Latest / The Cinematic Flashback Podcast / Convoy (1978): How a Hit Song Became Sam Peckinpah's Biggest Hit

Transcript

Convoy (1978): How a Hit Song Became Sam Peckinpah's Biggest Hit · The Cinematic Flashback Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Screwing it down a bit runch you boys, Jesus Christ. Hello,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I d boys, this is the Papa Bear. Been a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: long time. It's been six years. Yeah, six years. I
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: should have known that'd be you on the other end
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of that two way?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: What two way?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: The CB cotton Mouth couldn't have been me. I ain't
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: got no CB. Besides, I don't believe in police entrapman.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Come on, Welcome to the Cinematic Flashback Podcast. Get ready
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: to hop into the wayback machine as we journey through
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: the wild fold and unforgettable films of the nineteen seventy
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Each episode we break down a classic movie or forgot Jim,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: seeing how it performed then and now, and wrapping things
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: up by asking fiddig ruth of the decades or did
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: it lose its feet? I am your host, Chuck Bryan,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: and today we are reviewing Sam Peckhama's nineteen seventy eight
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: film Convoy, starring Chris Chris Stofferson, Ali McGraw, Ernest borg Nine,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Bert Young, and Madge Sinclair. This is our second and
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: final stop in our Keep on Trucking month. Last episode
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: we've followed one trucker taken on the system in white
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: line fever. This time we've got hundreds of trucks, a
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: chart topping country song, a CBE radio in every cab,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: and Sam Peckham pod trying to steer the whole thing
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: down the interstate. Let me let me check here, break breaker,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: break a breaker one nine. Matt, you got your ears on?
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Come home back.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: That's your good buddy. I'm at your back door. You
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: see any bears up there, come on.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Back, Roger, that Roger that we got a roadblock up
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: there on the clover leaf and them bears are wall
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: to wall.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Have you been my man, I've been fine. This has
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: been a bit of a trip down memory lane with
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the CBE banter and stuff. You know, it's going through
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: some of that, And I have to tell you I
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: listened to a YouTube series of a local chef. I
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: had to laugh so hard because his dialect is absolutely
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: trucker slang.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Last episode, we started talking about the CBE radio craze.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: We kind of shared a lot of our memories and
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: experiences with it and just talked about how big it
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: became during the seventies. But while researching Convoy, I started
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: kind of getting this little nugget of an idea. So
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: here it goes. In nineteen seventy five was CBE radio
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: basically America's first social media platform. And let me expand
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: just a little bit. People had handles instead of user's name.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: They talked to strangers they never met, They shared information
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: in real time, they complained about authorities, they spread rumors,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: and they built these communities around common interest. The technology
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: was different, but the behavior feels surprisingly familiar.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I think you're on something, But I think the big
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: difference was range. Today a tweet could be heard around
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: the world. Back then, a breaker one nine could on
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: average reach about five miles. If a trucker had a
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: real good set of tuned antenna's, hooked down knights and
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: high on his cab, they might be able to get
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: ten miles. You know, there is a phenomenon called skip
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: you know, you could communicate over many, many miles. That's
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: it was skipping off the IONISA that generally happened in
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the evenings, not something that usually happens. So you're talking
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: about a pretty limited range of people you can talk
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: to and messages. Now you'll see and even in our movie,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: we see that by using that little range and then
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: repeating like word of mouth, but over the radio you
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: could reach many miles in front. So a trucker would
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: call ahead or behind saying hey, I just passed a
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: speed trap, and then the truck that's sort of at
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the edge of that would then pass it to the
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: people behind him and etcetera. So you could reach a
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: pretty big range, but it sort of depended on word
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: of mouth. I think we'd be better off with the
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: five mile range because I think, you know, there's the
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: today's inane blather can reach Antarctica back then just only
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: five miles, and then each person has to decide whether
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: they're going to repeat it or not, which I think
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: was a good thing. Right. Of course, that would also
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: be we wouldn't be making this podcast or every episode
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: would be live.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: Well, Matt, do we have anyone giving us any feedback
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: this week?
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, we do. This was from our Dirty Harry Encore episode.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Listener Chris left us this comment on Spotify. Whoa great episode.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I learned to think of two about guns. The best
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: scene in the movie was the stadium where the camera
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: pulls away and you can hear that creepy music in
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Scorpio's screams as Harry steps on its leg cheers. Thank
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: you Chris for that feedback. We love to hear it,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and as always the general population of people who are
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: listening to our podcast, we want to hear from you,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: good or bad, or some advice. We welcome it all.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: We know that two dudes in a microphone is not
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: exactly high art, but we love movies and we hope
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: that we can help you discover a forgotten gem or
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: understand a little bit about the time when the movie
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: was released. Don't be shy, be like Chris and let
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: us know how we're doing. Use the comment feature on
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: your podcast listening app, or hit us up on our
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Facebook page, or go right to our website at www
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: dot cinematic flashback dot com. You know, Matt, I have
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: to really agree with Chris on that episode.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I think I called you up and just said, hey, Matt,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: I know you know more about guns than I do.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Just you carry that. You know that was definitely nineteen seventies.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Guns are featured a lot more, I think in a
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: different light than today. And you know, I think you
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: know things progress, I think in a positive way largely,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: but yeah, that's the way it happened. So hm, Chuck
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: aw or should they say, why did this movie happen?
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Well, Well, Matt, Before we get into the production of Convoy,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: I want to ask a question on my own. What
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: do a bread commercial, a truck driving country singer, a
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Sam Peckhampalm, and Christmas music have in common?
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I have absolutely no idea, but I'm hoping it has
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: something to do with Convoy. Yeah, V white stuff.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I had a jack knife rie it could drove block
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a slid, had a musty chain and a load of
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: bread for the old home killer.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Up and keep on a truck in the Yeah it does.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: It sounds like the setup to a very bad joke,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: but it's actually the story of how Convoy got made.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: And the story begins back in nineteen seventy three, when
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: advertising executive Bill Freese created a truck driving character called
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: c W. McCall for a series of old Homebred mercials.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Says you Know what to Say, Cold Truck.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: The initials c W stood for Country Western, while McCall
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: was inspired by a copy of McCall's magazine that just
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: happened to be sitting on his desk. The character became
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: popular enough that Freeze and musician Chip Davis took c W.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: McCall beyond the commercials and into the recording studios, releasing
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: several albums and took.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: Off for when you created that thing, did you have
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: any idea at all it would develop into this sort
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: of thing?
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I had no idea.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: You write all of this stuff?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we write all of our own material. I do
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: all lyrics, and a phill named Chip Davis writes the music.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: Nineteen seventy five, their album Black Bear Road included a
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: little song called Convoy, a breaker on nine.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: This year's a rubber Duck.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: You've got a copy on me? Fan?
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: Come on?
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Convoy became a massive rossover hit, reaching number one on
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: both the country and pop charts.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Come on.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Four then, Yeah, we definitely.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: EMI Films saw a hit song and a growing trucker
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: craze and decided there was a movie to be made.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: There was only one problem. The song didn't provide much
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: of a story. It had a convoy, a trucker named
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: rubber Duck, and not much else. The rest would have
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: to be invented. Emi turned to Sam Peckham Pop. He
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: didn't see a truck movie. He saw a western rubber
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Duck became a modern outlaw hero sheriff Lyle Wallace became
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: the lawman in pursuit, and America's highways became Peck and
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: PA's frontier. But production was difficult. Peck and pause struggles
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: with alcohol and health issues continued throughout the film, and
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: creative conflicts followed the movie into post production. Despite those challenges,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Convoy was completed and released in the summer of nineteen
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: seventy eight, and ironically, it became the highest grossing film
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: of Peck and PA's career. The adaptation eventually came full circle.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: CW McCall recorded a revised version of Convoy that incorporated
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: characters and events from the movie. The song became a movie,
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: and then the movie became a song again. And here's
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: one final twist. While Bill Freese was becoming famous as CW. McCall,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Chip Davis was also developed he being another musical project
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: called Mannheim Steamroller. In fact, the first fresh air album
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: was released in nineteen seventy five, the same year Convoy
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: became a national phenomenon. Over the following decades, Mannheim Steamroller
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: would become one of the most successful Christmas music acts
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: in America. So that's the unlikely road to Convoy.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Matt A.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Bred commercial created a fictional truck driver. The truck driver
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: became a recording star. That recording star inspired a Sam
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Peckinpah movie, and the musician behind it all eventually became
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: one of the biggest names in neo classical Christmas music.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I am gobsmack about Mannheim Steamroller. Yeah.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: What sent me down this rabbit trail was the opening
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: credit had Chip Davis's name.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Can't be the same guy.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: But the thing is is, I have friends that studied
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: from Chip Davis, so that name was very familiar to me.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: And I went and I looked it up and sure enough,
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: this is who it was. So then that led me
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: all the way back to where I realized that c. W.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: McCall was not a real person. You know, I'll be
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: honest with you. Until we decided to record this podcast,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: I thought c. W. Book all was a real person.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Why would you not? Yeah, yeah, so funny, so funny.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Well, hey man, we are ready to dive into these
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: production details of Convoy, but first we need to take
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: a step away for a quick break.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: It's a cinematic slash back the shop, and it's a
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: cinematic slash back shop.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Twenty miles wrong and twenty people wives on the power
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: of ninety thousand boys. Since sorry, it's a beautiful sighting
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and I held him a arriety. It's a convoy. Well,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: a man up front is the rubber Duck.
• 10:48
  Speaker 6: He's the finest man ever, drove a truck with a
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: tank full of nerve.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And a heart full of luck, and he's got a convoy.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Now it starts when I'm there.
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: He's as bad as can be, sets his mind on
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: highway robbery with the ducks.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Is you better not miss with me? I got a convoy. Well,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: let's chase his.
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: Own, running night and day, laying tracks clear across the
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: USA five.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So if you want to join, you're becoming your way.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: It's a convoy.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: Chris christoffers Ally McGraw, Britt Young, mag Sinclair Franklin AJ
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: and Dennis board Nine in Convoy Rated Fiji.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Welcome back. Let's get into the production details. Convoy was
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: released in the United States on June twenty eighth, nineteen
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: seventy eight, and distributed by United Artists. The film runs
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: about an hour and fifty minutes and was produced by
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: EMI Film with a budget of twelve million dollars. The
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: movie would go on to earn approximately forty five million
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: at the box office, making it, as we said, the
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: highest grossing film of Sem peckham Pause career. It is
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: also worth noting that, as we talked about in The Getaway,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Pkimpa was a functional alcoholic. However, by nineteen seventy eight
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: the alcohol and drugs were impeding his work on this film.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: He brought in his longtime friend James Coburn as a
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: second unit director, earning Coburn his DGA credentials, and by
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: many accounts, there were times when Peck and Pah was
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: just not available and Coburn directed some of the first
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: unit as well. Coburn had starred in other Peck and
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Pop films such as Major Dundee, Pat Garrett and Billy
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: the Kidd, as well as Cross of Iron. After turning
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: in a rough cut that was reportedly more than three
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: hours and forty minutes, EMI executive Michael Deey lost confidence
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: that Peckham Pah and his longtime editor Garth Craven would
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: actually be able to deliver a commercially viable film in
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: time for its planned summer release, so Deey removed both
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: men from the editing process and promoted Graham Clifford oversee
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: the completion of the film. And just for perspective, Michael
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Deey was hardly a studio novice. He was one of
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: the key executives behind The Deer Hunter and would later
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: produce Blade Runner. The screenplay was written by Bill Norton.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Harry Stradling Junior served as cinematographer, while Joe Wright and
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Garth Craven handled editing duties. The music was composed by
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Chip Davis. Today, Convoy holds a fifty eight percent critic
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: score on Rotten Tomatoes and seventy one percent audience score.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: And I read from the Leonard Malton edition of his
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: review from nineteen ninety two, he gave it two stars.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: A Convoy is only as good as the drivers in it. So, Matt,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: let's take a look at this cast.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: All right. So we'll first start out with a great singer,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: very charismatic person with a wonderful history, Chris Christofferson.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Why they go get a duck because they rhymes with luck.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Now, my daddy always told me all to be just
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: like a duck, saynsday, smooth on the service, kind of
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: like the devil underneath.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Notice I did not put down acting as possibly his
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: maybe strongest suit. He was a very interesting guy and
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: he is the lead in this movie. He was an
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: amazing dude. I mean he was a captain and a
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: helicopter pilot in the army. Is a Rhodes scholar to Oxford.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: He actually wrote and performed songs. Sunday Morning Coming Down,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: sung by Johnny Cash, won the Country Music Association Year
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Award in nineteen seventy. He wrote, Me and Bobby McGhee,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: I mean that's classic. Yeah, helped me make it through
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: the night for the good Time. So those are ones
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I haven't heard as much, but me and Bobby McGee,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. Oh that's a great song. Yeah, it is,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: it is. And then he was in a number of movies.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: A Star Is Born, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: as we talked about. That was a Peckinpoff film Alice
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Doesn't Live Here Anymore. That was Scorsese film Heaven's Gate.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: That was a Michael Chimino. How do we say that,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: I never get it right, Michael Chabbino. Yeah, so yeah, So,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I mean Chris Christopherson's real powerhouse. I gotta say he's
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: probably he's probably a much better singer than actor. But
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: I'll be honest with you. I'm gonna say he did
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the most he could with this well writing shotgun. For
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: much of this movie is Ali McGraw as Melissa.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: What's going on here?
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: Oh Melissa, this is the duck.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: She needs a ride.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: What happened to XK?
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: I sold it?
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Bertie Patty to know each other.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: This is the guy I told you about, the one
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: that told the cop that I was new driving.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, I shouldn't have to get you.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: After his proposition, I send him to the motel of
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: his choice, where I think he's probably still waiting for me.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: And she enters the movie driving a really sweet nineteen
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: seventy four Jaguar x KE. But the last time we
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: talked about her was in The Getaway, which was nineteen
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: seventy two, also directed by Sam peckham Paw, and I
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: have to say that was the last movie she had
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: actually made. So this is there's a period of six
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: years between these two films. I hesitate to mention it, Matt,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: but she did star in that little film that pulled
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Paramount out of the dumpster called Love Story. We also
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: remember that she was married to the head of Paramount
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: at one point, Robert Evans, but their marriage hit hard
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: times when he was focused on The Guy Father and
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: she was working with Steve McQueen.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: I think you might want to word that around again
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: and say their marriage hit hard times when he was
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: working on the Godfather and she was focused on Steve McQueen.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I think you just said it, everybody. Oh man. That
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: also brings us to actually my favorite actor in this film,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: who is Bert Young. And when I saw him come
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: up on the credits, I'm like, no, it's Pollie. Yes,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: it's Pollie.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: That's a big tempocal buddy.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: That's Spider Mike, get your back door.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: My head is love Machines. Can I want a Kobe
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Little Machine, Father fox Out, you call it TV. I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: got a big ball sitting right behind it.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I'll hit this a walm waa wana bit all the
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Preacher comfort trient.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Hey, love Machine, you ain't a holler on go go girls,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: are you?
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Dude, that's just what he's hollid.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: And the close up to did you notice his hit
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: the Trucking Company? I did the side of Unsure.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: You mentioned it in the notes here, and I looked
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: back at it in this laugh. That is so funny
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: because who we're talking about is the is the ultimate
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: character actor Bert Young, who played Polly in the Rocky
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: movies all of them, and everybody sort of loves to
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: hate him. He was kind of the thing. But in
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: this movie he's actually kind of a hero. He's kind
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: of a good guy. I have to say. He plays
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: this character. I think his name is the love Machine,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: but since he was hauling hogs, they renamed him pig Pack. Yeah.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: He said he earned that nickname. Yeah. Well, they asked
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: him if he earned it with the Go Go girls.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Thought he was hauling a bunch of girls.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: That's right, that's what they call That's what they call hogs,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: and they're doing it. So I will say that he
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: delivered a pretty good performance in here. He was funny.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: He was really cringey when he was to talk to
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: the girls, which was perfect. So, I mean, it was fun.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: It was definitely fun to have him in this film.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: In my opinion, a real shocker because I did not
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: even remember him in this film and I did see
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Convoy back in the day.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, can I make an observation. I don't want to
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: let the cat out of the bag too soon. But
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: I'm going to say that I think I enjoyed the
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: supporting cast more than the main camp. Right, is that fair?
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: I think that's absolutely fair. And I think I know
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: you want to talk about our next actress. I'm very
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: impressed with this next actress, and her name is Madge Sinclair.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: But I'll let you take the information on her.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: I have to admit when I watched her the first time,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: I walked away just loving her match Sinclaire who played
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: widow Woman in this movie. So I go and I
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: start looking at her IMDb, of course, because you're just
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: trying to see what else has she's been in. I
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: knew that I recognized her vaguely because she is the
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: captain of the USS Saratoga from star Trek for the Voyage.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: Home Starfleet Command. This is USS Saratoga patrolling Sector five
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: Neutral Zone. We're tracking a probe of unknown origin on
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: a parent trajectory to the Terran Solar System. Attempts to
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: communicate with the probe have been negative on all known frequencies.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Continue tracking Saratoga. We will analyze transmissions and.
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: Advice Roger Starfleet Saratoga out.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: That would have made her the first female Starfleet captain
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: be seen in the history of Star Trek. She also
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: appeared in the TNG seventh season episode Interface as Captain
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Sylvia LaForge, who was the mother of the USS Enterprise's
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: engineer Jordie LaForge. She's probably though, best known as the
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: mother of Prince Aquim in Coming to America and if
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: you have a good ear, you'll recognize her as the
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: voice of Queen Sarabi in The Lion King. I recognize
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: her for both those things. Coming to America's name one
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: of my dirty I don't know, secret pleasures.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I love that movie. It's so healty pleasure, guilty pleasure. Yeah,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: it's so funny, and she's great in it. She's so
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: great in that movie. Really has that queenly regal carriage
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: when she performs in that movie Coming to America. And
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: then as you mentioned it about the voice, I'm like, yep,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: that's exactly who you know with the queen was in
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: The Lion King. It's so awesome.
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: In spite of my calling it duck, say duck, I
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: just got a skip from my home twenty My old
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: lady's about to pop you talking to a damn near daddy,
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: can you dig it?
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Hey, that's great news, Mike.
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna have to split though, so uh, you'all take care.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: But what do you know about Franklin a Gi. He
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: was a comedian and he starred in a number of
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: movies and I think when you see the film you
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: will recognize his face. He is a good dramatic actor.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: In this case, I mean, he's kind of funny. He
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: was in car Wash, Dirt Crazy, Hollywood Shuffle, and The Burbs.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: He appeared in lots of TV shows like Barney Miller,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: The Bionic Woman, Chico and the Man. And he was
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Simuel Fields in Deadwood. And I don't know if any
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: of our fans have watched Deadwood, but that is an
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: amazing show, really good.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: I went and watched some of his comedy on YouTube,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: and he appeared a lot on the old late night
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: show called After Midnight.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, yeah. I think a lot of comedians are
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: actually pretty decent actors, and sometimes they're terrible, but most
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: of the time they're actually quite good. And I think
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: it has something to do with their ability to be
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: in touch with that which makes people laugh. They know
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: how to emote, I think maybe, and once and sometimes
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: they're also very deeply thinking people, which I think sometimes
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: makes a great actor.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: I think his character Spider Mike is kind of the
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: catalyst for a lot of the story, especially with his
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: interaction with Ernest Borgnine's character, who played Sheriff Lyle cotton
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Mouth Wallace also known as Dirty Lyle.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Break on one, NYE, Break them one nine.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: This is the bear in the air, Officer Lyle Wallace,
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: call him the rubber jerk, and.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: That radmand piece of black crap at your side, Doc,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: come home.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: We've talked about Ernest borgnine before from the Poseidon Adventure,
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: and he's just man, this guy, what an incredible career.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: It would probably take at least five to ten minutes
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: to read everything that he's been in, But just to
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: highlight some of his work, he was in McHale's Navy,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: The Dirty Dozen, the Black Hole, Escape from New York
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: again has shown up, a Deadly Blessing, and of course
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: the Love Boat.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I really I watched a lot of McHale's Navy,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: and it always is funny to see Ernest borgnine come
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: up as maybe not such a favorable person. Yeah, but
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, you know, I think it must have
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: been Peckinpah or somebody that gave the character the nickname
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Cotton Mountain. Huh, I mean, honest to goodness, that guy's
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: teeth are a mess.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I went and I was like looking
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: at other pictures and it's like he has that back gap,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: I mean was there.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: But because Peck and Paw focused on so much more than.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: You're going, I've never realized had a wicked sense of humor.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: If you ask me, Oh boy.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: We've talked about the people behind the wheel. Now, why
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: don't you tell our listeners where the Convoy is headed
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: and what convoy is actually about?
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Sure, this is usually when I read the back of
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: the box, but since we don't have a back of
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the box, we kind of put together a back in
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: the box. So you'll excuse my announcer voice. So here
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: we go. When the longtime backbone of American cinema, the Western,
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: began to fade in the nineteen seventies, another roadbound hero
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: stepped in to take its place. The Long Haul Trucker.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Directed by the legendary Sam Peckinpah and inspired by the
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: chart topping hit song Convoy, this action packed adventure follows
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Martin rubber Duck Penwald. After a clash with the grifting
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: dirty Sheriff Lyle Cottonmouth Wallace and its deputies, rubber Duck
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: must flee to the New Mexico border along with a
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: ragtag bunch of fellow truckers. They broadcast their progress against
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: the evil lawmen over the Cbee Radio, eventually forming a
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: massive convoy that stretches for miles across the Arizona Highways.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Fueled by diesel frustration and a shared distrust of authority,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: the convoy rolls towards the freedom of the border. The
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: film features Chris Christofferson in a dramatic role in a
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: strong supporting cast that includes Allie McGraw, Mad Sinclair and
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Bert Yng. We've got a lot to say about this one.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Stick around.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back with our thoughts on convoymatic flashback
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: up here.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: The air smells like old cardboard vinyl records and that
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: slight combination of aquinette and fresh mimeograph. Paper. Boxes are
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: staffed to the rafters with the stuff that raised us
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: VHS tapes that were never rewound game cartridges you had
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: to blow into mixtapes recorded straight off the radio, and
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: the action figures that never survived mint condition. Each time
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: I visit this attic, I'll pull out one specific artifact
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: from days gone but not forgotten, blow off the dust,
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: flip it over and remember what it felt like to
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: hold it, watch it, play it, or just obsess over it.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: So grab your Walkman, game boy or whatever ancient tech
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: you're still clinging to, settle in and let's see what
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: forgotten gym we unearthed each time we visit gen Xer's Attic,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: because some things are worth saving from the garage sale
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: of history. Coming soon. New podcast, gen x ER's Addict.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: Listen to and download wherever you get your podcasts.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Flash back the show begin You got rule for one shift, ExHAM,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: the sure Man, you got the Fat Red and the
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: White Rat.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Here and welcome aboard you dump it weep helping.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: Just remember week Figs, six Pools and foul.
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: Owners all the way back.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Well, Holley boy, welcome to the Convoy's Welcome back, all right, everybody.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: From here on out, we're going to talk about our
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: thoughts on Convoy and might inadvertently give some spoilers if
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: you'd like to watch. Convoy is available to rent at
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: all the usual locations and as of the recording we're
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: making right now, you can catch it free on to
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: be Okay, Matt, let's get into it. I think I
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: already heard you say that this was not the first
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: time you watched Convoy. What do you remember about it before?
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Funny enough, I remember very little about it. Yeah, the question,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: you know, pop so mine, what do you think of?
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: What are you going to see in Convoy? And obviously
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: you're going to see a trucker movie. I got what
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I expected. I personally thought there could have been more
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: character development. Yeah, unlike White Line Fever right that we
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: reviewed before, there was a real emotional pull about the
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: situation the trucker was in, and we understood it. He
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: had a giant mortgage, he's trying to make his payments.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: He's trying to make money, and these people are standing
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: in his way and that's not right. So we're really
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: we're invested in this particular movie. You just sort of
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: run into Chris Christofferson playing the Rubber Duck and he's
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: just a trucker with what is it a it's a
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: mack truck. He's on it's a mac with a can
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: or something like that. Yeah, that's basically all you get
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: in background. You have no idea until later in the
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: movie that he you know, he actually has some kids
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: somewhere that he sees occasionally. I mean, I don't know.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: He's not a very variable character in my opinion.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: They don't make him out to be like a he run.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: He certainly is well regarded amongst his friends, that's very
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: clear at the beginning. Absolutely, he has a great reputation. Yeah,
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: they're all excited to hear that the rubber Duck is out,
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: and they're in proximity because they're on their CBE radios.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: The banter between them is very, very friendly, very like
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: longtime friends. And I believe that was pretty much the
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: norm for a lot of long all truckers. They crossed
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: paths with each other quite often. So did you think
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: at all any about the original song when you're watching
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: this movie? And what I mean is that this is
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: a movie that isn't based on literature, it's not based
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: on a screenplay. It's based on a what a three
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: minute song that was very popular in seventy five.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: I have a feeling that the song the song because
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: because here's the thing, and we discussed this before in
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: the podcast, is that the song inspired the movie and
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: the movie inspired a song revision. I believe that I
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: listened to the song revision because when I watched the movie,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, there's the bear in the air, there's
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: the cab Overpete with the refer on, and a Jimmy
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Holland hoggs. I mean, it's all from the song, right,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if all those things were in
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: the original song or not.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Well, the original song has them going from one destination
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: to another, and then the revised song definitely follows the
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: same path that these Tuckers took. They mentioned in characters
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: like Dirty Lyle, you couldn't be alive back then and
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: not have heard that song. In the seventies, so remember
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Spotify is new. Really, where we heard songs, if you
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: didn't go and buy them was on the radio, yep,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: that's where you heard songs, and they played this one relentlessly.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: But the confusion for me comes from I don't know
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: when I first heard it. I probably heard the first version.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Then the movie came out, and I probably heard the
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: second version and never never sort of figured out that
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: they were not the same. Do you know what the
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: biggest surprise this movie had for me because I've seen
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: this film before a long time ago. I had no
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: idea this film was directed by Sam peckham Pop until
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: we started this podcast. Yeah, that was really a surprise
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: to me. I was talking with my buddy Jay, he
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: also was I had no idea that Peckhampa directed this film.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: It has some of the characteristics of a Peck and
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Pah movie, so you have a lot of the slow motion.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: The character of Chris Christofferson is very much a Peckhampas
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: style character Ernest Borgnine's characters. It's kind of a cross
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: between a you know, like Alatii's character and Buford t
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: Justice far better name. And also, you know, this film
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: has a lot of the kind of things that Peckhampa
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: is always talking about. The original song is talking about
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: the truckers rebelling against things like the fifty five mile
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: an hour speed limit, rebelling against the log books that
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: they had to keep because they could only drive for
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: so long and then they were supposed to rest, but
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: the companies that were driving them was having them lie
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: on those books when they would get to a way station.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Not only would they their trucks be weighed, but those
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: books would be validated. And you noticed that even in
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: this movie when when rubber Duck gets pulled over at
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: the beginning, the first thing they asked for as far
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: as log books. Yeah, so this movie has a lot
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: of material that is very peck and pot issue.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: I think when you recall sort of the issues that
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Pechempa was having during this film, you can kind of
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: see through what happened. It's like he started it out.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: He's possibly making it because he's in a situation where
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: he needs to make a movie. He wants to put
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: a stamp on it, and maybe early on he's kind
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: of able to do what he wants. Things go on,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: there's production problems, no doubt, his drinking increased, his issues
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: with substances increased, and things got out of hand. And
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: to me, it's sort of the you can obviously see
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: it because there's some parts, like you said, or so pecambis,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: you know, the crash through the into the air and
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: slow motion and all of that, which is an awesome stunt.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: The big jail escape at the end with the truck's
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: kind of running through everything in going into slow motion, right,
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: that's that's all signature.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, signature peck and paw stuff. So to me, it's
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: sort of one of the ones where it's like it's
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: a little probably very bittersweet for him that this movie,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: which he basically was removed from, is the one that
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: made the most money in his career, which is, you know,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: like I said, a bittersweet kind of situation. I can't help.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: And I know that the two movies came out so
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: close to each other, I don't know how much one
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: influenced the other. When I look at Convoy, I have
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: to think about Smoking in the Bandit Smoking in the
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: Bandit works so well because Burt Reynolds just drips with
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: charisma through the whole film, or as the kids say,
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: the Riz. He's dripping with riz, Thank you so much.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: And to a degree, I think Chris Christofferson doesn't have
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: the same level of charisma. Would be another Burt Reynolds.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: He could have.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I think he could have too.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: He could have. Again, I go back to the material.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I just don't think the writing was there to make
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: him up a character that we won about him too noticed.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: He's kind of just there. Even when they're getting interviewed
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: by the by the political motivator Melissa's talking to him like, hey,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: you could do a lot of good things here, and
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: he's just sort of like the go talk to the
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: other people.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: The second kind of beating their eyeballs out coast and coast,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and half of the damn Smokey's whipped.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: The south front reads damps.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: So you believe in what the rubber Duck's doing is.
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: That it I'm tired of seeing the way black people
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: have to live. Went to Vietnam and got shot for
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: the right to live in a ghetto.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: I hear from the fat that I hear from them.
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: All money I make, I.
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: Can't afford your big oil companies and raising prices oil
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: and gas.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Which gets back to consumer.
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: We got to raise all our prices things at all half.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: And that's what you hear about the Vietnam War. You
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: hear about Nixon. You're about the Nixon and Watergate. You
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: hear about the gas prices. You hear about the double
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: nickel fifty five miles an hour. Yeah, you know all
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: of that, and these guys are trying to make a
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: living on the road and the country, I mean, you know,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: to give truckers they're due our entire country's economy runs
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: on over the road truck transport. Now, yeah, we made
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: that sort of switch. In the United States, we really
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: depend on overland trucking and that's just where we are,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: and that the profit is the cost to move it
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: across the land. That the fuel price is fixed, the
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: equipment costs is fixed at the insurance cost is fixed,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: tolls are fixed. What is not fixed what you pay
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: the trucker. So that's why it squeezed. And that's what
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: to me, this whole movie should have been about, which
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: was it was not. We never get to the point
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: where if anybody complains about sheriff lyle grifting the truckers
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: by taking bribes. I mean we never even that never
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: even comes up in the press. No one ever says, well,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: and this guy is bad, he's in another state, he's
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: shooting a machine gun at us, and yet he's the
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: guy who caused this whole thing to happen, and nobody
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: is saying a word about it. It's just that to me,
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: was just like, come on, somebody's got to at least
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: it has come up, and some never does.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: Just remember too, that everything you described about the economy
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: of truck driving in the mid seventies. All of that
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: was responding to the oil crisis, which in this case
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: made everything way more expensive, which put the squeeze even
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: more on the truckers and was rising inflation for everyone.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: So I think when people went to see this movie,
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: you know, and the reason why long haul truckers kind
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: of kind of started filling in that role of the
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: western cowboy, you know, that was what people were coming
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: in to see. And that one scene where they're doing
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: the whole newscast and they go down to the different
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: trucks and and really the reason why the other guys
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: are there is that they're protesting, and these are the
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: things that they're protesting, except for the one guy who
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: just likes likes to be there, which was great. Just
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: as a quick aside, I sent you a picture last
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: night of Sam peckmpau's little cameo on that truck. He's
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: the guy with the headphones, wearing the blue bandana, operating
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: the sound. That's funny. What did you think of Ernest borgnine?
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: You know, I think he did.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: It good job of playing the guy who definitely is
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: shaking down these truckers, but actually is not one hundred
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: percent maybe dedicated to their demise. I think he kind
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: of sees the symbiotic relationship of the truckers keep rolling,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: he can keep grifting them, so he's not one hundred
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: percent want to get rid of them. Because we see
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: in the last scenes Ernest Borgnine's attitude maybe towards Rubberick
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: a little bit changes when the last scenes go through,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: And if you watch the movie you'll see what I'm
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: talking about. But I think Ernest Borgdine as the actor,
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: did a wonderful job with what he was given. But
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: he did a good job. I will say the writing
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: was ridiculous. He's a small town sheriff from some western
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: state and now he's in Texas behind an M sixty
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: machine gun or something. It was ridiculous.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he doesn't have any authority at all in another state.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: He's a sheriff. He doesn't have authority in the next counting.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: You remember when we were talking about Charlie Verrick.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: One of the things that I really complimented that film
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: on was I like that they did not make Charlie
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: Verrick cool by making the law look dumb. Yes, right, yeah,
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: And in this one, the different lawmen are painted with
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: very broad rushes. Yeah, if you had a chance to
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: go out to dinner with cotton Mouth or with you
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: for tea Justice, who would you rather go with?
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: View for d justice? If you'd never stop laughing.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: Another one that jumps out to me Ali McGraw's Melissa
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: and Sally Field's character. To make those characters work, the
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: chemistry and the romance between the two characters, like you know,
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: Sally Field and Burt Reynolds and then Ali McGraw and
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Chris Christofferson, it has to work. I felt that Ali
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: McGraw and Chris Christofferson had zero chemistry.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Agree, And I'll be honest with you, I am
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: not a big Sally Field fan. The Ali McGraw character
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Melissa is like she's mostly filled with disdain most of
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: the time, but you compare her character with her last
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: role in The Getaway, The chemistry and the strain between
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: her and Stead McQueen was what drove that film. If
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Ali McGraw was not in this film, I'm not really
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: sure if anything would have changed. It wouldn't it changed.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: I will say I love the movie poster from this film.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: I can't say that I like the music in this
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: film that Chip Davis wrote it didn't know what kind
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: of musical score that it wanted to be.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm. There's a lot of stunts in this movie. Well,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: it was your favorite. Two things I have on the stunts,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: One is the one where the car goes through the barn,
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: You through the sign, through the barn, and then keeps going. Yeah,
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Peck and Pa told the guy, do not do not
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: fall short because I won't. I don't have any kind
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: of shot if you fall short, it's supposed to land
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: in the barn, right, I suppose to land in the barn. Well,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: he goes way past the barn, which makes it even better.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: But I'm shocked that. Yeah, he got up and walked
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: away from it, So that's amazing. And then the other
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: thing where they filmed in what I can only assume
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: was a giant field of baking flower.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: You're talking about where they're taking that little back road
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: path or whatever. Right, they had the trucks in the
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: cars going through this flower. I am positive. The problems
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: with their production was the trucks must have gotten stuck
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: a thousand times. I mean, obviously it's some kind of
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: alkali desert sand or something.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was crazy. If you look through the wheels.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: This powder is just flying everywhere. I would hate to
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: have been an actor filming that. Do you remember the
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: fight scene at the truck stop. Yeah, it took them
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: ten days to film that ten that's great. It took
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: them ten days to film that, and it's on the
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: screen for just a small bit.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Of a It went on too long already on the screen.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: You're not wrong, But there's lots of practical stunt working.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: One thing that I thought was a stunt, but it
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: actually turned out to be an accident that they just
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: left in the film and they worked it in what
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: it was when Black Widow she rolled the truck, She
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: rolled the truck, and it turned out though that actually happened.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Oh god, that's great.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Hey, they got the camera in the air, they got
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: all the coverage. They're like, let's keep it, make it
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: part of the movie.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Well, it was good in the movie because it was
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: actually very realistic that carry on Casey came around the
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: corner too fast and rolled it. I mean, that's very common.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: The funniest thing she said.
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: Was junk, I knew I should have bought myself a
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: flat trunk.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: That's funny, she said, Is it about that time.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Yet, I think that it's time to ask the question, Matt,
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: does convoy crash the gate doing ninety eight or does
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: it get left behind.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: At the way station. Well, ninety five was the rute
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: I was on. It was not the speed limit sign.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Listeners who are adept at listening to my intonations might
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: understand that I find this movie maybe not the greatest
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: film ever made, or even at a position where they
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: could see it. I don't think it holds its luster
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: over the years. I think it is a cool movie
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: to see if you want to sort of revisit some
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: seventies andsalgia and some trucker culture. But I think maybe
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: this is one that you might do on a rainy
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Saturday afternoon when you had absolutely nothing to do and
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: you were recovering from surgery, because there's probably a thousand
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: things brutal you could do that would be more entertaining
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: than this movie. I mean, it's cool to see Chris
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: Christofferson as a young man. It's cool to see Ernest
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: borgnine in a role because he's a great actor. I
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: think this movie cured me of the crush I had
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: on Ali McGrath because of this film. Not for you man,
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: so yeah, I think maybe I'm going to give it
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: a bit of a thumbs down this week. I will
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: say that it's always fun to review these films because
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: it puts us in that mindset back in the seventies
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: kind of what was happening, reminds us of the gas crisis,
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: the lines, the rationing long haul trucker being you know,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: kind of a it really was a lot. It was
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: talked about. It was definitely in the zeitgeist of the time.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Is kind of long haul trucking. I remember because we
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: had a good friend of the family who was an avid,
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: kind of fan of truckers, and he knew everything about
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: all the different trucks, and that's where I learned about,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: you know, what a cab overpeat means, and what a
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: mac truck is, and the idea that these diesel engines
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: have certain capabilities, so they have to have really sophisticated
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: transmissions to transmit that power to moving those loads. So
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: it's good for that in terms of a movie that
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: you can follow characters that you hered of get into.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: I think this falls a little flat, and that's all
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say about it. It's yeah, I don't
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: want to poo poo it too much. I think Sam
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: Packinpau is a very gifted director, and I think he
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: did a lot for this film, but I think it's
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: clear that his issues at the time overrode some of
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: his creative genius. Possibly that's that's my rap. So what
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: did you think, Chuck?
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: Well, Matt, this is going to be possibly the first
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: time you and I both agreed on not liking a
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: movie at the same time.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Ah read letter Day.
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: Well, so, my biggest issue with this film is it
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: just feels too much like it's chasing the success of
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: Smoky and the Bandit, and it's missing the things that
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: made Smoking and the Bandit really good. It's missing the
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: fun and this movie can't decide what it wants to be.
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: And I have to believe that that happened after Peckham
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: Pah was released from the editing process. You already know
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: Chris Christofferson has to carry this film. I didn't think
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: their relationship between the two characters, Melissa and Robert Duck
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: was really good. I felt that Ernest borgnine was the
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: Kmart Sheriff buffort T Justice version. I just he was
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: so broad that it became cartoonish in a way. That
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: wasn't funny. It was more like a wiley coyote, you
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: know character, whereas I thought Beaufort Justice was just flat
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: out funny the entire time. What I loved about the
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: film was that the supporting cast in this film is
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: what carries it for me. Whether it's Franklin at Jai
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: match Sinclair or Bert Young, all of them were great.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: I thought all of the other truckers who fall in line,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: they all had small roles to different degrees, but they
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: were all interesting and I really would have loved to
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: have seen more of that. I was hoping that I
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: would be more engaged with the film, but I wasn't.
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: I thought the first half of the film really dragged.
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: It didn't really pick up for me until after they
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: go down that dirt back road, and then the show
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: began to got to get a little bit more fun,
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: and I think that's where the Peck and Pah influences
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: came in. And you see that again in the scene
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: where the news car kind of comes up beside them.
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: I have to give so much credit to the stunt
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: work at Billboard Crash alone. If I was to recommend
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: anybody to watch this film, I'd say either watch the
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: film for that billboard crash, or just go and look
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: up on YouTube where the stuntman talks about doing that done. Yeah,
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: in the end, I can see why audience embraced envoy.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: I think it's a product of the time, and I
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: think having someone like Sam Peckinpah as the director makes
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: it even more of a curiosity. So if I'm gonna
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: be honest and true, I'm gonna have to pull over
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: at the way station on this one.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I think you're I think you're right on the supporting cast.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: They really do carry the film, and you're right about
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: even the supporting truckers were funny. They I think they
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: picked a lot of really unusual guys, guys whos aren't
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: to care for the ride, and then the Jesus freaks,
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: which they had to put in because it was in
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: the song, you know. But they were funny and they
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: were they were, they were. It was pretty funny. So
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: you know, if they had written something to make you
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: care about the rubber duck and tied in Ali McGrath's
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: character with that conflict or whatever, right I mean in
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: in White Line Fever, it was his wife. They were married,
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: they're newly married, she's pregnant. I mean, there is a
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: big tie in of care. To me, it was like
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: that's what was lacking as there was I had no
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: I did not care what happened to the rubber Duck.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: I did not care.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but you cared what happened to Jan Michael Vincent
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: in White Lafe Fever.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, although you know, at the end it was a
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: little heavilier about how his wife suffered in the other
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: star got killed, but nobody did until Jan Michael Vincent
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: got dusted up a little bit, you know. So yeah,
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: it was a little ridiculous, but I did care about
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: him and his family. Yeah.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: Jonathan Kaplan set out with White Line Fever to make
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: a Sam Peckhampas style Western but with truckers, and he
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: did a good job. And peckham Pah tried to do
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: the same thing with Convoy, and I think whether it
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: was because of studio intervention, whether it was because of
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: issues with substance abuse, I think Jonathan Kaplan has a
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: more entertaining film that I sat down and thought, Wow,
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: I have never seen this film, and I was engaged
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: with it the entire time. Convoy. I found myself checking
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: out and looking at my watch, and you know that's
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: that's it, all right, Matt. That wraps up our keep
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: on Trucking month. So join us in two weeks as
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: we begin our Jaws Floydation month with two films that
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: swam in the wake of one of the biggest box
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: office hits.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Of all time.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: First up is Orca from nineteen seventy seven, starring Richard
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: Harris and Charlotte Rampling, a film that asks what might
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: happen if the hunter became the hunted.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Then we'll follow.
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: It up with Kiranha from nineteen seventy eight, directed by
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: a young Joe Dante, proving that if Jaws made people
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: afraid of going into the water, Hollywood was determined to
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: make them afraid of every single body of water. We'll
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: talk about the explosion of killer animal movies that followed Jaws,
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: the surprisingly talented filmmakers who worked in that genre, and
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: whether these films are merely cash ins are better than
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: their reputation might suggest. So grab bigger boat and maybe
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: just stay out of the water all together.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited to do these two films coming up
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: because I have not seen either one of them. You're
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: gonna like them. Yeah, maybe I'm excited. It should be good.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: I have not seen either one, so I think it's
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: that time. We want to thank you for taking the
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: time to tune in. If you've seen Convoy, reach out
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: and let us know your thoughts. You can find us
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: at Facebook or leave us a message over at cinematicclashback
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: dot com. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: an episode. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please leave
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: us a rating and review. We really appreciate it, and
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: review just might get red on the air. And if
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: you've been enjoying the show, tell your friends and family
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: about what we still proudly believe is the best podcast
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: dedicated to nineteen seventies cinema. Join us next time as
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: we hop back into the wayback machine and head once
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: again to the nineteen seventy for another classic or possibly
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: not so classic, but always entertaining. Until then, keep the
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: hammer down, keep your ears on, and watch out for
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: Smokey and we'll see you on the flip side.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: Do the test. My name is Bob Brookman, sir, and
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: I hate truckers.