Country Blue

Alright, stripping down to the essence, this is standard "southern discomfort" storytelling - poverty, crime, sex, corruption, and retribution. There's nothing inherently clever in the individual elements: we've seen 'em all before, and mostly done better. It does have the strength of atmospheric authenticity: it was shot in the South, and it feels real. The locations are appropriately weatherbeaten and lived-in, the character's behaviors don't feel over-the-top stereotypical; you get the notion real Southerners put this together. And of course, who doesn't love Dub Taylor? What I find most effective and interesting is that this movie has the perfect pace for a drive-in date. Whenever things get boring or a scene with the hero and his girl goes a little too long, you suspect this is when people in their cars would in turn focus on their beloved and start with the midnight baseball. You know how on the old Letterman show he'd sometimes say, "When you see me enjoy a delicious beverage, feel free to enjoy one at home"? The kissin' n' huggin' scenes seem to be giving the same signal to the viewer: it's follow-the-leader time. And sure enough, it puts all the really important plot detail and high-speed action at the end, just in time for when the average lover would have depleted their personal energies and would turn their attention back to the movie. Don't believe me? Try it at home sometime. It's much more fun than playing one of those sitcom drinking games.

In the late 60's / early 70's a lot of films followed the template laid down by the landmark crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967). There was a plethora of films about young couples getting involved in crime and then going on the run from the law. Country Blue is a pretty typical example of this. It's about a young guy just out of prison who starts an affair with his boss's daughter, before long they embark on a crime spree, robbing banks as a means of getting out of their dirt poor environment and starting a new life somewhere else.

Films set in the American South often focus on characters trying to get out of their environs. The rural South depicted in this film is shown warts and all. It's a place of poverty and hopelessness, full of run-down people. It's this very authentic location and feel that give it quite a bit of its interest. In this regard it reminded me a little of films such as Moonrunners (1975) and indicates that like that one Country Blue was a little ahead of the curve in terms of the soon-to-be- massively popular spate of films set in the Southern states – if you went to the cinema in the late 70's I daresay you'd be tripping over them, there were so many. Country Blue is a much lower budgeted affair than those though and it doesn't feature all that much good ol' boy humour. But its lower production values have, if anything, only accentuated the authenticity as the locations here are properly lived-in and battered.

For the most part it qualifies more as a crime-drama than anything else, with the action only really escalating in its final section, where we have bloody shoot-outs with the cops, a beating, an attempted rape and lots of car chases. It also has one of those organic sounding scores, compromising of country rock and pop songs which so many early 70's American movies have and which I am always a sucker for. All-in-all, Country Blue might be a little rough around the edges but it has an attitude and feel that I found very easy to get behind.

This is a Bonnie and Clyde-type film, though done in then-present-day 70's Deep South. It has a gritty feel, and one feels the angst of the stars, Bobby Lee (who just got out of the slammer on parole, having been inside for a year for an attempted grocery store robbery) and his girlfriend, Ruthie (married to another guy, but can't afford a divorce), trying to get their lives back on track in a dead-end hick-town he can't stand and is tired of just two days later. It's certainly watchable and is in no way as bad as reviews tend to give it. This is Jack Conrad's filmmaking debut, but it's not a monstrosity. After negotiations with Jeff Bridges and Robert Blake broke down for the main part of Bobby Lee, Conrad was forced to play the role himself, and he's no embarrassment. Though it tends to be ridden with cliché, and the main characters are extremely unintelligent in their bank-robbing and getaway approaches, it's still a fun ride and worth checking out if you have the opportunity.

Another one of the ol Mill creek 200 drive I cult cinema box set ya hear. Not a bad movie at all. Decently acted and shot. And the story was pretty good probably would watch this again. Even the music was pretty good.

A man on parole, in love with his bosses married daughter, robs a bank and then runs off to Mexico with the daughter in tow.

If you've ever wondered what Southern drive-in fare was like in the early 1970's, look no farther. This is the sort of low budget movie that played all along the South during the boom days of the drive-in movie theater. My guess this would have been the second or third feature of a multi feature program.

While this is not the best movie in the world (an understatement) it does have a certain nostalgic charm, at least for me. I like the fact that Dub Taylor, a character actor who's work goes all the way back to the Frank Capra movies of the 1930's is allowed to play something close to a lead. The movie itself is just okay, but its clearly a film that never could stand on its own except as a filler on a multi feature program.

Is it worth seeing? As a stand alone feature probably not, but if you're going to have a night of movies you might want to throw this one into the mix, especially if you're doing an evening of country themed drive-in movies.