Crossroads (1986 film)

Crossroads
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Walter Hill
Written by	John Fusco
Produced by	Mark Carliner
Starring	Ralph Macchio Joe Seneca Jami Gertz Joe Morton
Cinematography	John Bailey
Edited by	Freeman A. Davies (as Freeman Davies)
Music by	Ry Cooder
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	March 14, 1986
Running time	96 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	N/A
Box office	$5,839,031 (USA)

Crossroads is a 1986 cult film inspired by the legend of Robert Johnson. The film was directed by Walter Hill and featured an original score featuring Ry Cooder and Steve Vai. Starring Ralph Macchio, renowned guitarist Steve Vai also appears in the film as the devil's guitar player in the climactic guitar duel.

Plot summary

Eugene Martone (Macchio) 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 is the "missing song" that was lost, supposedly evermore to the world.

In his quest to find this song he discovers old newspaper archive clippings that, fortunately or not, the blues legend Willie Brown is yet alive and incarcerated in a nearby minimum security hospital.

On a visit to meet this musical icon, Eugene gets thwarted by Willie who denies that he is that Willie Brown and doesn't have any idea what Eugene is saying. Undaunted and to get around the minimum security surrounding the old man, Eugene gets a job as an orderly so he can grill the old man as work time permits. Willie again protests and denies that he is the same Willie Brown for whom Eugene is looking.

Eugene then plays some blues guitar for Willie and the old man finally acknowledges that the kid can indeed play well, just with no soul. Willie then says he knows the missing Robert Johnson tune but refuses to give it to Eugene unless the boy busts him out of the facility and gets him to Mississippi. Eugene agrees and they head for Mississippi, but the boy soon realizes that Willie is constantly running minor scams such as claiming he has more money then he has to cover their bus tickets. With no money, they end up “hoboing” from Memphis to 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 "jukejoint" as "Blind Dog" Willie puts it. 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 leaves the two guys, so now Eugene gets a feel for the blues, playing on an old Fender Telecaster guitar and a Pignose. His style and mood is now totally altered and affirmed, making him really want to become a "Blues-Man" too.

They ultimately get to the crossroad and finally meet Ol' Scratch, the devil who probably bartered for and won Johnson's soul in exchange for the gift of his masterful guitar and musical style. Eugene then finds out that Willie Brown made a similar deal with Scratch back in his day. Now that he is an old man, Brown says he didn't get what he really wanted and is concerned the line on his soul will be up when he dies.

Not wanting to risk his young friend's soul, Willie forbids Eugene to get involved any further than he already is. In fact, Brown now confesses that there was no missing song for Eugene to learn but that he (Eugene) has proven himself far beyond what learning any blues song could ever teach him. Eugene wants to go for broke here and assuredly views himself as a savior to his friend Willie; just maybe he'll find the truth about Johnson's instant musical abilities once and for all.

Brown finally returns to the crossroads with Eugene in hope of breaking off the deal when he also bartered his soul. There, speaking out of turn, Eugene offers to try to win Brown's soul back in a head-cutting duel with any guitar player of the devil's choice. Scratch chooses Jack Butler (played by Steve Vai), a modern blues-metal man who has also sold his soul for musical abilities. After a blistering guitar duel, Eugene eventually manages to incorporate the classical training he received at Juilliard and wins the challenge.

Trivia

• Structurally, this film is very similar to another work starring Ralph Macchio, namely The Karate Kid. Instead of learning about life and love in the company of a Japanese karate teacher, Macchio's character learns about life and love in the company of an African-American bluesman. Both films even climax in a duel where Macchio's character decisively surprises his opponent by using an element from earlier in the film.
• The climax cutting head scene has been widely popularized on the internet by fans of Steve Vai. [1] Most of the battle is played by Vai, except for Eugene's blues parts at the beginning of the duel which are played by Ry Cooder and can be heard on Vai's album "The Elusive Light and Sound, volume 1"
• Macchio's fingering on the guitar was a studied acting job in itself because he didn't know how to play guitar prior to taking on the part of a guitarist. He received intensive training from classical guitarist William Kanengiser of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet to approximate playing realistically enough to hide that fact respectably well.
• You can hear William Kanengiser playing his version of Mozart Rondo Alla Turca (Turkish March) in the beginning of the movie.
• When Butler (Steve Vai) finishes his final solo before the classical duel, he ends it with a diminished fifth (flat fifth), an interval that has at times been associated with the devil.
• The classical-influenced piece played by Eugene during the climactic scene is based on Niccolò Paganini's Fifth Caprice.
• There was no classical guitar program at The Juilliard School during the creation of the movie, but has since been made a part of the school.
• The animated series Metalocalypse's episode 'Bluesklok' parodies Crossroads.
• The guitar used by Jack Butler (Steve Vai) is a Charvel San Dimas.
• The guitar amplifier used by Jack Butler (Steve Vai) is a Carvin X100B.
• The Notes and tab for all songs from the movie can be found in the "Elusive Light and Sound Volume One" book
• In the American Dad episode Dope & Faith, Stan's friend Brett comes back to life after making a promise with the devil and realises he can play the guitar in a similar style to Steve Vai.
• The climactic final guitar-off, along with the song The Devil Went Down To Georgia, inspired the 'battle mode' in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

External links

• Crossroads at IMDb
• Crossroads at Rotten Tomatoes
• Crossroads - Arlen Roth's page about the shooting of the film