Honky Tonk Freeway

A notorious big budget flop when released. This Robert Altman inspired comedy has some terrific moments and an occasionally inspired cast. Although it goes on to long an loses its focus completely, there are enough funny moments that will keep a curious viewer watching until the end. If you are a fan of character actors and actresses, this will be a treat for you; you will recognize so many terrific little known performers throughout this movie (you may not know their names, but you know their faces), heck even the kid from A Christmas Story turns up in a small part. Rent if from Netflix, if you read this, I bet you will enjoy it.

HONKY TONK FREEWAY involves a small Florida tourist town named Ticaw and the people who live there, led by William Devane playing the part of the Mayor/Preacher Kirby T. Calo who also operates a hotel and tiny wildlife safari park. The town's major draw is a water-skiing elephant named Bubbles. When the state highway commission builds a freeway adjacent to the town, Devane slips an official 10,000 dollars to assure an off ramp. The off ramp doesn't come so the townsfolk literally paint the town pink to attract visitors. Meanwhile, we are introduced to several characters from various parts of the United States all for one reason or another are heading to Florida. We know they will all end up in Ticaw but finding out why and how is half the fun. There are bank robbers from New York (George Dzundza, Joe Grifasi) who pick up a cocaine dealing hitchhiker (Daniel Stern), a Chicago copy machine repairman and wannabe children's author Duane Hansen (Beau Bridges) who picks up a waitress Carmen Odessa Shelby (Beverly D'Angelo) who is carrying her mother's ashes to Florida, a dentist and his family (Howard Hesseman, Teri Garr, Peter Billingsly) vacationing cross country in their RV, an elderly woman Carol (Jessica Tandy) with a drinking problem and her loving husband Sherm (Hume Cronyn, of course), two nuns (mother superior Geraldine Page, novice nun Deborah Rush), a wannabe country song writer hauling a playful rhino and other wild animals to Ticaw, and more. This is a very funny movie with quirky interesting characters, good actors, a great director (John Schlesinger who helmed Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man and The Falcon and the Snowman) and a mix of slapstick comedy in the tradition of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and biting satire of American small towns such as Cold Turkey. Think Mayberry meets Picket Fences, or Hal Needham meets Robert Altman. A fun film with where half the fun is to see who's going to show up in the film and what's going to happen next.

I think I've been in the movies.

The freeway scenes were filmed in Orlando, on the East-West Expressway (today known as SR 408.) I worked evenings for a bus company on Division St. (about 20 blocks south of downtown) and one summer night in 1980 I got off work about 1 a.m. and took the East-West Expressway home to Goldenrod (on the east side of town.) Back then, the toll was only 25 cents (man!) and it shaved half an hour off your driving time, so I went up Orange Ave., hung a right on Anderson St. and burned rubber up the entrance ramp. There was some guy standing there with a flashlight and he almost jumped out in front of me to get me to stop, but I swung around him and floored it! I thought "who the H*** is that?" as I swung up onto the Expressway at 65 MPH.

Suddenly I realized something funny was going on... the traffic was bunched together in one giant wolf-pack, and the whole pack was only going about 45. Thinking nothing of it, I just started weaving from lane to lane through the pack, still going at least 65, until I popped out the front and left 'em all in the dust.

It was only later that I found out that the cops had closed the expressway for about 2 hours that night so that they could film a scene in Honky Tonk Freeway! (Everybody was driving 45, but the film was sped up later to make it look like 65 or 70.) I busted right into the middle of their scene, and maybe I messed it up! Maybe they had to re-shoot that scene! To the director, I can only say: sorry!

So, if you see a brand-new pastel-blue 1980 Chevrolet Citation notchback coupe in that scene really hauling butt, it was me!

VERY memorable comedy. It's fun to watch the many situations develop and finally converge after a long journey on that greatest collection of eclectic humanity (and the world's largest honky-tonk) - the great American Freeway. Like "...mad, mad world" it's got loads of contemporary talent, old-boy politics, good comedic action and dialog. Unlike that one it is the target that seeks, not the unwitting seekers - they have no idea what they really want as they drift along America's great road. Nor does it carry the weight of having a great fall guy who is saved only in the end by a great belly-laugh. But the ending stunt sequence is nothing short of spectacular with excellent film editing, humor and timing, and the big city bank scene is hilarious with very original acting by one very talented character in particular. The total aplomb of the city dwellers in the face of chaos leaves one feeling like the proverbial fly on the ceiling. The slapstick is funny, but Honky Tonk Freeway deserves to be heard and seen closely because it is surprisingly loaded with nuance and character reactions that are easily missed. All in all a very funny reflection of who we were and are, good or bad, and the goofy situations we find ourselves in. It was just meant to be FUNNY and it is!

The obsession of modern society with the ownership of a personal automobile is a very appropriate subject for satire. One could consider the role of private vehicles as one of the important elements in population control (although limited in its value by the associated medical costs!). Alternatively one could assess the role of the automobile in the atmospheric pollution that threatens dramatic changes of climate which will have a devastating effect on the lives of all of us; or one could look at the long term impact of more and more fertile agricultural land becoming sterilized by the construction of wide concrete freeways. There is plenty of scope for the inventive film maker to deal with such major themes. Instead most of the films dealing with this issue which have been released so far, raise only such trivial concerns as the infatuation of teenagers with acquiring ownership of their own vehicle, or occasionally with the problems associated with 'driving under the influence'. The film Honky Tonk Freeway is a noble exception to this collection of triviata. In it, the director John Schlesinger takes a long and very devastating look at yet another aspect of the automobile culture, the need for small towns to be closely connected to a major highway network if they are not to just fade away.

The film features Ticklaw, a Florida town that has become largely dependent upon the income brought in by short stay tourists heading towards the nearby coast. A new freeway under construction does not provide a promised access junction and the long term implications for the town are serious. The story line is the series of increasingly dramatic steps taken by the town to ensure that it remains an attractive stopping off point for through travellers. The film is a comedy with an edge and with very sharp characterisation. Unfortunately much of it is overdrawn to the point where it almost becomes pure slapstick, and for me this detracts a lot from the message of the film. However, although overlong, it remains quite enjoyable to watch; and the sequences showing an elephant being trained to waterski to entertain the visitors are almost etched in my memory. This could have been a really great film, but unfortunately much of it was so overdrawn that I can only recognise it as a near miss.