Joe (1970 film)

Infobox Film
name = Joe


image_size =
caption =
director = John G. Avildsen
producer =
writer = Norman Wexler
narrator =
starring = Peter Boyle
Dennis Patrick
Audrey Caire
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = 1970
runtime = 102 mins UK 107 mins Norway
country = USA
language = English
budget = $106000
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:26271
imdb_id = 0065916

"Joe" is a 1970 drama film starring Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick, and Susan Sarandon in her film debut. Joe, a furnace operator played by Boyle, and a business executive, played by Patrick, search for the latter's missing hippie daughter played by Sarandon.

The film was directed by John G. Avildsen, and was a reaction to the counter-culture movies of the time.Fact|date=February 2007

"Joe" was a predecessor to "Taxi Driver", and was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar.

The film was spoofed in "MAD Magazine" in 1971 as "Schmoe."

"Joe" also featured an original soundtrack, introducing artists such as Exuma with the song "You Don't Know What's Going On", Dean Michaels' variant of "Hey Joe" and other original songs by Jerry Butler and Bobby Scott.

Plot

Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick), his wife Joan (Audrey Caire), and daughter Melissa (Susan Sarandon) are a wealthy family living in New York's Upper East Side. Melissa has recently been living with a pusher, doing drugs, and searching for meaning. After Melissa tearfully returns home, Compton goes to her ex-boyfriend's apartment to get her clothes. In his anger at the recklessness of the drug free society and what it has done to his daughter, Compton, after being taunted by Melissa's boyfriend, accidentally kills him.

A clearly shaken up Compton flees from the apartment leaving the body there, and goes to calm down in a local bar. There, he hears Joe Curan (Peter Boyle) ranting once again about how he hates the youth and their drugs, and repeatedly says, "I'd love to kill one..I'd love to kill one.." Compton, unable to restrain himself, blurts out "I just did," then fakes a smile once he realizes he had just made a public confession.

The next day, Joe sees a news report about a drug pusher being murdered a few blocks from the bar and realizes Compton is the one who did it. Right away, Joe arranges a meeting with Compton, and the two form a very strange relationship, a wealthy executive hanging out with a bigotted furnace operator. Compton tells Joe about the phoniness and emptiness of his smug rich friends, while Joe holds Compton esteem in doing what Joe could not bring himself to do-kill a rebellious youth.

With Compton discussing with his wife how Joe has enveloped himself with Compton to the point he feels a willing accomplice to the murder, when Melissa overhears her father confess to the murder. Storming out of the apartment house, she tells her father, "what are you gonna do, kill me too?"

With Melissa missing in a commune somewhere, Joe and Compton begin to search for her. Joe brings along some rifles and plenty of ammo, "just to scare them." Joe and Compton arrive in the commune and begin to hang out with the hippies in order to find Melissa. The hippies freely share their drugs, but then secretly steal Joe and Comton's wallets.

Joe and Compton, realizing they had been duped, grab their rifles and enter the commune building. Demanding their wallets back, the hippie thief tosses the pair their now empty wallets and begins to run away. Joe, fed up at this point with hippies and what they represent, pulls up his rifle and kills the thief. Joe continues on his rampage firing at everyone in the communue, and ignoring Compton's protests, repeats "didn't you tell me you felt great killing one?"

When a girl arrives at the door and Joe out of ammo, Joe says to Comton, "This one's all yours." Compton grabs the gun and fires at the fleeing girl's back, only to have her turn around as she falls. Compton, in blood curling yell, cries out "Melissa!" As Compton realizes he has just killed his own daughter, he hears in his mind, once again, "what are you gonna do, kill me too?"

References

*Nystrom, Derek (2004), "Hard Hats and Movie Brats: Auteurism and the Class Politics of the New Hollywood" Cinema Journal, Vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 18-41.

External links

*imdb title|id=0065916|title=Joe