This film catapulted Jan-Michael Vincent to stardom level for awhile, and contained a lot of good, exciting action scenes as well as politically correct assessment of some of the problems of independent truckers at the time. Of course, it contained some action and fighting scenes that are somewhat unbelievable, but in the context of the story, they work. Kay Lenz is the believable, not too lovely hero's wife who downplayed her attractiveness displayed in later films. There are lots of eye-pleasing shots of trucks and highway mayhem, and, of course, from a trucker and real-life perspective, lots of technically inaccurate scenes, but, all in all one of the very best trucking movies ever made -- and I've seen 'em all! Good cast, good flick. This $2 million film went on to be a big grosser.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Deadhead Miles
(1972)
Fairly objective summary based on my lifestyle and experience.
4 June 2000
Deadhead miles features,of course, one of the most gifted and underrated actors, Alan Arkin. However, the film, called a comedy, is merely a sad commentary on one rather bizarre trucker's life and experiences that no real trucker would endure. Technically flawed, the film when it was first released to theatres, went about as far as a Peterbilt tractor in reverse but with the engine stalled. After its first attempt at theatrical release, it gained a new soundtrack which still did not provide enough ooomph to move a rather incredulous, vapid plot even in first gear. Without revealing the ending, as someone who has spent a lifetime in the trucking industry, all I can say is no trucker in his right mind would have done what Alan Arkin did, although his characterization might justify his bizarre actions. On a scale of one to ten, as a trucker-oriented movie, I give it a minus nine, and that's being generous.
Moonfire
(1970)
The most technically accurate trucking movie ever made.
4 June 2000
My review cannot be taken objectively inasmuch as I wrote and produced it and directed 95% of it. This was a low budget movie first released in theatres in 1972, but it has excellent photography, a good and original musical score with country legend Marty Robbins singing two songs (offscreen). The film was shot entirely on location in California, Arizona, New Mexico Texas and Mexico for less than $300,000, still, "low budget" even in 1970. Even though it was a low budget film, several years later, ORION pictures distributed it for many years on TV, and it got good audience reaction when first released in theatres. The production sound mixer went on to gain five Oscar nominations, and an assistant cameraman, Ed Begley Jr., said he never wanted to act. In spite of a good cast,I would rate this film as "fair," but not bad, especially considering the low budget. It was even a union crew. Leonard Maltin calls this film a "bomb" and describes the plot as a blackmail plot but there was no blackmail plot at all, so we know Maltin never saw it and probably relied on the inaccurate summary of some high school dropout to provide the description. It was never released on video until early 1998 and then only in truck stops where it outsold all other recent hits by far, wherever it was displayed, partly due to the fact that all the trucker scenes were technically accurate, and co-star Charles Napier, in his first PG film, actually learned to drive a tractor trailer for his role.Sorry, folks, no gratuitous violence or sex scenes except a little teaser in the beginning, and no cursing. If I had known that Maltin would provide a completely inaccurate plot summary I would have put in filthy words and stupid violence in order to elevate Moonfire to the level of all the really inane so-called trucker movies with unbelievable plots.
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