Crossroads Reviews

I'm currently working my way through the Walter Hill filmography and next to Streets of Fire this might be my favourite film by Hill.


There's a moment in the second act, when Joe Morton appears in a dream and slowly walks through a set of doors, his body initally dwarfed but then consuming the entire screen, which is nightmarish in a Lynchian way. The set-up of the scene is actually kind of expressionistic, but it's raw and vital and really gives a sense of weight to the final act.


You can tell from any Walter Hill movie that he loves music, I think Hard Times and The Warriors are the only film which didn't at least focus on a band at some point, and he brings a real sense of passion and enthusiasm to the Robert Johnson mythology. The road movie stuff doesn't work quite as well as the Johnson framework, largely because Macchio is a really disengaging lead, but the film is gold whenever Joe Seneca is onscreen and the final music duel is just all kinds of amazing, just so much fun seeing Steve Vai be all kinds of Steve Vai.


It's also interesting how the film sort of juggles three different styles. With the film being fairly non-descript in it's road movie sections and just coming absolutely to life in it's music setpieces. The final fifteen minutes are just kind of amazing looking, just a really great use of colour, space, and people to create atmosphere.