JOE isn't "dated;" it's Timely. Again. In mere days, we'll have our first unabashedly Libertarian president (and anyone who doesn't know what that means, look up the Libertarian manifesto). The Free Poor of this country (once called "the Middle Class" before being decimated by both Democratic AND Republican policies) are overdosing on heroin in record numbers; walled-in, gated "communities" abut slum tenement housing the country over; gun violence continues unabated, with an average of one mass shooting (a shooting in which four or more people are shot) a day. And it's now Official: The Electoral Integrity Project, which assesses so-called "democracies" around the world, has concluded that North Carolina is "no longer a functioning democracy." (Due, in part, we're told, to rampant gerrymandering, voter suppression, and outright power grabs. That's "racketeering," to those who still believe in the Old Laws...) JOE tapped into a lot of this way back in 1970- especially the age-old Hatreds that have kept the Species from uniting the Races. F--- 'em. I'm going to sit back and listen to some Kitaro and some Terry Oldfield and some Steven Halpern and some R. Carlos Nakai and dream of Better Days...

John G. Avildsen directed Norman Wexler's inflammatory script about a middle-aged "square," who, after accidentally killing his daughter's pusher/lover, teams up with a bigoted blue collar nitwit (the title character played with a lot of bravado by Peter Boyle) with tragic results. They commiserate and find common ground in their intolerance of ANYTHING they're not: liberals; blacks; the young. A time-capsule of the early 1970s, this plays like an R-rated version of ALL IN THE FAMILY with Boyle playing Archie Bunker with guns. The acting is all first rate...not only by Boyle, but by Dennis Patrick, Susan Sarandon and, at least briefly, Patrick McDermott as one of the most unlikeable victims in movie history. A violent, unforgiving film. It's certainly unsettling but what is it telling us? It's OK to have junkies & pushers running rampant as long as they're peace-loving? It's become a classic.

Susan Sarandon, the pure garbage that she is, portrays a woman who is pure garbage. Not much of a stretch there.Boyle, another bleeding heart, has the role of evil Right-Wing avenger.Boyle learns that a man has accidentally killed the piece-of-crap hippy who was slowly killing the man's piece-of-crap daughter (Sarandon) with drugs. The movie tells us that it is wrong to interfere with your daughter's slide into drug addiction, alcoholism and promiscuity. Hey, they have their rights, man.Sarandon takes her clothes off a lot because hey, that's good acting.Boyle hates everybody because hey, that's an honest portrayal of what was once called the Silent Majority.Eventually Boyle abandons everything he believes in. Despite his intense hate, all of a sudden, hey, them hippies look good.Then he goes wild and kills everybody in sight.Speaking as a former hippy, I remember that fathers tended to get upset when their daughters turned into drug-addled whores. I seem to remember that even the liberal pinko Dads didn't like their daughters being used as catatonic semen receptacles, the type of role, by the way, that Sarandon was born to play.Boyle, the great actor albeit liberal freak that he is, expressed great displeasure that audiences sided with his character. Apparently, it is wrong to get robbed and try to retrieve your wallet. Apparently, it is wrong to protect your daughter.Just like Easy Rider, every hippy in this movie is a complete waste.And just like in Easy Rider, the best scene is at the end where the hippies die.Joe gets 9 stars because lots and lots of hippies die.It loses a star because some of them survive.For all those who feel that this movie is an honest portrayal of anything, let this hippy give you the old three-fingered peace sign.And now it's time to tune in, turn on, and drop out.Groovy, baby.P.S. The ORIGINAL spelling was "hippy." Blame the establishment for the nonsensical variation, "hippie."

After recently seeing, Cry Uncle, by the same director, I decided to seek this out and am I glad I did!? This is an extraordinarily good film. Far, far better than it would seem likely given the ingredients. How many times have we had to suffer the embarrassment of someone playing a middle class Dad mixing it with the flower children aagh! And yet here thanks to a perfect script it is made believable. Not ideal, not good or bad but believable. Peter Boyle, as the working class, hippie and ni**er hater and Dennis Patrick as the uptight suit, play their respective parts immaculately and I can't remember ever seeing the two classes getting together like this without things getting sentimental. Susan Sarandon is effective as a hippie chick but doesn't have all that much to do in her first film. This is a truly, must see film capturing as it does that very short period in western and in particular US times when the counter culture was about to bust itself wide open.