John G. Avildsen’s 1970 drama Joe anticipated the arrival of the TV hit comedy All in the Family, with the former’s bigoted, working-class stiff Joe Curran (Peter Boyle) paving the way for Carroll O’Connor’s iconic right-winger, Archie Bunker. Boyle’s loudmouth barfly Joe is spilling over with petty grievances about African Americans, hippies, rock music, welfare, you name it. (The bartender gives him a quarter for the jukebox to shut him up.) Into the bar walks a distraught Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick), a well-to-do business executive who has just killed the drug-dealing boyfriend of his addicted daughter, Melissa (Susan Sarandon). Joe, who eventually links Bill to the murder, forges a wary friendship with the latter built on his respect for Bill’s vigilante action. And much of the film is about the rabbit hole that Bill finds himself lost in because of Joe’s continual outreach. Joe’s anger at the world has as much to do with class victimhood—the feeling that those who are better off are laughing at him—as it does with the then-current political and racial climate. Featuring an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Norman Wexler, Joe was embraced by some filmgoers because they identified with the main character—a reaction that disturbed Boyle so much that he turned down the lead role in the violent classic The French Connection. Recommended. (T. Keogh)
Joe
Olive, 107 min., R, DVD: $24.99, Blu-ray: $29.99 Volume 33, Issue 4
Joe
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