Un flic aux trousses

Did you see that nice guy who made a smallest mistakes and sent to jail overpaying three years and after tries escape got another two years there, having a good wife and a sick little son needing expensive medical treatment, well it happened with Eddie Macon when he decides moves from Florida to Texas due there have a lot of well-paid jobs to raising money to afford his little son treatment and in few years after the boy will be healed, then he saves enough money to buy a boat that he always dreaming for.

Under this far-fetched plot the movie starts, he got escape from there and a headhunter Carl "Buster" Marzack (Kirk Douglas), yes that guy who in the past arrested Eddie at first escape, Marzack does not forget the scar at your face did by Eddie, Marzack offers himself to bring back the convict for personal reasons, he is a sort of old heartless sniffer dog, he usually misleading everyone as countless phony ID, on the run Eddie enters in a desert area always running by night and face a weird farmers Potts family where they figure out as cattle's thief, letting Eddie to the main house to confess, there the crazy Daryl Potts (Tom Noonan) wants hang him there, including his odd and flamboyant wife Kay Potts (Lisa Dunsheath) although his shrewd brother Rudy (Jay O. Sanders) doesn't agree do such unkindness.

The scary Eddie perceives the jeopardy and shooting them with his gun hidden in backpack escaping from there, Marzack already awares of sad happenings in the farm going there and got the backpack left there, inside he found a map where Eddie described his route until the Mexico's border at Laredo, however the unlucked guy will overturn his fortune saving a little girl about to be rapped at your fancy Mercedes at desert road, the grateful and gorgeous girl Jilly Buck (Lee Purcell) actually is escort girl of Texas's governor, the wiser Jilly will drives the jumpy Eddie to Laredo, take a bath and rest for a while, somehow Jilly sees in young Eddie her soulmate wondering with him could be happy as everybody else, too late.

It's a fourth time watching Eddie Macon's run, Kirk even older got a strong performance as a trickster and cunning detective, the highlight are split in two fabulous sequence the hanging at Potts's house-farm and the chase through Laredo streets, also eye-candy Lee Purcell in an outstanding acting as B-girl with golden heart, pay attention on small roles of John Goodman and J. T. Wash as well, aside the lousy premise the movie survives in two robust sequences.

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First watch: 1988 / How many: 5 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 7.

I first saw this on T.V several years ago and quite liked it....... although that thing with the ranchers kind of left me wondering if someone had changed the channel when I wasn't looking! Other then that I thought it was a very good movie and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Eddie Macon (John Schneider of 'Dukes of Hazzard' TV fame) is a basically good man, who's ended up in prison on trumped-up charges. Before the movie begins, he's already attempted one escape, and as it opens, he's pulling off another one. If he gets caught again, he's going back in for life. He takes off on foot for Mexico, to reunite with his wife Chris (Leah Ayres) and son Bobby (Matthew Meece). Relentlessly pursuing him is stubborn, over the hill detective Carl Marzack (Kirk Douglas), who wants to prove to himself that he's still got what it takes to be a cop. At least, that's what he tells a friend.

In his first film vehicle, the engaging Schneider does a creditable job, playing a likable enough guy with the odds stacked against him. Among other episodes, Eddie will be threatened by a snake, tormented by redneck ranching family the Potts, and end up in the company of Jilly Buck (lovely Lee Purcell, delivering the movies' most interesting performance), who is willing to provide him assistance for no other reason than that it's a "slow Wednesday". Schneider provides a fair amount of beefcake moments for those that are interested, and also croons two songs on the soundtrack.

Competently shot (by James A. Contner), decently paced (director Jeff Kanew, who adapted the novel by James McLendon, was also the editor), and well acted, "Eddie Macon's Run" is not a great chase picture, but it is an adequate one, although there may be viewers that will wish there was more action. (There's actually only ONE car crash in this whole thing.) Douglas may be a little old for his role, but he's fun to watch. The first rate supporting cast features a respectable amount of familiar faces: Lisa Dunsheath, Tom Noonan, and Jay O. Sanders as the aforementioned Potts family, J.C. Quinn, Gil Rogers, Todd Allen, Nesbitt Blaisdell, Matthew Cowles, Vic Polizos, Dann Florek, J.T. Walsh (in his film debut), John Goodman, and Mark Margolis.

All in all, "Eddie Macon's Run" is not memorable but it IS entertaining.

Seven out of 10.

Eddie Macon (John Schneider) escapes from prison and is desperate to rejoin his family. His wife Chris (Leah Ayres) helps him escape. In flashbacks, he suffers various setbacks and injustices leading to a twenty year sentence. He is pursued by Texas department of corrections officer Carl 'Buster' Marzack (Kirk Douglas) who caught him in a previous attempt.

There is a lot of selling in this movie. It's selling Schneider as a good guy. The blonde hair blue eyed couple is perfect. At the end of the day, he was drinking while driving and he did hit a guy. It's a corrupt world and he expects that his perfection shouldn't be touched by it. I would root for him more if the movie isn't trying so hard to sell his innocence. There is a good performance from Douglas and there is also a young John Goodman. One thing is for sure. Texas folks aren't coming off looking good in this one. Finally, it's unreasonable for him to be running except that it's in the title. His wife should have rented a car and left it at a designated location. At the very least, he should have stolen a car after the shooting. All in all, it's fine if not anything special.

A fellow reviewer -- the one from Winnipeg -- has this one correctly pegged. It's a decent piece of entertainment and due to the decline in film standards, it probably plays better now than it did back in 1983. There are faults. Kirk Douglas seems too old for his part and Lee Purcell seems too young for hers, and the whole notion that Eddie Macon's escape-plan involves running on foot across country, sort of in a series of marathon races, never quite comes into focus. However, John Schneider makes a likable hero -- his appeal is augmented by several "beefcake" scenes -- and as has been mentioned elsewhere, the supporting cast is diverse, talented, and well-chosen. One aspect of the film has not been discussed. The cop's obsessive pursuit of Eddie Macon, reminiscent of "Les Miserables," raises questions. Considering all the criminals who must have caused him grief over the years, the cop seems curiously fixated on Eddie who, as felons go, is decidedly "small potatoes." Does the cop possibly lust after the young, handsome, and decidedly well-built Eddie, and does he then convert this "forbidden desire" into a rigorous drive to enforce the law? This might explain why the cop softens at the end of the chase, though the cop's apparent change of heart doesn't quite ring true no matter how you regard his motives. (One almost wishes for a dream sequence in which the cop gets to soap Eddie's back in the hotel bathroom's shower -- and what a commodious shower that hotel has!)