Country Blue

Some interesting scenes with character actor legends Dub Taylor and David Huddleston. Shot in and around Tallahassee, Fla. the locations and local bit players are fun to watch. Opening aerial and local dirt track raceway footage is full of locals and red clay dust. The robbery at a small country grocery store, and a small town bank, the jail scene and state trooper action are totally authentic. This is probably Dub Taylor's (Bonnie & Clyde, The Getaway, You Can't Take It With You) longest screen role. The original music soundtrack is written and performed by several of L.A.'s top session artists. A strong first effort by twenty-somethings just out of USC Film School.

The budget for this film may have been $10,000. But I don't care. It was set in South Georgia / North Florida, which is close to my heart since I grew up a middle Georgia. Was set in the early to mid-70s, which is near and dear to my heart since I was born in 1966. And it has some very redeeming elements and charming aspects, even though it's an extremely low budget movie with no name brand actors or anybody involved in this production. The 15 mph stop sign in Valdosta was funny as was the mega size Schlitz beer bottle in an early bar scene. And there were several scenes that had high production values, like the primary couple being affectionate in the water, and some of the chase scenes, very well done. I'm not sure that Smokey and the Bandit was much better than this movie.

A man on parole, in love with his bosses married daughter, robs a bank and then runs off to Mexico with the daughter in tow.

If you've ever wondered what Southern drive-in fare was like in the early 1970's, look no farther. This is the sort of low budget movie that played all along the South during the boom days of the drive-in movie theater. My guess this would have been the second or third feature of a multi feature program.

While this is not the best movie in the world (an understatement) it does have a certain nostalgic charm, at least for me. I like the fact that Dub Taylor, a character actor who's work goes all the way back to the Frank Capra movies of the 1930's is allowed to play something close to a lead. The movie itself is just okay, but its clearly a film that never could stand on its own except as a filler on a multi feature program.

Is it worth seeing? As a stand alone feature probably not, but if you're going to have a night of movies you might want to throw this one into the mix, especially if you're doing an evening of country themed drive-in movies.

In the late 60's / early 70's a lot of films followed the template laid down by the landmark crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967). There was a plethora of films about young couples getting involved in crime and then going on the run from the law. Country Blue is a pretty typical example of this. It's about a young guy just out of prison who starts an affair with his boss's daughter, before long they embark on a crime spree, robbing banks as a means of getting out of their dirt poor environment and starting a new life somewhere else.

Films set in the American South often focus on characters trying to get out of their environs. The rural South depicted in this film is shown warts and all. It's a place of poverty and hopelessness, full of run-down people. It's this very authentic location and feel that give it quite a bit of its interest. In this regard it reminded me a little of films such as Moonrunners (1975) and indicates that like that one Country Blue was a little ahead of the curve in terms of the soon-to-be- massively popular spate of films set in the Southern states – if you went to the cinema in the late 70's I daresay you'd be tripping over them, there were so many. Country Blue is a much lower budgeted affair than those though and it doesn't feature all that much good ol' boy humour. But its lower production values have, if anything, only accentuated the authenticity as the locations here are properly lived-in and battered.

For the most part it qualifies more as a crime-drama than anything else, with the action only really escalating in its final section, where we have bloody shoot-outs with the cops, a beating, an attempted rape and lots of car chases. It also has one of those organic sounding scores, compromising of country rock and pop songs which so many early 70's American movies have and which I am always a sucker for. All-in-all, Country Blue might be a little rough around the edges but it has an attitude and feel that I found very easy to get behind.

I was fairly surprised with this film. It's actually better than I expected it to be. It's a pretty good story - no not great - but decent. I liked it to a degree. It's not a film I would watch over and over but one that I might watch again sometime.

Stereo-typical redneck movie... not all Southerners are like some of the people in the film but some are. You can expect to see car chasing, bank robberies and love story in this movie. It's sorta a Bonnie and Clyde type of film.

This movie is OK if you like to watch B crime-dramas - you aren't missing anything if you pass this film up but if you do decide to watch it just know it's just an "ok" film but not all that bad either.

4/10