Roadie

I saw this movie in the theatre (independant movie house), in 1980. I loved it. It is a very fun movie, filled with the rebellious spirit of rock & roll. I hope, by some miracle, it comes to DVD. With all the great music, this movie would make a great sountrack (isolated score, hmmm).

This movie, in my opinion has many of the features of a cult classic.

The acting is uneven, the comedy is uneven, and the plot is a cliché.

But the movie is worth watching (as a cult movie,) for a number of reasons.

1) Ecletic and enjoyable sound track including a fun cover of Ring of Fire (and you can't experience too many covers of Ring of Fire.) 2) A mix of different comic elements such as an amusing car chase, and Forest Gump like moments where Redfish is simply in the right place at the right time 3) Great rock and roll cameos 4) Occasional surreal moments, if you like that kind of thing

Another part I found refreshing was doing a rock and roll movie involving a groupie with no gratuitous sex or nudity. I have nothing against those things, but its refreshing to see a movie that had no need for them.

If you take the movie seriously for a minute, or are looking for a consistent style of humor you will be disappointed. You need to be the sort of person who likes off beat movies simply because they are offbeat.

What can be said about a movie where Meat Loaf plays the most intelligent and sanest character? Maybe that was the one joke of Alan Rudolph's endurance-testing and thoroughly bizarre comedy. The characters here are totally unappealing and Meat Loaf doesn't even sing (except for one brief moment for a characteristic "duel" with the female lead, which is the high point of the movie). The rock star cameos--Roy Orbison, Hank Williams Jr., Alice Cooper, Blondie--look uninspired, as if Rudolph had no idea what to do with them. Only Debbie Harry and co. seem to be making the most of this mess, but even they look baffled. I have nothing against the "free form" style that Rudolph appeared to be aiming for--a movie with a real "rock and roll" spirit. But Rock and Roll High School (which came out one year before this) and Almost Famous (which came out 20 years later) did this much better mainly because the characters were interesting and likeable and we really cared about what happened to them. In this movie, we get a bunch of drunken, whacked-out rednecks with bad teeth. The final shot of the film sheds some light on the strange 90 minutes that preceded it, and Meat Loaf manages some inspired moments. But all in all, this is just a few notches above the "awful" mark and nothing like Rudolph's restrained later work.

This was a great movie and if you're into American pop music culture and history I think you would enjoy this movie greatly.

Meatloaf stars as Travis W. Redfish, an engineering genius who ends up being a rock and roll roadie and gaining the reputation as the greatest roadie that ever lived. He ends up in this situation when the bus carrying groupie Lola Bouilliabase breaks down on a stretch of road near Travis' home town.

Art Carney is wonderful as Travis' father and junkyard owner and the movie is full of cameo appearances by the likes of Debbie Harry, Roy Orbison, Alice Cooper (who Lola is in love with) and has music from a wide variety of 80's artists.

I was so impressed when I saw this movie I went out and bought the soundtrack, which is a double fold out album with pictures and some background information.

I also liked the movie slogan "The Bands make it rock, but the Roadies make it roll"

I think "Roadie" is deserving of cult-classic status, but unfortunately I don't think very many people saw it. I have not seen it in a video store to buy or rent in over 10 years.

So if you do see it, grab it! (and tell me where you found it!)

As an "old guy" with a nervous disposition who has enough trouble sitting through many movies once, the ultimate tribute I can give this great "on the road" rock'n'roll saga is that I watched it numerous times when it was on cable in 1981, I have watched it several dozens of times on VHS, and now that it's on DVD, I have watched it several times again. You can put a lot of mileage on this road movie. The film has a rock'n'roll backdrop—a backdrop we rarely see from the workingman's eye the way we do here. The movie gives us what amounts to real-world views of several 70's favorites (Meatloaf, Alice Cooper, Blondie, etc.). It has a great premise, the howling self-reliant "Everything Works If You Let It" theme. It also enjoys a background soundtrack that fires on all twelve cylinders. But what keeps me watching the film is that it is really funny in an honest, straight-forward way that we have enjoyed far too seldom since Hollywood started grinding out its cookie-cutter farces in the wake of "Airplane." The dual surprises of the film are the really solid performances put in by Alice Cooper and Meatloaf in their respective roles as rock star and roadie. I am unqualified in my admiration of this movie, but I will tightly qualify the people to whom I would suggest the film. This is a "cult" movie in the most real sense of the word and anyone who is made nervous by rock music, farce that is outside of the "Scary Movie" mainstream, or three-hundred pound leading men (Meatloaf) should avoid this movie at all costs. Also, there is a certain good IL' boy mentality at work here that will not play for some parts of the audience. But to the core audience of the film, these are not qualifications, they are recommendations. The thing I am saddest about is that the movie's soundtrack is no longer available. The soundtrack was worth having simply for the long and messy "Brainlock" which plays during one of the few really funny car chases in the history of film.