Convoy

1978 trucker movie

Rating: 15/20 (Jen: 3/20)

Plot: Was the dark of the moon, on the sixth of June, Rubber Duck was in a Kenworth, pullin' logs. Cabover Pete with a reefer on, and a Jimmy haulin' hogs. They was headin' fer bear on I-10, 'bout a mile outta Shaky-Town. Rubber Duck says, "Pig-Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck, and I'm about to put the hammer on down." Cause they had a little old convoy, rockin' through the night. Yeah, they had a little ol' convoy, ain't nothin' gonna git in their way. They're gonna roll this truckin' convoy across the USA. Convoy! Rubber Duck said to Pig-Pen, "Uh, you wanna back off them hogs?" Pig-Pen said, "10-4, 'bout five mile or so, 10-roger, them hogs is gittin' intense up here." By the time they got into Tulsa Town, they had eighty-five trucks in all. But they was a road block up on the clover leaf, and them bears was wall to wall. Yeah, them smokies as thick as bugs on a bumper. They even had a bear-in-the-air. Rubber Duck says, "Callin' all trucks, this here's the Duck. We about to go a huntin' bear. Well, they rolled up Interstate 44 like a rocket sled on rails. They tore up all our swindle sheets and left 'em settin' on the scales. By the time we hit that Chi-Town, them bears was a-gettin' smart. They'd brought up some reinforcements from the Illinois National Guard. *****SPOILER ALERT***** There was armored cars and tanks and jeeps and rigs of every size. Yeah, them chicken coops was full a bears an choppers filled the skies. Well, they shot the line, and we went for broke with a thousand screamin' trucks. And eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus. Rubber Duck says, "Hey, Sod Buster, listen. You wanna put that microbus in behind the suicide jockey? Sod Buster answered, "Yeah, he's haulin' dynamite. He needs all the help he can git." Well, they laid a strip fer the Jersey Shore and prepared to cross the line. Rubber Duck would see the bridge was lined with bears, but he didn't have a doggone dime. He says, "Pig-Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck, we just ain't a gonna pay no toll." So they crashed the gate doin' ninety-eight. Rubber Duck says, "Let them truckers roll! 10-4."

This movie has a good message: "Keep the bugs off yer glass and the bears off yer ass." I remember this being one of my favorites as a kid, my step-father being a truck driving man and all. He had a CB handle (Yellow Streak) and that was about the only cool thing about his job. I made up my own CB handle (I forget) and talked to truckers. I just love the dialogue in this. It doesn't sound realistic to me at all, but I was never a truck driver in the sixties, so what do I know? Peckinpah's grit works so well with this truck-driver western; there are moments when you feel that you need to get up and wipe dust off your television screen. The counterculture message is a bit dated and probably was in the late-70s when this came out, but the freedom-at-any-cost message is still just as important. Lovable characters in this, the kind of folk you can only find if you pick up rocks and scrape them off the bottom. They all get great lines and even better names: Love Machine, Spiker Mike, Widow Woman, Big Nasty, Pack Rat, Sneaky Snake, Lizard Tongue, Old Iguana, Septic Sam the Sewer Man, Silver Streak. I always figured that the C.W. McCall lyrics were written for this movie, but the song came out first. This might be the best movie ever made that was inspired by a song, but I'd probably need to think about that a little more. Great bar-fight scene, great music, great ending. I have no reservations about calling this an overlooked 1970s classic.

I was inspired to come up with my own trucker handle. I'm trying to decide between Quasimodo and Golden Shower. What would your CB handle be?