1970 Directed by John G. Avildsen
Ad executive Bill Compton confronts and murders his daughter's drug-dealing boyfriend. Wandering into a local bar, Bill encounters a drunken, bigoted factory worker with a bloodlust, Joe Curran. When Bill confesses the murder to Joe, the two strike up an uneasy alliance, leading to a wild adventure.
The kind of "comedy" that could only come out of the 70's: couched in layers of tragic irony and loaded with despicable cretins whose ignorance and selfishness leads to their own (at least moral) downfall. JOE kind of threw me for a loop as I had no idea what direction it was headed and Peter Boyle's titular character is so disgusting that you realize that the movie isn't on anyone's side (except maybe Susan Sarandon's). And boy does Boyle pull out all the stops in his authentic and fairly riveting take on general hateful dumbassery. The tagline "Keep America Beautiful" could easily be swapped out with another famous tagline about America in the remake.
John G. Avildsen (1935-2017), one of the great, and arguably most underrated, American film directors, made this terrifying satire long before turning into the king of the underdogs via his timeless masterpieces Rocky and The Karate Kid. Closing the '60s and opening the door to the gritty revolution of '70s cinema, Joe reveals itself both a landmark in the historical context of its production and a work of sociological and political narrative that is very telling of the world it deals with and of a reality that still lurks in the heart of humanity as we know it.
When Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick), a conservative businessman from New York, accidentally kills his hippie junkie daughter's (Susan Sarandon) drug-dealer boyfriend, flees…
Had it not meandered all over the place and contained a less amount of terrible performances from most of its cast, this virtually forgotten film from 1970 could have been remembered for Norman Wexler's hot button-pushing screenplay combining quite well with Peter Boyle's truly bizarre and sort of brave performance in the title role. He turned in quite excellent work as Joe, but nearly everything else about the movie falls frustratingly short.
Still, I can't bring myself to rate this movie any lower than three stars because there's something quite special about the character of Joe and some of the film's content. This kind of film wouldn't even come to close to being financed and released in today's modern cinema,…
Part 3 of my Tell Me What To Watch December - nominated by fizzybenilyn.
One thing that strikes me about so many American films made in the 1970s is that unless they are set in the jet-setting areas of California or Florida, everywhere looks so grim and grey and poverty-stricken. It's always cloudy and if it isn't raining or snowing then dirty slush lies across the streets making everywhere look even less welcoming than they already are.
Such a landscape is ever-present in Joe, a film I had never even heard of before fizzybenilyn recommended it to me. It immediately appealed to me simply because of the fact that I am a huge fan of Peter Boyle as an actor.…
I was really into this for the first 30min or whatever. Gritty Tulsa-style dope scene and Susan Sarandon has eyes that sparkle. But then Sue goes away and we get Peter Boyle doing n-words and I can't believe I'm saying this cause I like Peter Boyle but fuuuuck me, he just sharts up the whole movie with his over-the-top right wing Joe "character." Just sharts it right up.
Do you ever get the feeling that everything you do, your whole life, just one big crock of shit?
Joe might throw you off by its dialogue, especially if you're someone who didnt live in the 70s, like me. Tbh I had enough of the bigotry and racist rants that went on, however i then realised that these people exist, even now. putting that aside, there were decent comedic moments here and there. and boy that ending, hate to admit it, but I did like it.
After bonding over the murder of a junkie, two Trump supporters head out for a night on the town. Filled with enough rants and racism to please any sucker punch throwing bunghole. They probably won't really like the ending that much, I do.
Peter Boyle is good and it's got a very young and attractive Susan Sarandon.
A bristling, unpredictable drama from Rocky director John G. Avildsen about the relationship between an advertising executive (Dennis Patrick) who's just beaten his daughter's drug dealer boyfriend to death, and the racist rent-a-gob (Peter Boyle) who admires him for it.
In some ways it's a prototype Dirty Harry or Taxi Driver, though it's less bloodthirsty and more intriguing: a complex character piece, laced with pitch black comedy, that doubles as a state-of-the-nation treatise - as Falling Down would in the 1990s. I'm not sure if the film's politics are confused or just purposefully veiled, as it appears to oscillate between liberalism and fascism, but that moral muckiness rather plays in its favour, drawing us into an ugly, complex world with…
Jesus Christ, people have always been like this, huh? America was never good and it was always racist. This is like watching an episode of All in the Family where Archie finally snaps at the end after spending 90 minutes saying a lot of the words they wouldn't let him say on TV. Almost feels like Easy Rider told from the other perspective. This is a MAGA nut's wet dream, and Peter Boyle's utter shock at the crowd cheering Joe's eventual rampage really tells you that some people are so morally broken that they can't separate a clear good from a clear evil. Joe is another character to throw on that Tyler Durder/Travis Bickle/Joker list of "you aren't supposed to be idolizing them you sick bastard"
Joe - Das Drogas à Morte estreava há 50 anos nos EUA.
Você conhece o Joe, se ele morasse no Brasil hoje ele seria aquele bolsonarista ferrenho que nunca irá se arrepender de ter votado no capitão não porque ele era contra tudo que tava aí e sim porque ele verdadeiramente se identifica com a estupidez e escrotidão do presidente, eu particularmente tenho uma boa meia dúzia desses na minha família e que por mim poderiam ir apodrecer no cemitério.
Mas estamos falando dos EUA dos anos 70, provavelmente do apoiador do Nixon, e do backlash reacionário contrário à revolução social surgida nos anos 60, o bacana aqui é mostrar o reacionário da classe baixa e o burguês como faces…
As with Wild in the Streets, I read about this in Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland and was surprised I had never heard of it before, especially given its obvious relevance to our current miasma of culture war and right-wing violence. It would be nice if for once a dated ‘60s or ‘70s movie could regain contemporary resonance for good reasons. Like if we discovered a Volkswagen Beetle that could really talk and befriend people. That would be fun.
A little too meandering to fully land the fantastic premise of two middle-aged squares going joker mode on hippies, but it gets by on some great lead performances and a killer ending.
uh idk the first 8 minutes were wild and somehow i still wasn’t interested for most of the movie
This one isn’t for me, not bad film, deals with politics of its time ( for me personally being honest don’t like politics , this is more a film of its time transitioning from 60s to the 70s wasn’t alive at that moment in time, my theory is that this is either for people that seen it when it came out and were alive at the time or this is a film aimed to a specific audience? 🤔 that will enjoy it and deeply discuss its whole entirety
Was surprised Didn’t know that Susan Sarandon was acting since the early 70s way before Meryl Streep , she still looks the same then than how she looks right now in her 70s she’s the female version of George Clooney they age like fine wine 🍷
Roughly defines the Republican coalition from Nixon's silent majority through 2016: the refined executive and the blue collar working stiff who rants about affirmative action and gay people. They both despise the generation of hippies and longhairs destined to replace them.
From the Director of the non-Jaden Smith Karate Kid: Taxi Driver but EDGY GAMER!
Do you ever get the feeling that everything you do, your whole life, just one big crock of shit?
Joe might throw you off by its dialogue, especially if you're someone who didnt live in the 70s, like me. Tbh I had enough of the bigotry and racist rants that went on, however i then realised that these people exist, even now. putting that aside, there were decent comedic moments here and there. and boy that ending, hate to admit it, but I did like it.
Joe is a fascinating movie that proposes that class divisions are nowhere near as deep and impenetrable as the gulf between the 'greatest generation' and the freewheeling young baby boomers.
Of course, by the late 1970s and 1980s, this was proven demonstrably wrong when the boomers became yuppies, mostly discarded their radical politics, voted Reagan and Bush Jr. in twice, and became almost identical to their parents. (Joe would've LOVED Trump)
But for the early 1970s, the social commentary was spot on. So spot on, in fact, that the movie's violence was apparently cheered on by audiences comprised of real-life Joes.
Peter Boyle is both menacing and hilarious in this movie (and does a great job playing a character significantly…
Part of the 1970s edge lord auteur culture. Plays like an R-rated afterschool special with too much to say about mostly nothing. Imagine a campier Taxi Driver.
Archie Bunker meets Death Wish. Bleak and unsettling. This film sides with no one.
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