Crossroads

The guitar duel that closes this film was first written differently. It was scripted as a slide-guitar battle in keeping with the blues tone of the soundtrack, and it did not work. Ry Cooder phoned Guitar Player magazine to ask who the new player on the scene was; the answer was Steve Vai, and the part went to him. Vai appears on screen as the devil's guitarist, Jack Butler. Ralph Macchio's fingers are not his own either. The guitar parts in the film were played by Ry Cooder, Arlen Roth and Steve Vai. The story grows out of the Robert Johnson legend. A Juilliard student obsessed with the blues goes after a lost Johnson song, springs the old harmonica player Willie Brown from a nursing home and drives him to Mississippi. Willie, like Johnson, sold his soul at a crossroads and wants out of the deal. Walter Hill directed from a script by John Fusco. Sonny Terry plays harmonica. Who it is for: viewers who like blues legend fused with the road movie, where the music is the subject rather than decoration. Who it is not for: anyone expecting fidelity to blues history. The film blends the mythology with 1980s teen-movie logic, and the ending is pure fantasy.