Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
A young couple in a dingy apartment are injecting heroin in their arms. Susan Sarandon, in her film debut, plays the naive and innocent flower of a girlfriend. The guy is always out for a fix and sells pills for quick cash. In the first few moments of "Joe," you might think you are watching either an Andy Warhol film or some ultra gritty documentary about heroin users. Nothing can prepare you for what's to come. Having said that, "Joe" as a film doesn't resonate as strongly as I would've hoped after it is over and yet the substance is mostly derived from Peter Boyle's Joe who will resonate long after the film is over.
The eponymous title character is not introduced yet as we delve into a rich advertising businessman named Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick) who wants to help his strung-out daughter who's hospitalized after OD'ing (eventually she goes missing). He can't stand the way she lives nor can he stand the guy whom he accidentally kills by thrusting the guy's head against the wall repeatedly (edited with multiple dissolving frames that gives it an extra charge of brutality). After the murder, exasperated Compton walks into a bar and hears the title character Joe (Peter Boyle) talking about his intolerable hatred of blacks and hippies. The two form an uneasy alliance and come from different worlds - Compton is wealthy and Joe works in a factory. Their households and their wives couldn't be more different - Compton's wife is sophisticated and taciturn. Joe's wife is loquacious and gets on her husband's nerves. Compton has a fireplace and the luxuries of a high-rise, expensive apartment building. Joe has a smaller house and a gun collection in his basement.
If "Joe" had stuck to these two characters and their families as an exploratory character study and their differing views of the world at large, the film would've been a powerhouse. As it stands written by Norman Wexler, we get a little too much time devoted to free-lovin' hippies where Compton and Joe cavort in and smoke grass while trying to find Compton's missing daughter. Their wallets get stolen by the hippies and all hell breaks loose in the uneventful climax that results in an unexpected tragedy. The film loses some ground because the first 2/3 suggests anything but the climax we get. The two main characters of Joe and Compton are so fascinating and so intricately layered that the story demands something more than the sum of its parts.
"Joe" existed during a time of the Nixon-era when the hippies and their lifestyle were starting to wane and the counter culture was evaporating fast. Working class guys like the bigoted Joe were all too common, sensing that their worth only came down to dollars and cents whereas blacks could go on welfare and make the same amount of money (it is important to illustrate that these are his observations which were shared by many at the time...and still are). Compton makes far more money yet Joe respects him mainly for taking charge and for their mutual agreement on warfare against the free-thinking, free-lovin' liberals. A lot of this could've used more of a clear focus, to gauge their beliefs by putting them into practice beyond a semi-cop out ending. What we get leading to that shocking finale is some sex at a hippie hangout that goes awry and the aftermath of a violent shootout (all too common ending in controversial 1970's films). Still, "Joe" is an intriguing film that is worth seeing particularly for the on-the-nose and superior performance given by Peter Boyle - his early scene at the bar and other significant moments of observation are so damn riveting that I will never forget them. His character could still resonate today and that is scary to think about.
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