Citizens Band

This quite funny but nevertheless deep film, along with the great 'Melvin and Howard' can be viewed as part of the ongoing saga of Paul Le Mat, the guy who played the hotrodding eternal teenager, John Milner, in 'American Graffiti.' Le Mat is perfect for these films because he embodies a uniquely American mixture of down to earth hipness, non-cynicism and hard edged goodwill. He is somewhere between Audie Murphy and Steve McQueen with some touches of Elvis and Jerry Lewis thrown in. Demme uses him as the springboard for his explorations of what's authentic and non-cynical in ordinary American life.

All the events in 'Citizen's Band' are connected by the CB radios all the characters use. This allows for events that happen to characters far apart from each other (such as the bigamist trucker and Le Mat), to become connected into the snapshot or slice of life that becomes the film. The characters don't have to necessarily all run into each other, even though some of them do. Oliver Stone's supercynical and ridiculous 'Talk Radio' features a similar set-up. In fact, there, we never actually have to meet any of the on-air personalities.

Demme uses an Altman type setup to show how vast an area of 'craziness' the term 'normal people' covers and how all this can be non-cynical in nature at least as often as it is cynical.

This movie was made in the 1970s (3 years after American Graffiti) when use of the Citizens Band radio was at it's all time high. Hollywood, not being one to let a good craze go untapped when they can make good money from it, did EXACTLY that with this movie. Starring Paul Le Mat and Candy Clark, both of American Graffiti fame, it chronicles the lives of some CB radio fanatics living in a rural town who have nothing better to do than "Be someone else" on the radio.

Paul Le Mat (Spider)plays a CB regulator of sorts, a REACT station operator, who goes on a crusade to clean up the airwaves. he tries to accomplish this by cruising around in his very cool 1956 Chevy Nomad Stationwagon CB equipped of course! He peruses The Hustler, a 10yo self proclaimed ladies man for using ch9, the emergency channel. He also goes after Grandma Breaker, a non stop talker for keeping the channel all locked up 24-7. He goes after The Rad Baron, a Nazi wannabe who hates everything and everyone NON white. He goes up against The Priest, played very well by Ed Beagly Jr, who turns in a very believable performance for preaching the gospel on the radio without a license. He only breaks off his pursuit of these folks when he and his buddy almost get shot by the Red baron who catches them in his yard.

One must take this movie for face value in that it is a relatively simple movie but the actors and direction is perfect for portraying the lifestyle of rural CBers in the America of the times.

One of the greatest lines in the movie, spoken my Paul (Spider) is "No one in this town is who they are supposed to be!" He is referring to the fact that people on the radio are sometimes far different in real life, an alter ego of sorts, compared to reality. His girlfriend Candy Clark plays Elektra, a sexy talking lady on the radio who talks dirty to other CBers (like Warlock) in an attempt to rid herself of the small town blues. Then there is Chrome Angel, who gets stuck in town after a trucking accident after Paul (Spider) saves his life because of his REACT station. Chrome Angel is a bigamist who's two wives come to meet him unknown to each other till they meet on the bus. Paul's Father, Papa Thermodyne, is an ex trucker who seems to listen to only what comes over the CB so much so that Spider has to use a CB in another room to talk to him. It is only when Papa Thermodyne gets fed up and leaves home suitcase in hand, attempting to walk to Canada and everyone has to band together to find him that everyone gets along.

The movie has a good pace as well, never getting boring especially if you were also a CB junkie in the 60s~the 80s. Great acting, great script, great characters. Definitely a worthwhile watch! I highly recommend it and since it is available instantly you know where, it is a great watch. I wish it was available on DVD as I would buy it.

I still enjoy this movie even though some parts are slow and seem to drag on a bit. I really wish they would release it to Blu-Ray or DVD, I have a VHS copy but would prefer a DVD or Blu-ray copy. I did see it on Netflix a few months ago. When I watch this movie it brings back memories. I live in a very small town where there isn't much to do, back in the late 80's and 90's the only thing that interested me was getting on Citizens Band radio. I would always look forward to the weekends so I could get on my base station at home or get in my truck and drive around and talk for hours and hours. My friends and I would do the dumbest things on the radio like dead keying on channel 19 just to irritate everyone. We would use linear amplifiers with our base stations and mobile radios so it would be near impossible for anyone in the area to be heard. We did so many stupid things on the radio back then that it would take far too long to list everything. We would also track people down by using the signal strength meter on the mobile radio to find out where people were broadcasting from so we could get their home address if they were on a base station or find out what type of vehicle they were driving and write down their license plate number and make and model of their vehicle. Now days citizen band radio isn't very popular. I always wanted to see an updated version of this movie but I know it wouldn't be very popular now days. I guess the closest thing would be the movie Joy Ride (2001).

It sounds like a redneck movie about truckers, but it's really a gentle character study. The story centers around the citizen's band radio craze of the 1970s. Against this backdrop, the lives of a group of small town residents is examined in a successful blend of comedy and drama. Le Mat is quite likable as the unofficial enforcer of the local airwaves. His girlfriend is played by Clark, his "American Graffiti" co-star. There are fine performances from Blossom and McGill, as Le Mat's father and brother, respectively. There's a funny subplot about a bigamist trucker featuring Napier, Wedgeworth, Rodd, and Elias. The finale is a little forced, but this early effort from Demme mostly rings true.

I especially enjoyed this film because I was present when it was made in Marysville, CA. I worked security for the film and in fact I drove the police car flashing the spotlight when the cows were let out of the truck and made a mess all over the parking lot. The cow manure was hand made by compost purchased at the local Montgomery Wards Store. It was fun to watch it being made and the money wasn't too bad either. Charles Napier was a lot of fun to talk to as was most of the crew and cast. Paul LaMat wasn't too friendly but I guess he had more important things on his mind other than talking to peons. It amazed me how the talented the crew and prop people are, making cow dung, etc. to look so very real. Several movies have been made here in the 60's and 70's and most are supposed to be made in small southern towns.