Convoy

Convoy

United Artists/EMI (1978)
Produced by Robert E. Sherman
Written by B.W.L. Norton (Based on the song by C.W. McCall)
Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Burt Young

Widely considered Peckinpah's least effort, Convoy is nonetheless more creative and entertaining than most of today's action/comedy films. The film's major drawback is that it has none of the usual Peckinpah characters that stick in the viewers mind. The whole film appears as if Peckinpah were simply going through the motions.

The story is based on the hit song by C.W. McCall. (Talk about a thin source.) In brief, it deals with a group of truckers who start up a convoy to protest unfair treatment by the police. The truckers are led by Martin Penwald, a.k.a. "Rubber Duck" (Kristofferson), who decides to use the media coverage of the convoy as an opportunity to voice the truckers' poor working conditions and frequent police harrasment.

There are some good auto-related action scenes, but not much else to recommend. Kristofferson and MacGraw sleepwalk through their roles. Both were much better in their previous Peckinpah films.

The film is not all that bad of its type, it's just a disappointment coming from a director who was capable of much better work.