Rating: 3/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2024 | 47/52 | Cannon Group
Before Travis Bickle or Archie Bunker, there was Joe Curran.
Melissa Compton lives with her boyfriend, Frank. Frank is short on cash, and their heroin supply is running low. But Frank’s got a deal in the works that should put them in a better place. Melissa begs him not to. He gives her a pill to chill her out. Instead, it puts her in a delirious frenzy that lands her in the hospital.
Melissa’s parents, Bill and Joan, come to fetch her. Bill proposes rehab, then goes to Melissa and Frank’s apartment to pick up her belongings. Frank comes home to find Bill there. Frank makes some snide remarks about Melissa, sending Bill into a rage. Bill ends up beating Frank to death. He takes some drugs to make it look like a robbery, then hits a bar nearby.
At the bar, Joe Curran is on a tirade about black people and hippies. Bill comes in and tries to settle himself. Joe talks about wishing he could kill a hippy. Bill, for some reason, blurts out that he just did. When Joe realizes Bill isn’t joking, the two begin a strange bond that will change Bill’s life.
Do you ever get the feeling that your life, and everything you do, is a crock of shit?
Peter Boyle’s Joe is the prototype for similar characters in the 1970s, including Archie Bunker. Like All in the Family, the intent is a dark irony about a conservative losing his head over the state of the world. But, more importantly, it’s also about how similar-minded the liberal and conservative are—the conservative is just more honest about it.
Here, Joe loosens up Bill and gets him to realize aspects of himself he hadn’t come to grips with. After all, a level-headed guy doesn’t murder his daughter’s boyfriend, regardless of the circumstances. Joe blames minorities for all of his woes, which is why he adores Bill so much. Bill is aspirational, not just in spirit (Joe wants to kill hippies, but Bill does it), but in wealth, since Bill is a wealthy executive.
That solidarity has a lot of political power. We’re seeing it unfold in real-time in the USA.
The film takes its time developing the story, letting each moment linger and expanding on the emotional quality of the environment. In some ways, this helps the story feel true in its world, but when you look at each piece separately, it feels contrived. The film doesn’t explore what it suggests with as much depth as I would have liked.
Boyle’s performance makes this movie worth watching. I find the comedy hard to enjoy, but I can appreciate the intent.