Crossroads (1986 film)



Crossroads is a 1986 American coming-of-age musical drama film inspired by the legend of blues musician Robert Johnson. Starring Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca and Jami Gertz, the film was written by John Fusco and directed by Walter Hill and features an original score featuring Ry Cooder and Steve Vai on the soundtrack's guitar, and harmonica by Sonny Terry. Vai also appears in the film as the devil's guitar player in the climactic guitar duel.

Fusco was a traveling blues musician prior to attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he wrote Crossroads as an assignment in a master class led by the screenwriting giants Waldo Salt and Ring Lardner, Jr. The student screenplay won first place in the national FOCUS Awards (Films of College and University Students) and sold to Columbia Pictures while Fusco was still a student.

Plot
Eugene Martone 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 are the legends surrounding exactly how Johnson became so talented – most notably the one claiming he "sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads", as well as a famed "missing song" that was lost, supposedly evermore, to the world.

In his quest to find this song, he discovers old newspaper archive clippings revealing that Johnson's longtime friend, musician Willie Brown, is alive and incarcerated in a nearby minimum security hospital. Eugene goes to see him. After Willie denies several times that he is that Willie Brown, he finally admits his identity after hearing Eugene play some blues (though Willie notes that Eugene "plays with no soul"). Willie then says he knows the missing Robert Johnson tune in question but refuses to give it to Eugene unless the boy breaks him out of the facility and gets him to Mississippi, where he has unfinished business to settle. Eugene agrees and they head south, but the boy soon realizes that Willie is constantly running minor scams such as claiming that he has more money than he actually has in order to cover their bus tickets. With no money, they end up “hoboing” from Memphis to rural 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 "juke joint" as Willie puts it), where Eugene gets the nickname of "Lightning" because of his musical skill. Eugene is deeply impressed and his feelings of the authenticity of Willie being an old bluesman takes firm hold in his mind. However, when he jokingly suggests to Willie that he himself ought to "sell his soul to the Devil at the crossroads", Willie strikes him, angrily telling Eugene he should never joke like that.

A romantic interest surfaces in the guise of a hitchhiker, Frances, who follows them. She and Eugene end up sharing a tender moment in a hayloft. She eventually abandons the two men leaving Eugene heartbroken, but with a true feeling for the blues, as he plays on an old Fender Telecaster guitar and a Pignose amplifier. Willie confesses to Eugene at this point that there is no missing Johnson song for Eugene to learn, but Willie tells the boy that he has proven himself far beyond what learning any blues song could ever teach him.

They ultimately reach their location in Mississippi: a rural crossroads in the middle of nowhere, where Willie reveals the ultimate secret: his ability on the harmonica came about because of deal with the devil made at this very location. The Devil shows up and says that the contract for Willie's soul is still valid, even if Willie is ultimately unsatisfied with how his life turned out.

Eugene, somewhat skeptical of the whole exchange and situation, steps into the conversation to help Willie. The Devil offers a challenge: If Eugene can come to a special concert and win a head-cutting guitar duel against his ringer guitarist, then Willie gets his soul back. If Eugene loses, then Eugene's soul is now forfeit as well. Despite Willie's protests, Eugene agrees to the deal. Willie and Eugene are transported to a music hall, where metal-blues guitar master Jack Butler, who also sold his soul for musical ability, is wowing the crowd with his prowess.

Eugene and Butler begin their guitar duel, and Eugene is eventually able to win the battle by falling back on his classical training and performing music that his opponent cannot match. Willie's soul is freed, and he and Eugene are transported back to Mississippi, where they start walking again, talking of cities they plan to visit.

Cast

 * Ralph Macchio as Eugene Martone
 * Joe Seneca as Willie Brown
 * Jami Gertz as Frances
 * Joe Morton as Scratch's assistant
 * Robert Judd as Scratch
 * Steve Vai as Jack Butler
 * Dennis Lipscomb as Lloyd
 * Harry Carey, Jr. as bartender
 * John Hancock as Sheriff Tilford
 * Allan Arbus as Dr. Santis
 * Gretchen Palmer as beautiful girl, dancer
 * Al Fann as pawnbroker
 * Wally Taylor as O.Z.
 * Tim Russ as Robert Johnson
 * Tex Donaldson as John McGraw
 * Guy Killum as Willie at 17
 * Akosua Busia as woman at boardinghouse
 * Edward Walsh as Harley Tethune
 * Allan Graf as Alvin

Production
The script was an original by John Fusco, who had long been interested in blues music. He worked as a blues singer and musician but had been warned by a doctor to rest his voice. In 1981 his girlfriend, who was working at a rest home, told him that an old black man with a harmonica had been admitted. Fusco went to visit him and on the way dreamt up a story about what would happen if the player was a legendary blues player. This gave him the idea for the story.

Fusco wrote the script as his Master's Thesis at New York University. It was only his second screenplay. Producer Mark Farliner acted as Fusco's independent adviser on it and later helped get it made. Fusco was paid $250,000.

Jami Gertz was cast as the female lead. "She had the warmth I was looking for," Hill said, "and she was feisty, but I wondered, is she strong enough? She has to put Macchio through the experience of falling in love, and then she has to leave him, to strengthen his character for the movie's final showdown. I decided to go with her, and I was amazed by how strong she seemed on the screen."

Hill was aware of some surface similarities to The Karate Kid: "You boil it down, and it sounds like a young kid and a wise old guy and their showdown with evil," said Hill. "But if you really look at 'Crossroads,' it's a completely different movie...I knew my most difficult task would be creating real, believable scenes between Macchio and Seneca. They had to be real characters; with an ongoing reality level, to work at all. You have to set the stage, or when your movie shifts gears to fantasy, you lose your audience."

Shooting took place on location in Mississippi as well as Hollywood. Blues legend Frank Frost makes a cameo.

"I think the blues still speaks to kids today," said Ry Cooder, who performed the music with Steve Vai. "It's so old that it's new."

The filmmakers shot sad and happy endings and both were tested with audiences; the happy ending was chosen. (The unhappy ending had Joe Seneca's character dying. )

Soundtrack
Ry Cooder said he spent a year working on the soundtrack.

Critical response
Farliner said "This is as tricky a picture to market as anything. I was the first one who tried to sell the story. I know how tricky it is... It could be a classic crossover movie. But you could blow that opportunity real quick with a bad campaign." He thought Columbia had an excellent marketing team and liked that the studio spent $6 million on launching it.

According to Ry Cooder, the film "went down the tubes".

As of 2012, the film had a 79% certified "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Roger Ebert in his review stated that the movie "borrows so freely and is a reminder of so many other movies that it's a little startling, at the end, to realize how effective the movie is and how original it manages to feel despite all the plunderings." He praised the film's acting and music, giving the movie 3.5 stars out of 4.