What Book Are You Currently Reading?

Thank you for this!

Have you read the book? I'm over halfway through it and it's been a blast to read. I feel like you'd especially like what he says about De Palma.

From John G. Avildsen (director of Rocky and The Karate Kid) and Norman Wexler (writer of Saturday Night Fever and Serpico), comes the story of a father whose daughter (played by Susan Sarandon in her film debut) overdoses on drugs, and then in fit of rage, he kills her boyfriend. The father then stumbles into a bar and confesses his crime to a radical ring-wing factory worker named Joe (played by Peter Boyle in his breakout role). Joe celebrates the death of the boyfriend, since he feels that hippies are the root of evil in America, and considers the father to be a kindred spirit. Together, they're gonna clean up the town.

When Peter Boyle attended a screening of Joe, he was disgusted to learn that the audience was rooting for the titular character. I can't blame them because the movie does a terrible job of portraying Joe as the villain in the story. Critics and historians say Joe was a monumental moment for film and was among the group of movies that ushered in what's considered the greatest decade in American cinema: the 1970's. I don't disagree with that. Joe certainly paved the way for Dirty Harry, Death Wish and other conservative-leaning films. What I do disagree with is pairing Joe with left-wing movies such as Easy Rider or Midnight Cowboy. The intent of Avildsen and Wexler might have been to portray the radical right-wing in a negative light but they failed 100%. The fact that audiences were cheering for Joe proves my point.

The reason Avildsen and Wexler failed is because the hippies are portrayed as stereotypes. They're not human beings with intellect and emotions. They're just lame ducks for the main characters. Let's grab our shotguns and shoot up some hippies. It's right-wing fantasy. Some people have argued that Joe is a metaphor for the shift in political alliance. Once upon a time, the blue collar union workers were considered the left-wing. Then with the political turmoil of the 1960's in which the youth counterculture took over the mantle, the working class joined the business class as the right-wing. That might be true (or not) and it might have been a messaged layered onto the film, but it ultimately doesn't matter because the story is lopsided. If you don't present both sides equally then who are you really speaking to?