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'Crossroads': Buy the
M he story of
“Crossroads’' is a combination
of Goethe’s “Faust,” Charlie
Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down
to Georgia” and “The Karate
Kid.” The film is hampered bv a
muddled script, cardboard act
ing and pedestrian directing
but the music by Ry Cooder is
fantastic.
In “Crossroads” we meet Eu
gene Martone (Ralph Macchio),
a 17-year-old guitar prodigy.
Although Eugene is studying
classical guitar, he prefers to
play the blues. Eugene big
quest in life is to find one of the
lost songs of legendary blues-
man Robert Johnson and he
goes to visit Willie Brown (Joe
Seneca), the man who used to
play harmonica for Johnson, to
help him find it.
WW illie agrees to teach
Eugene the lost song if Eugene
will help him break out of the
minimum-security nursing
home where he’s serving the
last years of a life sentence. Wil
lie wants to go back to the
crossroads where he, like seve
ral other bluesmen including
Johnson, sold his soul to Scratch
(a.k.a. Satan) through his assis
tant (Joe Morton), in exchange
for fame and fortune. Willie
wants it back.
Along the way, Eugene and
Willie team up with Frances
(Jami Gertz), a 17-year-old run
away dancer on her way to Los
Angeles. The threesome run
into a crooked business, a
crooked sheriff and deep south
ern racism. After Eugene falls
in love with Frances and
Frances leaves, Willie teaches
Eugene the true meaning of the
blues.
The climax of the movie
comes when Willie finally finds
Scratch (Robert Judd) and the
two agree to a guitar battle be
tween Eugene and Scratch’s
newest prodigy, Jack Butler
(Steve Vai) for Willie’s soul.
“Crossroads” was written by
John Fusco, a recent graduate of
N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of Arts.
Fusco had won a couple of am
ateur screenwriting awards, so
producer Mark Carliner de
cided to take a chance on
“Crossroads.” Walter Hill,
who’s previous movies include
the very successful “48 HRS,”
the semi-successful “The War
riors,” and the not very success
album, not the ticket
ful “The Long Riders,” was cho
sen to direct the film.
There are a few holes in the
screenplay. For instance, it
doesn't go into detail about Eu
gene and Willie crossing the
ethnic, cultural and age bar
riers that separate them but by
the end of the film, Willie and
Eugene become such good
friends that Eugene risks his
soul to save Willie from damna
tion. Something must be hap
pening off-screen because the
audience doesn’t get to see their
relationship mature.
The actors don’t do
much to patch up the holes in
the script. Macchio is basically
the same cocky kid he was in
“The Karate Kid” but he doesn’t
work as well with Seneca as he
did with Norivuki Pat Morita.
Seneca, who has worked in
the films “Silverado” and “The
Verdict,” is convincing as a
bluesman but doesn’t get a
chance to do much. Gertz, who
was in the short-lived television
series “Square Pegs,” is not
much more than a pretty face.
Her part could have been
played by a mannequin for all
the emotion she put into it.
Judd and Morton are
delightfully demonic as Scratch
and his assistant but we don’t
get to see much of them. It’s no
surprise that Vai, a member of
the heavy metal band Alcatraz,
looks pretty good as the devil’s
heavy metal guitar prodigy. It’s
obvious that Vai is not acting.
The movie’s saving grace is
the music. Ry Cooder, who
learned to play by hanging
around great bluesmen like
Lightin’ Hopkins and Reverend
Gary Davis, is simply one of the
best guitarists in the world.
Cooder understands the blues
and is able to play them with
reverence and virtuosity unpa
rallelled in today’s music indus
try. The soundtrack includes
many of his great moments and
I’m looking forward to it.
So if you’re like most college
students, you don’t have too
much money to spend. Spend it
on the soundtrack album. You
can watch “Crossroads” when
it comes to cable and not feel
cheated out of $4.50.
by Karl Pallmeyer
music rei’ieiver
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