End Of The Road (DVD)

Here's a complete oddity that not only works, but is a pleasure to watch, absorb, and be confounded and bewildered by. I call it an oddity only because I had never heard-tell of it before browsing on Amazon looking for something else that has long been forgotten. "What's this?" I wondered, read a few reviews, noted that Warner Brothers had given this a nice treatment on DVD, had Terry Southern involvement, starred Stacy Keach & featured James Earl Jones. AhhOwWwwAoOW! Okay, my arm is twisted enough, no need to break it loose from the torso. Someone else mentioned that they found this film to be 'dated', but, it IS from 1970. The end of the sixties promise and turmoil seems to be on display here for me, all dammed up and bursting at the seams. I guess my filters are down more than some folks, because I welcome 'dated' films, and don't find it a necessity for a 40-some year old movie to somehow seem as if it's theme(s) relate to and enlighten our present era. Why wait for a time machine, anyway? I used to work with a guy who knew I loved film history, but was militant about seeing the latest movies as soon as they were released. Whenever he strayed into 'vintage film' territory, he made sure to ask me if I'd seen it, then follow with his dismissal of "it didn't hold up". Heh, I guess he meant his ego, but then, even snobs can be entertaining when cooked properly. This film is as much serious as it is delirious, capturing a moment in time with thought-provoking camerawork, humor, and a poignancy reflecting what seems to be the state of mind/body/spirit of the aimless adult at that time. The humor helps the viewer to alleviate the angst, but only enough to keep you evaluating what's being played out before your eyes, and there are no easy answers. James Earl Jones is absurdly intense in his role, locking down a solid performance as the head of a psychiatric institute who displays heart while realizing that attempting a cure for the complicated Sixties malaise might take drastic measures. Stacy Keach is at his organic/unhinged best here, the lost soul in search of himself and his place in the world, placing his sanity in the backseat to enjoy the ride (buckle up). The rest of the acting crew is perfectly cast for cinema of this ilk, and to cut to the chase, if this sounds like your idea of an enjoyable cinema experience, I highly recommend you place your eyes on this under-promoted gem at your earliest convenience. Kudos to Warner Brothers for presenting this beautiful print with optional English, Spanish, and French subtitles; as well as a nice documentary that told me more than I would ever suspect about the film. Special Thanks to Amazon, without whom I may have never discovered this thought-provoking movie.

the novel was great but the movie is over acted and the story watered down

WONDERFUL INDIE FILM OF GREAT 1960'S NOVEL...GOOD ACTING AND ADAPTATION OF A GREAT NOVEL

A wonderful piece of counter-cultural cinema. Available at last on dvd. Gives the viewer the opportunity to fully understand the work cinematographer Gordon Willis did with colors and composition. Avakian's sense of editing is prevalent here too. Amazing performances by the leading actors and a great example of the strengths of Terry Southern's tragicomic prose.

To understand this film you must understand existentialism, social criticism, and the dark side of the late 1960's. Also there are the great then-unknown talents discovered by the filmmaker Aram Avakian, who soon became famous for the depth and creativity of their work. Avakian discovered the incredible DP Gordon Willis, Michael Chapman, and James Earl Jones who had previously not been in a movie with a big role for him. Although he was a hit on Broadway at that point. This was Dorothy Tristan ‘s first movie roll. She had been working in theater, specializing in Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams etc. This ground-breaking indie film was covered in a huge LIFE magazine story: 9 pages. November 1969. Esquire, Playboy, The L.A. Times, The New York Times all reviewed the film positively. On this recently made dvd, thanks to the great Steven Soderbergh, who got Warner Brothers to strike a new print from the pristine negative. Soderbergh also directed the companion documentary which is on the the DVD.

Love John Barth. Have been saying for decades that he is my favorite novelist. Have read pretty much every word, fiction and non, that he has published. And the novel from which this was taken, his second, was the first I ever read, tripping over it accidentally in a public library while in college in the 70s. This movie? A mess. Not even sure if it's really watchable. But completely of its time; kinda sophomoric 60s extravagant bombast. Did I say sophomoric? Still, if you're into Barth, which I am deeply, you just gotta have it.

This is an early Stacy Keach movie. It is very strange and really captured my attention. If you like offbeat movies you should see this one. Again, easy ordering from Amazon.com and fast delivery.

Love it, hate it? Love it/hate it? I cannot even decide. It was an excruciating and visceral film experience, that's for sure. Watching this with a live audience must be, er, intriguing! But as a cult movie a la Rocky Horror? Nah, I don't think so. I somehow only heard about this film recently since it was being screened at some museum or other in NYC, a newly restored print, but I got hold of the DVD instead. This recent DVD looks and sounds pretty crisp, too. Never read Barth's novel, was born in 1968 so pretty much passed through this horrendous (as if it's any less horrendous NOW) period of the USA's history (and the 10-13 years that preceded it) as an infant to young tyke, but during my research got the gist that they took Barth's much older novel (late 50s) and gave it a current post-60s burnout awfulness and wretchedness and anti-Nixon and establishment spin on the proceedings. Of course, the great Terry Southern's contributions cannot, I'm certain, be underestimated. Well, I made it through this somehow, felt for most of its duration like I was on a bad acid trip that I never wanted to really go on, cannot decide if I love or absolutely loathe this appallingly difficult and disturbing, scabrous, shocking (even now!) film. Of course everyone delivers the goods, our brave director, the amazing cast, Gordon Willis on the DP action, and everyone else, but good lord is this a f'd up film. It's about as messed up as you can possibly get, even considering the year it came out. The fact that LIFE magazine gave it 9 pages on release is bizarre and incredible. Mainly even on a surface level it rings true: you can get your BA and MA in the USA and graduate without a single clue as to what to do next, or with any guidance whatsoever that's worth a damn, and also, most psychiatrists are even more nuts or weird or quirky or just plain nasty than most of their patients. Nothing much has changed. This country (which I imagine this film and Barth's source novel) is still as primarily, mentally ill and dysfunctional as it's ever been, so on that level, this mind-bendingly warped film is still as cogent and relevant as the day it was released, with an X rating(!) and to either deafening silence, appreciative young hip college audiences, and/or head-scratching and/or horrified and terrified middle-American "general" audiences. Watch at your own risk. I'm not sure anybody will really "enjoy" this film, it's not "entertainment" on any obvious level, and the ending is really sheer torture. If you want to at least see a young Stacy Keach and James Earl Jones really chew scenery and go for a mood of utter anarchy and insanity whilst having fun doing it, than you can subject yourself to this American version of the Grand Guignol. I think mainly the film is attempting to be (as Barth's novel sounds like it was as well) an overall allegory for what an "insane asylum" America had become by this time in history, and how the otherwise "sane" growing up in such dysfunctional and extreme circumstances were attempting to cope with living within it, or indeed, in many cases coming back TO it under even worse conditions and circumstances. You could accuse End of the Road of being dated or too "art-house" and pretentious, although I think overall, this film is too over-the-top to even be CALLED "art-house". You might call it horrifying, even unwatchable, but "precious art-house fodder" it surely ain't! Not for general audiences? Nope. I don't think you'll be seeing this screened on Turner Classic Movies anytime soon. Almost makes Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five look like a Tupperware party (book or film). Makes Naked Lunch look like a Disney film. Otherwise, you've been forewarned.