Review of Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) by Stuart K — 06 Feb 2015

Directed by John Schlesinger, who after nearly 2 decades of making quite serious minded films, decided he wanted to try his hand at making a comedy. He was pitched this idea by producer Don Boyd (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980) and Aria (1987)), which was a satire on American commercialism and America's love with the open road.

Some of it works, and some of it doesn't In the sleepy Florida town of Ticlaw, the town's mayor is dismayed when Kirby T. Calo (William Devane) is dismayed when they learn a nearby freeway being built will have no turn off to Ticlaw, even though they paid the road builders to do so.

When that doesn't happen, they paint the town pink to attract tourists, and though various circumstances, visitors to Florida from all over America end up in Ticlaw. They include elderly couple Carol (Jessica Tandy) and Sherm (Hume Cronyn); a cocaine dealing hitchhiker (Daniel Stern), apspiring children's author Duane Hansen (Beau Bridges) and two nuns (Geraldine Page and Deborah Rush).

It's a very silly film which includes a flyover getting blown up, an elephant on water ski's and a whole town painted pink. Understandably, this made it a very expensive film for it's day, and no thanks to poor promotion, it was a massive flop.

It hurt Schlesinger's career for a few years, but it's not that bad, just a mess.