Convoy (1978)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1978
Running Time	106:08
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Sam Peckinpah
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Kris Kristofferson Ali MacGraw Ernest Borgnine Burt Young Madge Sinclair Franklyn Ajaye Brian Davies Seymour Cassel Cassie Yates Walter Kelley Jackson D. Kane Billy E. Hughes Whitey Hughes
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	Chip Davis Bill Fries

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, outtakes

    In the late 1970s there was a "fuel crisis" in the US. Lots of attention was paid to the idea that they might run out of fuel for their beloved motor cars. Someone had the bright idea of imposing a nation-wide maximum speed limit of 55 miles per hour (roughly 90kmph for those not familiar with the older measurements) — it was claimed that this would save fuel (although the claims were not properly analysed before the legislation passed). This speed limit was not popular, especially with truck drivers, whose pay was effectively cut because they couldn't get as many loads delivered in the same amount of time if they obeyed the speed limit. A number of truck drivers began using Citizen Band (CB) radios to communicate about the locations of police and speed traps, and to defy the speed limits where they could. Publicity about this, and the use of CB radios, caused a relatively short-lived fad, where CBs were being fitted to all manner of vehicles. The movie industry picked up on this, resulting in a number of films, many of which deservedly sank without trace. Perhaps the only one to really catch on was Smoky and the Bandit, although this one was briefly popular.

    The movie industry wasn't the only one to latch onto this fad. Songwriters also embraced it, with the most successful song to emerge being Convoy, sung by C.W. McCall. I even have a copy of this song lying around somewhere on a vinyl single. It was probably inevitable that this song would inspire a movie, and it did — this movie. They changed things, though. The song opened with lines about a Kenworth hauling logs, a cab-over Pete with a reefer on, and a Jimmy hauling hogs (scary that I still remember that after 25 years...). In the film, the Kenworth has become a Mack, and the logs have become a tanker filled with nitromannite (a substance I thought they made up, but it does exist, although I very much doubt that you'd ever see a tanker filled with it — it is apparently quite shock-sensitive). The change to a Mack was probably because Mack was willing to supply trucks (there's a thank you to Mack in the credits); the other change is required for the plot.

    This film is a bit better than the average "latch onto a fad" film. It actually presents the truckers' case, albeit in a rather distorted fashion, about losing money because of the speed limit, and their problems with corrupt cops.

    The Rubber Duck (Kris Kristofferson) is our hero, and driver of that Mack truck with the celluloid duck in place of the Mack's dog emblem. He's front door to the little convoy, with PigPen (Burt Young) in the rocking chair, and Spider Mike (Franklin Ajaye) as back door. Their first encounter with Dirty Lyle / Sheriff Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine) is not a happy one. He entices them to exceed the speed limit by talking on the CB, threatens them with speeding fines (which can cause them to lose their licences, and their livelihoods), then extorts bribes from them. They pull into a truck stop for some food. Lyle follows them, and they play with his head, talking over the CB. He realises that it's them, and rousts Spider Mike for vagrancy (he took all of Mike's money when he extorted the bribes from them). Mike's desperate to get home because his wife is pregnant, and due, so he takes a swing at Lyle after a slur on his wife, and things escalate. A couple more cops show up, and it's an all-out brawl (looking more like a piece out of F-Troop than a real fight, though). Realising that they are in big trouble, the truckers head for the state line, hoping to cross from Arizona to New Mexico before the cops catch them — that's the start of the big convoy.

    Things are complicated by the obligatory love-interest, Melissa (Ali MacGraw), who is a photo-journalist hitching a ride with Rubber Duck (she wasn't in the song!). She urges the Duck to take advantage of the publicity generated by their flight from justice (although one wonders if Lyle can even spell the word "justice"), and turn it into a fight for truckers' rights. The Duck hasn't thought that far ahead, and is clearly out of his depth, especially when it comes to dealing with politicians like the governor of New Mexico (the governor's plan is to use this affair to glide into the US Senate). Melissa sees a bigger picture.

    (I am glad I watched this film again — it finally cleared up a question that's long bothered me. The Americans use the term "18-wheeler" to refer to that which we Australians call a "semi-trailer". Now I've counted the wheels on Australian semi-trailers (repeatedly), and there aren't 18 — they vary, but they are usually 22 in number. Watching this film allowed me to note that American trailers seem to use just 2 axles, with 4 wheels per axle, in contrast to the Australian standard of 3 axles, 4 wheels per axle. That's the difference, and I'm glad to sort it out. No, it's not important, but I may not be the only one perplexed by it.)

    All in all, this is not a bad film, and it's entertaining. It's something of a curiosity now, with its strange language — CB slang, with the possible exception of "10-4", has not become a big part of mainstream idiom. But the story of struggle against unjust authority is timeless, and the characters are interesting. Perhaps the most explored character is Dirty Lyle, especially when we see his revulsion at the treatment Spider Mike has received at the hands of a Texas cop. And haven't we always wanted to see a semi-trailer drive through an adobe wall? Yeah, this film is rather fun. Shame it didn't get a better transfer...

Video

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced. That's the original theatrical aspect ratio, which is good.

    The picture is soft in anything but close-ups, but it's clear enough to make out — I don't think the softness is due to film grain. Shadow detail is quite limited, with darker colours dropping off into black too quickly in all but the most brightly-lit scenes. Low-level noise is no problem.

    Colour is not badly rendered, mostly. The only item I'd point out as a colour-related artefact is the Arizona sand in the opening sequence. The image is somewhat burnt out, with the result that the sand looks plain white. I guess the reason it's over-exposed is that they were trying to capture the heat ripples (which they do, and quite effectively).

    There are heaps of small film artefacts, especially in the first 30 minutes of the film, and more than a few medium size ones. There are spots, flecks, and a few scratches — this is not a print that's been stored with loving care. There's a burn at 31:03, whose oval shape suggests strongly that this was an anamorphic print (which seems likely, given the aspect ratio and the vintage of the film).

    There is more aliasing than you will see on any normal transfer — it's rather distracting at times, especially at 47:47. There's more than a little shimmer, too. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    There are no subtitles, unfortunately.

    The disc is single sided and single layered. The capacity of the single layer is adequate for the limited content we get.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There's only one soundtrack on this disc, a 2.0 Dolby Digital soundtrack in English, running at 224kbps. It is not surround-encoded.

    The dialogue is generally easy enough to understand, but it's slightly out of sync a lot of the time, with results that make it look like an imperfect dub. There's some sloppy ADR work, too, noticeable during the brawl, and around 33:53 where we hear Ernest Borngine's voice even though his mouth isn't moving. There's one moment of serious distortion at 21:19 when Ernest Borgnine shouts.

    The score is credited to Chip Davis, with lyrics and music supervision credited to Bill Fries (who also happens to be known as C.W. McCall...). The music is well-suited to the on-screen action.

    The surround speakers get one or two fairly faint cues, but there's nothing significant — the sound is really quite frontal, with some spread across the front of the sound-stage. The subwoofer gets the occasional opportunity to support the lowest octave, but it's fairly subtle.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras at all.

Menu

    The menu is static and silent. There is just a front page, with Play Movie and a single scene selection on it. You can scroll through the scene selections, invoke one to jump to that scene in the movie, or play the movie. That's everything you can do — hope you're not too tired, reading through such a lengthy list...

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    There are two versions of this film released in Region 1. One is from Triumph Marketing, and I can find out little about it. The other is from Cheezy Flicks Entertainment (there's an ominous name!), and reports are that it's a shockingly bad transfer (yup, worse than this one), despite claims of digital remastering. There is supposed to be a new version coming, but there seems to be little information available about it, either.

    The UK version has three minutes of cuts, resulting in a running time of 103 minutes. Given that the Region 4 disc runs 106 minutes, the signs are that it's uncut.

    Despite the fairly poor transfer, it looks like the Region 4 is the best of a bad lot.

    A historical curiosity that's still moderately entertaining, illuminating a bygone era. Not a good example of the delicate art of DVD making, though. Still, if you want this movie, this is probably the best version available today.

    The video quality is just adequate, mostly due to the film artefacts and the enormous amount of aliasing.

    The audio quality is adequate, but that's all.

    There are absolutely no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall