It's a blues music road fable based on blues musician Robert Johnson. It's set in the early 1980s and follows a young classical music student and an old blues man traveling from New York City to a crossroads in Mississippi to take care of business.
Eugene "Lightning Boy" Martone (Ralph Macchio) is a 17-year-old classical guitar student at the Juilliard School for Performing Arts. However, his real passion is early Delta blues, personified in the life of Robert Johnson, who died in 1938. Eugene discovers an old harmonica player, Willie Brown (Joe Seneca), who played with Johnson, is serving a term for murder in a New York prison hospital/nursing home. Eugene gets a part-time job at the hospital to meet Willie, who he wants to teach him a mysterious 30th song that Johnson wrote but never recorded. Willie agrees only to help if Eugene gets him out of the hospital.
"Crossroads" follows their efforts to reach the crossroads in Mississippi. Along the way, Eugene learns Willie doesn't always tell the truth. They also travel for a time with Frances (Jami Gertz), a 17-year-old runaway girl who claims she has a dancing job in Los Angeles. Eugene learns much about life and what it takes to put the soul into playing the blues. After multiple adventures, there is a climactic encounter with the Devil (Robert Judd) and another guitarist who has sold his soul (Steve Vai), determining the destiny of Eugene's and Willie's souls.
"Crossroads" is a fun, albeit not insightful, film about the blues. The soundtrack is excellent, though I would have liked better blues in the climactic encounter rather than faux Jimi Hendrix. The film includes a nice level of humor. Macchio and Seneca have good vibes together; Gertz isn't quite on the same song sheet.
Eugene "Lightning Boy" Martone (Ralph Macchio) is a 17-year-old classical guitar student at the Juilliard School for Performing Arts. However, his real passion is early Delta blues, personified in the life of Robert Johnson, who died in 1938. Eugene discovers an old harmonica player, Willie Brown (Joe Seneca), who played with Johnson, is serving a term for murder in a New York prison hospital/nursing home. Eugene gets a part-time job at the hospital to meet Willie, who he wants to teach him a mysterious 30th song that Johnson wrote but never recorded. Willie agrees only to help if Eugene gets him out of the hospital.
"Crossroads" follows their efforts to reach the crossroads in Mississippi. Along the way, Eugene learns Willie doesn't always tell the truth. They also travel for a time with Frances (Jami Gertz), a 17-year-old runaway girl who claims she has a dancing job in Los Angeles. Eugene learns much about life and what it takes to put the soul into playing the blues. After multiple adventures, there is a climactic encounter with the Devil (Robert Judd) and another guitarist who has sold his soul (Steve Vai), determining the destiny of Eugene's and Willie's souls.
"Crossroads" is a fun, albeit not insightful, film about the blues. The soundtrack is excellent, though I would have liked better blues in the climactic encounter rather than faux Jimi Hendrix. The film includes a nice level of humor. Macchio and Seneca have good vibes together; Gertz isn't quite on the same song sheet.