“CROSSROADS” DVD
By
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

Starring Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca, Jami Gertz & Steve Vai
Directed by Walter Hill

1:85:1 Widescreen / 99 minutes / English Dolby Surround / English & Japanese subtitles / scene selections / "The Karate Kid" trailer
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

"Crossroads" is a film for music lovers only – preferably Blues fanatics. Starring Ralph Macchio, it came out in between the first two "Karate Kid" movies in 1986, which made Macchio the luckiest actor in Hollywood: He got to learn martial arts AND the guitar! Macchio's "Karate Kid" movies and "Crossroads" are thematically similar - the boy who is mentored by the wise old man while perfecting his craft (Karate/Blues), finding love along the way, heading straight towards the climactic showdown and becoming a man at the other end (Leonard Maltin once referred to "Crossroads" as "The Guitar-rie Kid"). I hadn't seen this film in over ten years (I might even have it on VHS somewhere), and the main reason to watch it after so long is because my good friend, Guitar God Steve Vai, is in it.

"Crossroads" follows the lore of Blues singer Robert Johnson, who went to the crossroads and sold his soul to the Devil for fame and fortune. His good friend Willie Brown a.k.a. Blind Dog Fulton, also sells his soul at the crossroads but winds up a poor old man in a mental hospital. Eugene Martone (Macchio), a classical guitar prodigy (he's really a "bluesman at heart" from Long Island!), finds Willie Brown (played by Seneca) and wants to learn Robert Johnson's "lost song." This crotchety old man cons Eugene into breaking him out of the hospital, where they 'hobo' down Highway 61 to find the lost song (it doesn't exist!). On their journey they run into crooked cops, a sleazy motel owner, gun-toting hillbillies, a teenage runaway (Gertz), and the Devil himself, who challenges Eugene to a "Cuttin' Heads" duel on guitar with Jack Butler (Vai) to save Willie Brown's soul (if Eugene loses, him and the old man go to hell!).

The "Cuttin' Heads" duel - a mixture of Heavy Metal, Blues and Classical music, is reason enough to get the DVD - the guitar work between Steve Vai and Ry Cooder (who's actually playing Macchio's parts) is amazing!

Attention: Not to be mistaken by the Britney Spears film of the same name.

Victoria Alexander answers your emails. She can be reached by visiting FilmsInReview.com or, directly, at masauu@aol.com.