As one who grew-up in Barstow from 1971 to 1978, I can totally relate to the movie, it's characters, and plot. I, too, felt trapped in that one horse town, so 2 days after I turned 17, I joined the Navy just to get out of there. Now in days, I live in California City to be near my Mom who somehow still lives there. Every time I see her (about 2 times a month at the minimum) I am amazed how Absolutely NOTHING has changed in that rat town. Same schools, same teachers, same buildings on Main Street, no new houses have been built, etc. Very depressing. However, the most depressing thing was letting my young Canadian wife talk me into attending our Class of 1978 25 year reunion. No surprise here- only about 10 of us made it out of Barstow and are pretty successful for doing so. The remaining 300 plus that stayed, most are in dead in jobs, on welfare, have been married more than 3 times to classmates, and most at the Reunion were either on me th or drunk. Yup, nothing changes in Barstow, and that feeling is well conveyed in this excellent movie! GREAT JOB TO ALL THAT WERE PART OF IT!
