Joe (film)
Encyclopedia
Joe is a 1970
drama film
starring Peter Boyle
, Dennis Patrick
, and Susan Sarandon
in her film debut. The film was directed by John G. Avildsen
.
's Upper East Side
. Melissa has recently been living with her drug dealer boyfriend. After Melissa overdoses
and is sent to a hospital, Compton goes to her boyfriend's apartment to get her clothes. Compton then kills the boyfriend in a fit of rage.
Shaken, he grabs a bag of the boyfriend's drugs, flees from the apartment, and goes to calm down in a local bar. There, he hears factory worker Joe Curran (Boyle) ranting about how he hates hippie
s, and repeatedly saying, "I'd love to kill one." Compton, unable to restrain himself, blurts out "I just did," then fakes a smile once he realizes he has just made a public confession. Joe appears to believe Compton's statement at first, but then takes it as a joke.
The next day, Joe sees a news report about a drug dealer being murdered a few blocks from the bar. He immediately realizes Compton is the one who did it. Joe, a deeply disturbed man with a hidden violent streak, arranges a meeting with Compton, and the two form a very strange friendship. Compton tells Joe about the phoniness and emptiness of his smug rich friends, while Joe holds Compton in high esteem for doing what Joe could not bring himself to do: kill a rebellious youth. Joe takes Compton to meet Joe's blue-collar friends at a bowling alley, and Compton brings Joe to a bar frequented by advertising executives.
After a very awkward dinner among Joe, Compton, and their wives, Compton tells Joan, who is concerned that Joe might blackmail
Compton, that she need not worry because Joe so identifies with Compton that Joe feels as if he were a willing accomplice to the murder. Melissa, having escaped from the hospital and returned to the family apartment, overhears her father confess to the murder. Storming out of the apartment house, she asks her father, "What are you gonna do, kill me too?" Compton tries to restrain her, but she breaks away.
With Melissa missing, Joe and Compton begin to search for her. During their search, they meet a group of hippies at a bar in downtown Manhattan
. Joe and Compton tell the hippies they have drugs (the drugs Compton took from Melissa's boyfriend). The hippies invite Joe and Compton to join them at an apartment, where they share their drugs and girlfriends with the pair. They then abscond with the remainder of the drugs, as well as Joe's and Compton's wallets.
When he discovers this theft, Joe beats one of the girls until she tells him that their boyfriends often spend time in an upstate commune
. Joe and Compton drive to that commune, and Joe brings along some rifles and plenty of ammunition, "just to scare them." When they see the hippie thieves and demand their wallets back, one of the thieves tosses the pair their now empty wallets and begins to run away. Joe shoots the thief and goes on a rampage, firing at everyone in the commune. Compton protests, but Joe ignores him, mowing down anyone in his path — including people who had no involvement in the theft.
When a new group of hippies arrives at the door and Joe is out of ammo, Joe encourages Compton to join in. Compton shoots and kills several of them, and a girl in the group flees out of the building. Compton runs to the doorway and fires at the fleeing girl's back, hitting her. As she falls, she is revealed to be Melissa. Compton cries out her name and he hears in his mind, once again, her voice asking, "What are you gonna do, kill me too?"
's screenplay for Joe received an Oscar
nomination for Best Original Screenplay
.
Joe also featured an original soundtrack, introducing artists such as Exuma
with the song "You Don't Know What's Going On", Dean Michaels' "Hey Joe
" (not a version of the song made famous the Leaves, Jimi Hendrix, and others), and other original songs by Jerry Butler
and Bobby Scott
.
with similarities to the movie's climactic scenes occurred in Detroit
, Michigan
. At about 2 a.m. on 8 May 1970, a railroad worker named Arville Douglas Garland (b. 21 September 1924 - d. 26 April 2004) walked into Stonehead Manor, a "student-hippie residence" near the campus of Wayne State University
, and killed his 17-year-old daughter Sandra, her 18-year-old boyfriend Scott Kabran, and their friends Gregory Walls (17) and Anthony Brown (16). Sandra Garland, Arville's oldest child, had graduated from high school at age 16. She was a resident at Stonehead Manor and was in her third semester of pre-med classes at the university.
Garland brought with him a 9mm pistol, a Luger — both of which he used during the crime — and two pocketfuls of extra ammunition. After shooting Sandra and her friends, he began reloading the guns as he went in search of Sandra's roommate, Donna Sue Potts. It was then that his wife Martha — who had ridden along with him, expecting that they would merely retrieve their daughter and take her home — forced him to leave the building. She then insisted that he turn himself in to the police.
Although the Time Magazine
articles from 1970 and 1971 repeat Garland's claim that he shot Sandra accidentally as a result of striking Scott Kabran in the head with one of the guns, the Detroit Free Press
in its 2000 book The Detroit Almanac claims that Garland actually "fired repeatedly into Sandra's sleeping body." The book also quotes Martha Garland regarding her daughter's murder: "Sandra was our princess. If we wouldn't have loved her so much, it never would have happened."
During pre-trial deliberations, Judge Joseph A. Gillis saw Joe and strongly advised both the prosecution and defense teams to do the same. He then carefully screened each member of the jury pool and excluded any who had seen the movie. He also forbade any seated juror from watching the movie or discussing it with anyone who had seen it.
On 18 December 1970, Garland was sentenced
to one count of manslaughter
(10 to 15 years) and three counts of second degree murder (10 to 40 years for each count). Gillis allowed the four sentences to run concurrently.
Before and after sentencing, Garland received hundreds of letters from parents across the country who expressed sympathy with him. It was also reported that during the first weeks after his sentencing, he received no letters expressing outrage or condemnation of his actions.
(1971). The role would earn Gene Hackman
the Oscar for Best Actor
. Boyle later appeared in Taxi Driver
. This film inspired the creation of other tough, working class characters in 70s films and TV shows, including the character of Archie Bunker
on the TV show All in the Family
.
In the 1980s, there were rumors that Peter Boyle might appear in a sequel to Joe. The sequel would follow Joe as he tried to rebuild his life after spending 10 years in prison and would also deal with his grown up kids who held more liberal beliefs, as Arville Garland had. The film never materialized, however.
1970 in film
The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
starring Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle
Peter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
, Dennis Patrick
Dennis Patrick
Dennis Patrick was a well-respected American character actor best known for his works in television shows such as Jason McGuire and Paul Stoddard in Dark Shadows, Somerset, Vaughn Leland in Dallas, movies such as Joe...
, and Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
in her film debut. The film was directed by John G. Avildsen
John G. Avildsen
John Guilbert Avildsen is an American film director.-Life and career:Avildsen was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Ivy and Clarence John Avildsen...
.
Plot
Advertising executive Bill Compton (Patrick), his wife Joan (Audrey Caire), and daughter Melissa (Sarandon) are a wealthy family living in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
's Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
. Melissa has recently been living with her drug dealer boyfriend. After Melissa overdoses
Drug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
and is sent to a hospital, Compton goes to her boyfriend's apartment to get her clothes. Compton then kills the boyfriend in a fit of rage.
Shaken, he grabs a bag of the boyfriend's drugs, flees from the apartment, and goes to calm down in a local bar. There, he hears factory worker Joe Curran (Boyle) ranting about how he hates hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s, and repeatedly saying, "I'd love to kill one." Compton, unable to restrain himself, blurts out "I just did," then fakes a smile once he realizes he has just made a public confession. Joe appears to believe Compton's statement at first, but then takes it as a joke.
The next day, Joe sees a news report about a drug dealer being murdered a few blocks from the bar. He immediately realizes Compton is the one who did it. Joe, a deeply disturbed man with a hidden violent streak, arranges a meeting with Compton, and the two form a very strange friendship. Compton tells Joe about the phoniness and emptiness of his smug rich friends, while Joe holds Compton in high esteem for doing what Joe could not bring himself to do: kill a rebellious youth. Joe takes Compton to meet Joe's blue-collar friends at a bowling alley, and Compton brings Joe to a bar frequented by advertising executives.
After a very awkward dinner among Joe, Compton, and their wives, Compton tells Joan, who is concerned that Joe might blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
Compton, that she need not worry because Joe so identifies with Compton that Joe feels as if he were a willing accomplice to the murder. Melissa, having escaped from the hospital and returned to the family apartment, overhears her father confess to the murder. Storming out of the apartment house, she asks her father, "What are you gonna do, kill me too?" Compton tries to restrain her, but she breaks away.
With Melissa missing, Joe and Compton begin to search for her. During their search, they meet a group of hippies at a bar in downtown Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Joe and Compton tell the hippies they have drugs (the drugs Compton took from Melissa's boyfriend). The hippies invite Joe and Compton to join them at an apartment, where they share their drugs and girlfriends with the pair. They then abscond with the remainder of the drugs, as well as Joe's and Compton's wallets.
When he discovers this theft, Joe beats one of the girls until she tells him that their boyfriends often spend time in an upstate commune
Commune
Commune may refer to:In society:* Commune, a human community in which resources are shared* Commune , a township or municipality* One of the Communes of France* An Italian Comune...
. Joe and Compton drive to that commune, and Joe brings along some rifles and plenty of ammunition, "just to scare them." When they see the hippie thieves and demand their wallets back, one of the thieves tosses the pair their now empty wallets and begins to run away. Joe shoots the thief and goes on a rampage, firing at everyone in the commune. Compton protests, but Joe ignores him, mowing down anyone in his path — including people who had no involvement in the theft.
When a new group of hippies arrives at the door and Joe is out of ammo, Joe encourages Compton to join in. Compton shoots and kills several of them, and a girl in the group flees out of the building. Compton runs to the doorway and fires at the fleeing girl's back, hitting her. As she falls, she is revealed to be Melissa. Compton cries out her name and he hears in his mind, once again, her voice asking, "What are you gonna do, kill me too?"
Production
Norman WexlerNorman Wexler
Norman Wexler was a screenwriter whose work included such films as Saturday Night Fever, Serpico and Joe, for which he received an Oscar nomination in 1971...
's screenplay for Joe received an Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nomination for Best Original Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. Before 1940, there was an Academy Award for Best Story for writing. For 1940, it and the award in this article were separated into two awards. Beginning with the...
.
Joe also featured an original soundtrack, introducing artists such as Exuma
Exuma (musician)
Macfarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey, who recorded as Exuma was a Bahamian musician, known for his almost unclassifiable music; a strong mixture of carnival, junkanoo, calypso and ballad. In his early days in New York's Greenwich Village, Tony McKay performed in small clubs and bars...
with the song "You Don't Know What's Going On", Dean Michaels' "Hey Joe
Hey Joe
"Hey Joe" is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and as such, has been performed in a multitude of musical styles by hundreds of different artists since it was first written. "Hey Joe" tells the story of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico...
" (not a version of the song made famous the Leaves, Jimi Hendrix, and others), and other original songs by Jerry Butler
Jerry Butler (singer)
Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...
and Bobby Scott
Bobby Scott (musician)
Bobby Scott was an American musician, record producer, and songwriter.-Biography:He was born Robert William Scott in Mount Pleasant, New York, and became a pianist, vibraphonist, and singer, and could also play the accordion, cello, clarinet, and double bass...
.
Arville Garland — a real-life "Joe"
Ten weeks before Joe was released in the United States, a real-life mass murderMass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
with similarities to the movie's climactic scenes occurred in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. At about 2 a.m. on 8 May 1970, a railroad worker named Arville Douglas Garland (b. 21 September 1924 - d. 26 April 2004) walked into Stonehead Manor, a "student-hippie residence" near the campus of Wayne State University
Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
, and killed his 17-year-old daughter Sandra, her 18-year-old boyfriend Scott Kabran, and their friends Gregory Walls (17) and Anthony Brown (16). Sandra Garland, Arville's oldest child, had graduated from high school at age 16. She was a resident at Stonehead Manor and was in her third semester of pre-med classes at the university.
Garland brought with him a 9mm pistol, a Luger — both of which he used during the crime — and two pocketfuls of extra ammunition. After shooting Sandra and her friends, he began reloading the guns as he went in search of Sandra's roommate, Donna Sue Potts. It was then that his wife Martha — who had ridden along with him, expecting that they would merely retrieve their daughter and take her home — forced him to leave the building. She then insisted that he turn himself in to the police.
Although the Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
articles from 1970 and 1971 repeat Garland's claim that he shot Sandra accidentally as a result of striking Scott Kabran in the head with one of the guns, the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
in its 2000 book The Detroit Almanac claims that Garland actually "fired repeatedly into Sandra's sleeping body." The book also quotes Martha Garland regarding her daughter's murder: "Sandra was our princess. If we wouldn't have loved her so much, it never would have happened."
During pre-trial deliberations, Judge Joseph A. Gillis saw Joe and strongly advised both the prosecution and defense teams to do the same. He then carefully screened each member of the jury pool and excluded any who had seen the movie. He also forbade any seated juror from watching the movie or discussing it with anyone who had seen it.
On 18 December 1970, Garland was sentenced
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
to one count of manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
(10 to 15 years) and three counts of second degree murder (10 to 40 years for each count). Gillis allowed the four sentences to run concurrently.
Before and after sentencing, Garland received hundreds of letters from parents across the country who expressed sympathy with him. It was also reported that during the first weeks after his sentencing, he received no letters expressing outrage or condemnation of his actions.
Aftermath
When Peter Boyle saw audience members cheering the violence in Joe, he refused to appear in any other film or television show that glorified violence. This included the role of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French ConnectionThe French Connection
The French Connection or French Connection may refer to:* French Connection, an infamous 1960s-70s drug trafficking scheme* The French Connection , a 1969 non-fiction book about the drug trafficking scheme...
(1971). The role would earn Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
the Oscar for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. Boyle later appeared in Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
. This film inspired the creation of other tough, working class characters in 70s films and TV shows, including the character of Archie Bunker
Archie Bunker
Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional New Yorker in the 1970s top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative, blue-collar worker, and...
on the TV show All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
.
In the 1980s, there were rumors that Peter Boyle might appear in a sequel to Joe. The sequel would follow Joe as he tried to rebuild his life after spending 10 years in prison and would also deal with his grown up kids who held more liberal beliefs, as Arville Garland had. The film never materialized, however.