Back Roads (1981 film)
Encyclopedia
Back Roads is a 1981
1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....

 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...

 starring Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...

 and Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....

. It is directed by Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt was an American director, actor, and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.-Early career and influences:...

. It got middling reviews and grossed $11 million at the box office.

Plot

Amy Post (played by Field) is a $20-a-trick hooker in Mobile, Alabama. One night she entertains Elmore Pratt (Jones), an ex-boxer who has just been fired from his job at a car wash. He cannot pay her for services rendered.

Pratt punches a plainclothes police officer. He and the prostitute hit the road together, intending to head for California, bickering along the way.

Interesting facts

It has been reported that Field and Jones disliked one another intensely. Director Ritt reportedly said later that he regretted not being able to make this film work, blaming its failure on both the script and the stars' inability to get along.

Nevertheless, in his March 13, 1981 New York Times review, critic Vincent Canby wrote that there "seems to be a real rapport" between the two actors. Canby described the film as "extremely appealing and occasionally gutsy and very funny."

Other reviewers were less kind. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars on a scale of four, although he did comment that Field "gives a performance that cannot be faulted."

David Keith
David Keith
David Lemuel Keith is an American actor and director. He received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year – Actor for his performance in An Officer and a Gentleman.-Career:...

, Michael V. Gazzo
Michael V. Gazzo
Michael Vincenzo Gazzo was an American Broadway playwright who later in life became a film and television actor....

 and Barbara Babcock
Barbara Babcock
Barbara Babcock is an American character actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Grace Gardner on Hill Street Blues for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress—Drama Series in 1981 and her role as Dorothy Jennings on Dr...

were also in the cast.

External links

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