Ralph Macchio is Lightning Boy. A kid who can make a slide guitar sing. Blind Dog is an old pro who knows it. Together, they’re headed to a place where deals are made. And legends are born.
I don’t ever remember “Crossroads” opening in cinemas in Dublin back in 1986, but I do remember renting out the VHS tape multiple times all so I could watch the Guitar Face/Off during the film’s finale. While I cannot play a musical instrument, I have always been inspired by music, it has always opened my mind and helped create stories and narratives that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. In the case of “Crossroads,” if you don’t know what I’m talking about or haven’t seen the movie, go to YouTube and look up CROSSROADS GUITAR DUEL and you can watch the scene. It gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it and having watched it for the first time in years with this review copy, it did the exact same thing to me again.
In many action films, there is always a big battle at the end between the good guy(s) and the bad guy(s). See “Avengers: Endgame,” “Aliens,” “The Matrix,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” any of the Rocky, James Bond, or John Wick movies, the list goes on but in “Crossroads,” instead of a hail of bullets or pounding fists, it comes down to dueling guitars between good and evil, battling for an old man’s soul. That scenario might sound far-fetched in a drama such as this but director Walter Hill, known for violent action films like “The Driver,” “The Warriors,” “Southern Comfort,” “48 Hours, and “Streets of Fire,” scales back on the physical testosterone and imbues it instead into the strings of a Fender Telecaster and a Charvel San Dimas.
Ralph Macchio plays Eugene Martone, a 17-year-old who has an obsession with blues music. He studies classical guitar at Juilliard in New York City but when he comes across some articles pertaining to blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter Robert Johnson, he becomes intrigued with the idea that Johnson was so good because he sold his soul to the devil when he was a young man. He also discovers that there is a renowned “missing song” that was supposedly lost over the years and also learns that Johnson’s longtime friend, musician Willie Brown (Joe Seneca), is alive and imprisoned in a nearby minimum security hospital.
He visits the old man who initially denies that he is Willie but over time, the two men form a connection and he eventually admits his identity after hearing Eugene play some blues. When Eugene mentions the missing song to Willie, he claims to know where it is but that he won’t help him find it unless he breaks him out of the facility so they can go to Mississippi, where Willie has unfinished business. He agrees and they head south and along the way, Willie teaches Eugene how to better play the blues. When they finally arrive at an old crossroads in the middle of nowhere, Willie comes face to face with the Devil, or Scratch, as he is now known, and demands that he tear up the contract he signed many years ago, stating that he never got the life he asked for. Scratch states it is too late but then Eugene interjects and asks how he might be able to win his soul back.
Scratch invites the two men to a special concert and tells Eugene if he participates in a guitar battle against his ringer guitarist named Jack Butler (Steve Vai) and wins, then Willie gets his soul back but if he loses, he gets to keep both of their souls. Eugene agrees, much to Willie’s protests, and not one to believe in the Devil, he accepts. They are transported to a music hall where they get to hear Jack Butler on stage and realizing he may have overstepped his boundaries, Eugene holds steadfast, knowing his friend’s soul is on the line and climbs up on the stage where he and Butler engage in an epic guitar battle for the ages.
The score for “Crossroads” was written and composed by Ry Cooder, Arlen Roth, and Steve Vai on the soundtrack’s guitar, with harmonica by Sonny Terry. Ralph Macchio, having never played guitar before, desperately wanted to learn how to play for real for the film and studied with classical guitarist William Kanengiser and Blues and slide guitar Master Arlen Roth. Both men helped Macchio appear like he was playing realistically enough to hide his inexperience but while watching the film, you would actually swear he was playing the music you’re listening to. “Crossroads” is filled with enthusiastic performances, especially from its two leads, but it is the music that steals the show. If you’ve never seen this movie, I highly recommend watching it, you never know, you might just come away from it with a newfound love of the blues.
Now available on Retro VHS Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment
