Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) - Infamous Box-Office Flop! - Andy's Blu-Ray Review

[AndyDursin]

Cross-country comedy “road trip” movies seem to have a perennial appeal, at least when we talk about the likes of “National Lampoon's Vacation” or “It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Not every one of these films, of course, has enjoyed a lasting success – and in the case of John Schlesinger's 1981 attempt at making a real change of pace film, HONKY TONK FREEWAY (107 mins., PG), this expensive comedy became one of the biggest box-office wipeouts of all-time. Unavailable on domestic home video for nearly 20 years, Kino Lorber has resurrected this infamous, strange pastiche of broad comic stereotypes, shot through the prism of an Oscar-winning British director, in a superb Blu-Ray that makes for a compelling view for any curious movie buff.

Edward Clinton's original screenplay, apparently, started off as a smaller-scale film about a group of disparate characters conjoining on Ticaw, Florida – a small town with big aspirations whose Mayor decides to take matters into his own hands after they're spurned for an exit off the new highway under construction nearby. By the time the movie reached the screen in 1981, it was an expensive studio piece assembling a diverse cast and with a director, best known for his arch critiques of American culture (be it “Midnight Cowboy” or “Day of the Locust”), seemingly out of his element making a movie that sends up dozens of satirical targets – some more effectively than others.

It is, first and foremost, a look at America's “highway culture” of its era, with an ensemble of different types – a pair of bank robbers (George Dzundza, Joe Grifasi), a pair of nuns (Geraldine Page, Deborah Rush), a dentist and his wife (Howard Hesseman, Teri Garr), an elderly couple (Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy), an unhappily married would-be author (Beau Bridges) and a waitress (Beverly D'Angelo) among others – traveling down the interstate, each seeking something a little different in life. Fate ultimately leads them to Ticaw, where Mayor William Devane has had it with local government, and opts to blow up the highway (an actual Florida highway then under construction) to lead all of these assorted people into his town.

The characters are broadly drawn – to say the least – in “Honky Tonk Freeway,” which is somehow just as outlandish as another 1981 “road trip” movie – “Cannonball Run” – yet under Schlesinger's direction, not as slapstick in nature by comparison. This is not necessarily a great thing here, however, since the longer the comic commentary drags on – be it on American consumerism, material excess, what have you – it ends up leaving a feeling less “silly” than it is sour. There's no real effort to ground the material in any kind of reality – even Devane's character is over the top – and because there's no dramatic anchor – and far too many characters in general for a film running under two hours – there isn't anyone for the audience to root for.

That had to have been the principal reason why “Honky Tonk Freeway” failed to find an audience. In fact, the picture's dismal box-office basically signaled the end of EMI's attempts to make a huge dent in the American studio system (they would linger on until 1986 before Thorn EMI called it quits and sold off its film assets to Cannon). This was a high-budget bomb that allegedly suffered from all kinds of behind-the-scenes turbulence – writer Clinton says on his website that there was talk of replacing Schlesinger with Robert Altman, while U.S. distributor Universal apparently lost interest in promoting the movie after they found out EMI had sold off home video rights without their consultation.

The result was a film that quickly died at the box-office and became notoriously hard to find on home video thereafter, something that's here rectified by Kino Lorber's Blu-Ray. The 4K restoration from the original camera negative (1.85), is, undoubtedly, the best the film has ever appeared outside a theater, though the cinematography and overall appearance of the movie seems “flat,” as a lot of late '70s/early '80s pictures do. The mono sound is fine, with the movie sporting a strange, song-heavy soundtrack listing George Martin and Elmer Bernstein on the principal music credit, with Steve Dorff receiving a later credit for Additional Music. Kino's disc also includes the trailer and a commentary with producer Don Boyd and frequent KL contributors Daniel Kremer and Nat Segaloff.

It's certainly a strange trip, but can any movie that ends with William Devane on top of a water skiing elephant be completely worthless?