Joe

S P O I L E R S ! !

The final freeze frame of 1970's JOE is as tragic as it is sudden, and upon reflection seems utterly timeless.  An image that is the culmination of the state of our country, and has been for many years now.  For me to explain would necessitate revealing huge spoilers, so read no further if you don't want to know the outcome.......

The United States of America is perhaps more divided now than ever before.  I'm certain that discourse among those of different political, religious, and social leanings has always been contentious in some quarters, but in my lifetime it's hardly been worse since, I dunno, 2016? Coincidence? Maybe.  Maybe I'm just naive, am blind to the peripheries.  The shadows, too, where the fringe used to dwell but have recently become more visble.  People like Joe Curran, a working class everyman who toils in a factory during the day and expects dinner on the table when he gets home.  After a stop at the bar, where his bigoted rants ("You know, I bet 49% of Democrats are queer!") go mostly ignored by the bartender.

One night, a well dressed but clearly shaken guy named Bill stumbles in that bar and feels compelled to tell Joe (Peter Boyle) that he just killed his daughter's boyfriend, a drug dealing hippie.  The kind Joe just went on about. Bill (Dennis Patrick) stops himself and says he was kidding.  But it's true. We just witnessed it a few scenes earlier.   It was in a fit of furious anger, as Bill's daughter Melissa (Susan Sarandon, in her debut), with whom the hippie was living in a filthy Greenwich Village flat, had OD'ed some time before.

Later, Joe sees new reports about the mysterious death of a young junkie and puts two and two together.  He calls Bill and tells him he knows.  He wants them to meet.  Why? Blackmail? Leverage? Money? Joe insists not, but does want a glimpse into the other side of the social gap, where folks have immaculate, museum like homes and go to bars where everyone is attractive and witty.  Joe also wants to show Bill what life is like in the working class ghetto, leading to a classic scene of discomfort for Joe and Bill's wives, especially the latter.

As the guys hang out, they realize they have more in common than anyone would imagine.  Especially their burning hatred for the free love generation.  Or any non-conservative.  Their alcohol consumption only fuels the vitriol.

Eventually discharged from the hospital, Melissa learns the truth about how her boyfriend died and disappears.   This leads Joe and Bill to a hippie bar and later an apartment for a drug fest and orgy.  This portion of JOE has much to say about human nature, sexism, and much more, but feels like a misstep in director John G. Avildsen's film.  I wish Norman Wexler (who later penned SERPICO and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER) was still around to question about this scene.  Its intentions, its genesis.

Then there's that finale, when, after Joe and Bill track down the hippies who stole their wallets at the orgy,  kill everyone with their shotguns.  Bill learns to his horror that one of these dirty liberals was his daughter.  Lingering freeze frame.  The End.

This stayed with me.  It would've likewise had I seen it on 1970, when the USA was still on fire from Vietnam, protests, assassinations, and many other ills.  The final scene, to me, is basically how we kill those we love with our hatred.   Maybe not literally murder, but alienate and even estrange over ideological differences.  Entire families these days have split over political stalemates.  Disgusting.  And timeless.

Boyle is incredible in a performance that I read was wildly misunderstood by the kind of knuckleheads he was portraying.  The bigots were cheering Joe and his views, just like they did Archie Bunker later that year.  Disturbing.  People really are that clueless, aren't they? Do they not stop and pay attention? Listen to the message? Timeless.