It’s unfortunate that there is such a dearth of really great, fictional music movies. Musicals excluded, of course. We had the hilarious School of Rock and musically brilliant and moving Once, but unless you are ready to include Hannah Montana (which I pray to the almighty music deities you are NOT about to do – I won’t even dignify that contribution with italics) there really isn’t a lot of big-screen interest in musician’s struggles, successes, and failures. Luckily, however, 1986 produced one hell of a great movie based on Robert Johnson’s legacy. The movie?

Crossroads!

Now, if you think I’m talking about the Britney Spears mess of a movie that came out a little while ago, I suggest you back away from your monitor because I’m about to come through it and slap the hell out of you. No, I’m talking about the Ry Cooder-composed, Karate Kid Ralph Macchio-acted, and Steve Vai-special guest appearanced masterpiece that sent everyone back to their rooms crying like little schoolchildren because they realized they had a LONG way to go.

The Cliff Notes

Ralph Macchio plays Eugene Martone, a classical guitar major at a fine arts school who is obsessed with blues guitar, more specifically with Robert Johnson and his “lost” songs. Eugene sets out on a mission to find those lost songs – and the secret to playing the blues – by breaking blues harpist Willie Brown (played by Joe Seneca) out of an old folks home in hopes that Willie will help him find the lost songs.

What ensues is basically 90+ minutes of absolutely fantastic music, some well-crafted narratives of coming-of-age, dealing with advanced age, love found and lost, and the quest to become a great guitar player.

The Opinion

Music aside, I have to say that the producers of the film actually did a good job – certainly better than most – in making it look like Ralph Macchio is actually playing the guitar. Though it wasn’t perfect, short of having an actual guitar player in the lead role it’s the closest I’ve ever seen and it’s not bad. I’m not the best at suspending disbelief just for the sake of a movie, so it was a welcome surprise.

There is plenty of music – GREAT MUSIC – to be enjoyed not just by guitar players but by everyone and the screenwriters took a nice piece of historical fiction and turned it into a well-crafted plot. (Remember when movies actually involved a plot and not just 90 minutes of CGI explosions? Those were the days…)

The Duel

Especially for you younger folks, if you have not seen this movie you really ought to. Unfortunately, I’m a bit of a jerk and am going to blow the best part of the movie for you by showing it to you below (the guitar duel between Macchio’s and Vai’s characters). Hopefully, however, you’ll be inspired by watching it to go out and see the whole thing. For every guitarist I’ve ever spoken to that has watched the movie, it’s pretty much all about the guitar duel, so at the very least you’ll get a huge kick out of how us older folks were entertained “back in the day.”

Buy it Now!