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Standard plot of "innocent guy on the run from the law" works well. However, this movie would be much less without Kirk Douglas. He makes the movie. Nothing spectacular here, but not a bad movie. Any movie that has the video game "Gorf" can't be bad. I give it a 7 out of 10. Lee Purcell is hot!

"Eddie Macon's Run" is based on a book by James McLendon. And, while it doesn't say it anywhere in the film, his book MUST have been strongly inspired by Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables" as the plots are often nearly the same. So, when you see Eddie, he's essentially Jean Valjean and Marzack is Javert. Of course, it's also very much like "The Fugitive" as well.

The story begins at the famous prison rodeo at the Huntsville, Texas prison. One of the participants is Eddie (John Schneider), an innocent man sent to prison. He isn't participating in order to win...he's using it as a chance to escape. And, once out of the prison, he's pursued by the determined and rather sociopathic Carl Marzack (Kirk Douglas)...a man willing to do just about anything to catch Eddie.

The trip across the border to Mexico won't be easy, as Eddie needs to run through Texas wilderness. But it's made a million times worse because, according to this film, Texas is filled with scum. He has to contend with some hicks who kidnap and try to hang him for kicks as well as a rapist who he stops when he hears a woman screaming for help!

This brings me to the way Texas is portrayed. In addition to rapists and murderers, the film features bigots who tell black jokes, corrupt cops, sexual harassers and just a whole mess of rednecks. You can sure tell that the film was NOT sponsored by the Texas Department of Tourism!! And, it also seemed like a series of cheap shots about Texans...which made me wonder if the writers had something in particular against the state!

Overall, enjoyable but certainly not very original. Also, the ending was poor...with Eddie approaching Marzack's car WITHOUT his gun and the twist after that which doesn't make any sense.

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!)