Deadhead Miles

A quirky (and hard to find) comedy who's script seems to be right out of a Dave ("Six Days on the Road") Dudley's truckers' song. Filmed in the unadorned, late-'60s/early-'70s low-budget, realist style (like 'Easy Rider', 'Two Lane Blacktop' or 'Five Easy Pieces'), this little cult movie is a strange pop-art odyssey through roadside America circa-1971. It is the story of an oddball trucker's last ride as told through Cooper (Alan Arkin) and his new but stolen Peterbilt 359 big-rig. The plot (?) is a lean one. The story unfolds to us by our observing the conversations and adventures of Cooper and his unexpected hitchhiker (Paul Benedict). Together they attempt to earn some cash by hustling up some short-haul jobs while dodging the authorities. Arkin performs some eccentric scenes and delivers some quotable lines. Is Cooper fresh out of the nut-house or is he just a sad little character trying to give his dream one last try? Music is by Dave Dudley. Cameos abound with actors from the past (Bruce Bennett, George Raft, Ida Lupino) and the future (Loretta Swit, Charles Durning, Hector Elizondo, Richard Kiel). Written by Terrence Malick. This film will not impress everyone. I would recommend it to anyone who considers himself an "eng-ine man" AND is into small, quirky cult films.

This movie begins with three men hijacking a semi-truck and then taking it to a chop shop where it is repainted and subsequently driven off. It's then that one of the thieves named "Cooper" (Alan Arkin) double-crosses his colleagues and sets off in the truck on his own. Along the way he picks up a hitchhiker (played by Paul Benedict) and together they head on down the highway stealing what they can and looking for odd jobs hauling cargo here and there. However, it soon becomes obvious that Cooper has no respect for convention and this leads the two of them into one strange event after the other with no logical objective in sight. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that for a "Trucker Movie" this film turned out to be a rather bizarre mess which was barely salvaged by the acting of Alan Arkin. That said, although I don't consider this to be a particularly good movie by any means, I suppose it's worth a look for those viewers who might be interested in a film of this type and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

As far as I can tell, this film is auteur Terrence Malick's little joke on Hollywood. Malick fans won't find any of Malick's signature directing style--he didn't direct it, and there is no style to speak of in the direction by Vernon Zimmerman. But the Malick script is full of quirky, goofy witticisms and scenes that are more smirk than laugh producing. I picture Malick musing to himself as he typed the final draft: "I wonder if someone will film this part" and then deciding, "Yes. This is America. Someone will."

Alan Arkin's character, Cooper, drives a yellow Peterbilt down America's highways and byways, tells us he's an "engine man," tries to hustle a load, finds humor where he can in a frankly eighth-grade-boy way: after throwing, one-by-one, a case of full Pepsi bottles at signs as he's driving, he turns to his hitchhiker passenger (the lantern-jawed Mr. Bentley from *The Jeffersons*!) and asks "Wasn't that fun? I had fun. That was my idea of a good time" (dialogue approximate). In another memorable scene Cooper sticks it to the trucker's nemesis--cops--in a way that reminds me of Kit Carruther's passive aggression in Malick's directorial debut, *Badlands* (1972) when he throws a set of the boss's keys into a barrel of oil after being told he's fired.

Interestingly, Arkin's character never talks on the CB, which is the first thing you'd expect a trucker to do in a trucker movie. Just shows how Malick is a great left turner.

If Arkin is not doing an impression of Terrence Malick's voice and accent in this film, I'll eat my hat. Arkin's "Texan meets Kermit the Frog" inflection (the way one interviewer described an imitator of Malick's voice) makes me wonder if Arkin met with Malick before filming began and picked up his vocal mannerisms. Hearing so many gregarious lines come out of Arkin's mouth is an eye-opener for Malick fans--I was thinking to myself as I watched and listened "I wonder what happened to Malick after this script to make him decide to be terse?"

Since there's no plot to speak of, the trucker-talk flavor of the film becomes its reason for being. By the end, I realized Malick simply strings together all the witty-to-a-redneck trucker talk he's heard, creates a sometimes realistic, sometimes surrealistic atmosphere around the world of trucking, and asks the audience, in a pugnaciously droll way, to take it or leave it.

Item of interest: the title *Deadhead Miles*, which I originally thought referred to a slacker named Miles, actually refers to the trucker's term for driving a semi with no load in the trailer. Ironically, Arkin's character carries a "load" in the trailer during the entire film. You'll understand why I put that word in quotes if you see the film.

I caught this movie on A&E over ten years ago between classes while in college. I'd seen Catch-22, so I knew Alan Arkin and liked his work.

It's hard to describe this movie beyond a trucker movie. Very seriously, it's like an episode of Seinfeld... a lot of random stuff happens, most of it disconnected, a lot of it odd, but the vast majority is really funny once you sink into it. Honestly, I forget a very large portion of the movie, but the impression of how interesting it was has stuck with me for over a decade... that has to say something.

Arkin is perfect in it as a pill-popping, cantankerous driver trying to stay awake while driving a load cross country. Paul Benedict (Bentley from the Jeffersons) plays a tramp. Looking over the cast, Richard Kiel (Jaws from the Bond films), Loretta Swit (M*A*S*H), John Milius (writer of Apocalypse Now, etc), Hector Elizondo, Charles Durning... this had a great cast of character actors. I would love to see this film again, but I seriously doubt it will ever get a DVD release unless someone famous sponsors it like Tarantino has the martial arts films released under his Rolling Thunder company.

Truly weird and whacked out.

Watch it for Arkin's great over-the-top acting. Watch it just to hear the Dave Dudley soundtrack. Watch it for the great New Mexico scenery. Watch it for that beautiful Peterbuilt. Watch it for the scene where Arkin throws bottles out of his cab at various objects along the road.

Why this movie isn't a cult flick is most likely only due to fact that it's so hard to find. It's virtually unrentable, and it's never on tv anymore.