Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring Shirley Knight, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Tom Aldredge, Andrew Duncan, Laura Crews, Marya Zimmet. (R)
Unhappy and uncertain housewife Knight departs her husband by hopping into the station wagon and heading west on an odyssey of self-discovery. Along the way, she picks up brain-damaged ex-football player Caan, and they form a tender but tumultuous relationship. Meandering, heavily-symbolic road movie through the pictorial decay of Americana, defined as much by soul-searching melodrama as repetitive behavior founded on indecision and growth through contrition. Script often either telegraphs its every maneuver or drifts vacantly; though it suffers at times from cinéma vérité indulgence, Coppola unveils a potent personal voice. Predated the wave of feminist filmmaking to come in the 70s. George Lucas filmed a short-subject documentary ("Filmmaker") about the making of this film.
66/100
Unhappy and uncertain housewife Knight departs her husband by hopping into the station wagon and heading west on an odyssey of self-discovery. Along the way, she picks up brain-damaged ex-football player Caan, and they form a tender but tumultuous relationship. Meandering, heavily-symbolic road movie through the pictorial decay of Americana, defined as much by soul-searching melodrama as repetitive behavior founded on indecision and growth through contrition. Script often either telegraphs its every maneuver or drifts vacantly; though it suffers at times from cinéma vérité indulgence, Coppola unveils a potent personal voice. Predated the wave of feminist filmmaking to come in the 70s. George Lucas filmed a short-subject documentary ("Filmmaker") about the making of this film.
66/100