Convoy: I'm a Sam Peckinpah fan, and this has been a gaping hole in my viewing of his oeuvre, and what a big, sloppy wet kiss to teamsters it is. Born in the same era that gave us "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Dukes of Hazzard", when all things Whiskey Tango were in vogue for reasons that completely escape me, "Convoy" is based on a novelty country song about truckers fighting cops (or "bears" in the parlance of the times). I'm sure Hollywood has had worse source material, but not by far. Peckinpah regular Kris Kristofferson is Rubber Duck, a trucker who runs afoul of the corrupt sheriff Lyle (Ernest Borgnine) and goes on the lam with some of his trucker buddies across New Mexico, becoming a folk hero along the way as his fellow truckers rally to his cause. Think Billy the Kid with 18 wheelers and without all the murder. Ali McGraw is here as his love interest, sporting what could politely be described as an afro. Dumb, dumb, dumb, with no value but kitsch, yes, this is a romantic ode to truckers, those who populate highway greasy spoons where everything on the menu is fried and the restrooms smell perpetually of urine. Peckinpah tries his best with what little he has to work with, but his slide to career dissolution continues unabated here. A novelty movie for a novelty song that plays like a time capsule so future generations can see that we survived the 1970's in spite of ourselves. Not as bad as The Osterman Weekend, but...still bad. Woodchuck sez, "Peckinpah completists only. Everyone else should skip it."
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