Mad magazine did its version, Schmoe, and that was my first experience with John Avildsen's Joe, a movie about the honesty of the lower middle class in relation to the UMC. Most of the reviews on IMDb were about the cultural clash between Peter Boyle's Joe Curran and Dennis Patrick's Bill Compton, two men with very little in common.
Boyle's character seethes with a rage against the welfare state. Patrick's Compton character is a Mad Man who blurts out that he's killed a drug dealer when he visits Joe's blue-collar watering hole after losing his temper with his daughter's dealer boyfriend.
Therein lies the tension, the foul-mouthed factory drone and the upper-crust ad agency type who has drinks with only the right kind of people. These two men have an uneasy relationship, with Boyle trying to understand the UMC but thinking there's no cultural difference between him and Compton.
In a hilarious moment, Joe learns a new word--culture--and has no idea what to do with it.
Dennis Patrick is the more comfortable pair of slippers here. He played so many baddies in his career that, when he shows up, you're put at ease. I've seen this guy! Didn't he play a con-man who tried to fleece Archie Bunker out of a wad of money for "energy-efficient" windows?
Patrick sends his daughter's drug dealer boyfriend to another, hopefully better place, and, only because after blurting out what he's done to a stranger in a bar (Boyle) does the relationship blossom.
After one cringe-saturated moment after another, it becomes obvious that Patrick's daughter has washed her hands of her family. She overhears things that make her run from her parents in a blind panic.
Curran and Compton decide to go on a rescue mission to find the girl, and they're armed to the teeth. When they find the coven of hippies they've been looking for, the movie takes a ghastly turn, one I didn't completely anticipate.
Joe is a dark bit of 1970 relevancy, and it has enough surprises to make it worth watching. Peter Boyle's character is not completely repulsive, nor is Patrick's Compton. It's not a terribly fun movie, and your being entertained is unlikely. What makes Joe work is that the characters are not cartoonish stereotypes.
They can be found in reruns of All in the Family.
Boyle's character seethes with a rage against the welfare state. Patrick's Compton character is a Mad Man who blurts out that he's killed a drug dealer when he visits Joe's blue-collar watering hole after losing his temper with his daughter's dealer boyfriend.
Therein lies the tension, the foul-mouthed factory drone and the upper-crust ad agency type who has drinks with only the right kind of people. These two men have an uneasy relationship, with Boyle trying to understand the UMC but thinking there's no cultural difference between him and Compton.
In a hilarious moment, Joe learns a new word--culture--and has no idea what to do with it.
Dennis Patrick is the more comfortable pair of slippers here. He played so many baddies in his career that, when he shows up, you're put at ease. I've seen this guy! Didn't he play a con-man who tried to fleece Archie Bunker out of a wad of money for "energy-efficient" windows?
Patrick sends his daughter's drug dealer boyfriend to another, hopefully better place, and, only because after blurting out what he's done to a stranger in a bar (Boyle) does the relationship blossom.
After one cringe-saturated moment after another, it becomes obvious that Patrick's daughter has washed her hands of her family. She overhears things that make her run from her parents in a blind panic.
Curran and Compton decide to go on a rescue mission to find the girl, and they're armed to the teeth. When they find the coven of hippies they've been looking for, the movie takes a ghastly turn, one I didn't completely anticipate.
Joe is a dark bit of 1970 relevancy, and it has enough surprises to make it worth watching. Peter Boyle's character is not completely repulsive, nor is Patrick's Compton. It's not a terribly fun movie, and your being entertained is unlikely. What makes Joe work is that the characters are not cartoonish stereotypes.
They can be found in reruns of All in the Family.