Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Crossroads Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 8, 2021

Crossroads, the 1986 picture from Writer John Fusco (Young Guns) and Director Walter Hill (48 Hrs), offers a satisfying blend of Blues tunes and a story of burgeoning buddies brought together by a shared love of music. The film dabbles in a hodgepodge of cinematic odds and ends: character studies, road trip maneuverings, light romance, supernatural currents, and a coming-of-age story. And even through all of the seemingly disparate constructs there's a satisfying film at the center, one that ultimately plays with some familiar pieces but also builds its own identity along the way.

Teenager Eugene Martone (Ralph Macchio) is a classically trained guitarist, studying at the prestigious Juilliard School, with a bright future ahead of him. But his true passion is Blues music. He's in love with the sounds, the men, and the history of it all. One of his favorites is the immortal Robert Johnson, a Blues Man who purportedly sold his soul to the devil and who also penned a song nobody has heard before. When Eugene learns that one of Johnson's closest friends, Willie Brown (Joe Seneca), is serving prison time at a nearby hospital, he takes a janitorial job to gain access to the music legend. While Willie at first brushes off Eugene's advances, he is soon enough convinced to break out of the hospital -- with Eugene's help -- and head to Mississippi to settle an old score with a dangerous foe. In exchange, and assuming Eugene grows into a true Blues Man along the way, he'll hand over the missing song which Eugene hopes will propel his musical career.

Much of Crossroads -- especially the more superficial aspects -- center on the road trip elements and the basic character constructions and evolutions, and these elements prove more than capable as a framework for the more interesting interior pieces that explore characters' at their very souls -- quite literally, as the case may be -- as they discover more about themselves along the way. It's said that Willie's friend Robert Johnson sold his soul for his talent, which is perhaps an ironic current considering that it's soul that is so often at the core of every great Blues Man. It's what Willie wants to save on his trip -- not his own, but his friend's -- and it's what Eugene must find if he's going to prove himself not just to Willie or the wider Blues world, but to himself. No doubt he can play. But can he feel the music? does it come from inside, shaped and personalized by his own experiences and worldviews, or are his notes just marks on a piece of paper to be precisely reproduced without any feeling? The soul is at the center of the film. It means different things for different characters and the multiple perspectives on the same central essence is one of the main qualities that makes the movie work.

Macchio and Seneca play well off of one another. The former is certainly very plainly "green" when it comes to life. Macchio plays a 17-year-old who is quite clearly a gifted musician. But he's also a passionate human being who seizes an opportunity to get closer to his hero and take a leap of faith to follow his dream, which is not classical guitar with a Julliard degree but rather the life of a Blues Man and someone destined to make a lasting legacy on the scene. Macchio builds the character and sells the life experience growth well enough. There are certainly some familiar beat at work when comparing his part and performance in Crossroads with his work in The Karate Kid. There's a similar growth and journey aspect to both stories, the material here more demanding of a fine-tuned inward-built performance, which he capably, though not quite expertly, delivers. Seneca carries much of the film. He's a natural as Willie, instantly believable as an aging Blues Man with a conscience to clear and the determination to see his mission through, which eventually comes to also include witnessing Eugene's birth as a true Blues Man.

Crossroads Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The opening shot showing the musician at the crossroads is supposed to look worn and weary, but it's also accompanied by digital compression artifacts that don't compliment the scene in the least. As he arrives in the hotel, the struggle with macroblocking, as well as print splotches and speckles, remain. These are defining characteristics that linger throughout the entire presentation, readily evident in every shot, scene, and sequence. But while the image suffers from technical drawbacks, it's inarguably superior to its release date brethren, The Freshman and Like Father Like Son, which are two of the worst looking Blu-rays to hit the market in some time, and the latter in particular. While the same issues plague Crossroads, the image is clearly less dramatically weakened. A fair semblance of the innate filmic roots remain visible, and textures are not totally destroyed, either. There's a decent fundamental sharpness and definition at work here, allowing for some much needed (and appreciated) textural detail in view. Faces, clothes, and perhaps most notably downtrodden hotel rooms, homes, bars, and natural exteriors at least offer a sound baseline definition, even if none of them thrive in complexity, and help carry the film's illusion forward. Colors are somewhat depressed but a core tonal fidelity and sense of basic depth remains. There's nice saturation to the yellow guitar, natural greens, and flesh tones. Black levels aren't at all poor, either, particularly in a few key nighttime exteriors. Certainly there's a vastly superior image buried under the various issues with this transfer, but it could have been a lot worse, too.

Crossroads Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Crossroads' DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack offers enough of the essential detail and stage fluidity necessary to carry a film that is superficially about music. The track features some quality front stretch and discrete effects off to either side, evident in a number of scenes that all keep the track lively at best and capable at worst. Some of the early hospital scenes bear the fruits of a wide stage and carry some minor discrete environmental elements which present with just enough detail and spread to draw the listener towards the locale. Light din inside a bus stop in chapter four is likewise pleasing for stretch and detail. Falling rain, rolling thunder, and Blues riffs at the 36:30 mark set the scene on the next stage of the adventure, and indeed the track delivers a competent collection of sounds that are vital to bringing its listening landscape to, if not vibrant then certainly essentially satisfying, life. The climactic guitar showdown offers excellent stage engagement and riff detail, even as the scene turns from tit-for-tat exchanges to frenzied playing and raucous cheering. It's in nice balance and while modern sound engineering and multichannel audio would have made for a more dynamic moment, the sequence is quite spellbinding within its innate audio constraints. Dialogue is perfectly clear and intelligible, naturally imaging to the front-center location.

Crossroads Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Crossroads contains no supplemental content. The main menu screen only offers options for "Play" and toggling subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release ships with a "retro VHS" slipcover which features alternate (and superior) artwork compared to the BD case proper.

Crossroads Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Crossroads is a solid movie that flows well and plays better thanks to its human depth, solid story beats, and quality performances, particularly from a wonderful, and seamless, Joe Seneca. Mill Creek's featureless Blu-ray delivers struggling, but not entirely horrendous, video and a quality two-channel lossless soundtrack. Recommended, but Mill Creek needs to do at least a bit better in the video department; 2021 is not shaping up well so far. This is the best of the mid-January "retro VHS" releases, which is not saying much.