End of the Road

A tattered signpost of late sixties indie cinema
After working on Easy Rider, Terry Southern began collaborating with Aram Avakian on an intense adaptation of John Barth's debut novel. Shot in the summer and fall of 1968, when America was reeling from assasinations, the quagmire of Vietnam, rioting and ideological meltdown, the resulting film transforms Barth's existential character study into a chilling, visually stunning critique of political, sexual and cultural dysfunction. If the film's reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, there is still much that astonishes in this rarely screened film: the superb acting by Stacy Keach, James Earl Jones, Dorothy Tristan and Harris Yulin; the feature film debut of legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis; the haunting opening montage that relate's the lead's typical boomer upbringing against the horrorshow of post-WWII history; the music supervised by jazz producer George Avakian; and last, but not least, the uncompromising visionary screenplay by Terry Southern, Aram Avakian and Dennis McGuire...

Wonderful Film.
A wonderful piece of counter-cultural cinema.
Available at last on dvd.
Gives the viewer the opportunity to fully understand the work cinematographer Gordon Willis did with colors and composition.
Avakian's sense of editing is prevalent here too.
Amazing performances by the leading actors and a great example of the strengths of Terry Southern's tragicomic prose.



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