Loosely based on the hit song of the same name and intended to fit in with the C.B. radio craze and vehicular redneck movies of the era (think Burt Reynolds fare like White Lightning and Gator, or Hooper), Convoy is not only one of the strangest films in Peckinpah’s filmography, but one of the most singularly bizarre time capsules of the late 70s.
I guess at this point I should set the tone with a couple of facts:
1. Convoy is universally panned and derided.
2. I fucking love Convoy.
Both the song and film tell of a famed trucker known by the handle “Rubber Duck”, dodging “bears” and “smokeys” (cops) while attracting other truckers with colorful handles like “Pig Pen” to join him in a massive convoy, escalating into a huge ordeal. The song is great, but the inherent problem is that it simply doesn’t have enough of a plot to hang a feature film on. The film beefs things up by creating a villain, a crooked sheriff nicknamed Dirty Lyle (Ernest Borgnine) who antagonizes the truckers, sparking the fire that sets the film’s convoy event into motion. Musically, the song is reworked with different lyrics that not only better reflect the movie, but also include the phrase “hauling ass” which probably couldn’t be played on the radio… read more >
