a prolific television career, and appeared in many films, including Rio Lobo, Blazing Saddles, Crime Busters, Santa Claus: The Movie, and The Big Lebowski.
Franklyn Ajaye is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He released a series of comedy albums starting in 1973 and has acted in film and television shows from the 1970s through the present, including as a primary character in the 1976 ensemble comedy Car Wash and a supporting role in Sam Peckinpah's Convoy (1978).
Major Dundee is a 1965 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, and James Coburn. Written by Harry Julian Fink, the film is about a Union cavalry officer who leads a contentious troop of Army regulars, Confederate prisoners, and Indian scouts on an expedition into Mexico during the American Civil War to destroy a band of Apaches who have been raiding United States bases and settlements in the New Mexico territory. Major Dundee was filmed in various locations in Mexico. The movie was filmed in Eastman Color by Pathécolor, print by Technicolor.
Robert Golden Armstrong Jr. was an American character actor and playwright. A veteran performer who appeared in dozens of Westerns during his 40-year career, he may be best remembered for his work with director Sam Peckinpah.
The Glory Guys is a 1965 American Western Panavision film directed by Arnold Laven and written by Sam Peckinpah based on the 1956 novel The Dice of God by Hoffman Birney. Produced by Levy-Gardner-Laven and released by United Artists, the film stars Tom Tryon, Harve Presnell, Senta Berger, James Caan and Michael Anderson Jr.
The portrayal of the trucking industry in United States popular culture spans the depictions of trucks and truck drivers, as images of the masculine side of trucking are a common theme. The portrayal of drivers ranges from the heroes of the 1950s, living a life of freedom on the open road, to the depiction of troubled serial killers of the 1990s. Songs and movies about truck drivers were first popular in the 1940s, and mythologized their wandering lifestyle in the 1960s. Truck drivers were glorified as modern day cowboys, outlaws, and rebels during the peak of trucker culture in the 1970s.
The Great Smokey Roadblock is a 1977 comedy road film written and directed by John Leone. It stars Henry Fonda, Eileen Brennan, John Byner, Dub Taylor and Daina House. The film is also known as The Goodbye Run and The Last of the Cowboys.
Smokey and the Bandit is an action comedy franchise following the exploits of bootleggers Bo "Bandit" Darville, Cledus "Snowman" Snow, and Texas county sheriff Buford T. Justice. The series consists of three theatrical films and a television miniseries.
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