COAST TO COAST
US, 1980, 92 minutes, Colour.
Dyan Cannon, Robert Blake, Quinn Redeker, Michael Lerner, Maxine Stuart, Bill Lucking.
Directed by Joseph Sargent.
Coast to Coast is a good-hearted knockabout (and with trucks and cars) smashabout comedy. In the Smokey and the Bandit vein (Robert Blake is a pudgy not-so-comic hero), we are on the road again (east coast, mid-west, Rockies, California) with C.B. truckers, cattle and an about-to-be-certified wife whose madness is not quite! Dyan Cannon tries to take a leaf out of Goldie Hawn's book for the role - moderately. It's also an '80s version of those madcap heiresses on the road screwball comedies of the '30s but with an emphasis on farce instead of subtlety. Inconsequential and depends on moods and tastes for appeal and success.
1. An enjoyable comedy? Road film? Piece of Americana. '80s style?
2. The influence of the '30s screwball comedies, the heiress on the road, the rescuer and the tough American hero,, adventures on the road? The adaptation to the styles of the '70s and '80s? Cars and trucks? The villains and the pursuit?
3. The American panorama: coast to coast, east coast and the change to the Midwest, the dustbowl states, the Rockies and the snow, California and its affluence? The location photography, the cities e.g. Kansas and all that they represent?
4. A satisfying blend of comedy, farce., comic situations, dialogue, visual humour? The tone of the credits with the classical music - the wedding photo and the ironic counts - with the touch of cruelty - about divorce?
5. The introduction to Madie - the doctor and his treatment. therapy, end of session, Madie's partly insane reactions? The explanation of her plight? Bashing him on the head with the statue of Freud, the straitjacket and the escape? Her talk on the way? The needle and her power over the doctor? The confusion, the issues and the need to get back to California? Audience sympathy for her character?
6. How did the film develop the character of Madie - her love for her husband, disillusionment, needs, lying in front of the truck in the rain and Charlie's rescuing her, the interlude at Charlie's house with the shotgun, her being left on the side of the road, the adventures at the gas station - her eating, being left behind, getting the cattle job, in the back of the truck with the cattle? The cars, the mid-west and Kansas City? Her buying the clothes? Her being rescued by Charlie and not sold? Her chance to review her life and its waning? Making greater connections with Charlie? The farcical interlude at the cattle yards? The continued pursuit, Charlie's injury and her long driving and enjoying herself, self-assertion? The snow interlude and the growth in love, sexual liaison? Her discovery of the truth and her being hurt? Her smashing down her husband's house? Ruining his life and being satisfied? The reconciliation with Charlie? The film indicating this as satisfying therapy! A zany heroine, Dyan Cannon's comic touches, farce? Did the character ring true?
7. Charlie as hero - his refusal to pick up Madie, trying to get rid of her, his own problem, the truck to be repossessed, the need for money, taking on the cattle, the C.B. connections with the detectives, the Kansas strategy, eluding the detectives, the run in the cattle yards, his sleeping with Madie driving, the snow interlude and romance, the truth, pursuit by motor bike, on the back of the truck to be participant in the final smash? A satisfying American hero type - did he ring true?
8. The portrait of the doctor, wealthy psychiatrists, therapy, being knocked out by Freud,, straitjacketed. the needle and the injection, the comic sequences of his phone calls and being cut off?
9. The sketching of the detectives - Sam and her toughness, her tough assistant? The chase, the deal with Charlie, the crashing of the car in Kansas City, the injuries in the cattle yard? Jules and his continued pursuit and crashes?
10. Benjamin and the marriage, talking through the credits, wanting Madie insane, saving money by not divorcing? His phone calls and keeping up appearances, girlfriends, affluent lifestyle, party, the house being wrecked around him and his saying that his total life was destroyed? Audience antipathy towards him?
11. How satisfying a road film, stunt work, driving, smashes?
12. As comedy - visual, situation, the cattle yard sequences, the elaborate smashing of the house?
13. As an offbeat love story?
14. As a sketch of people, their rights, needs, images of American society, marriage and relationships-, therapy? An optimistic farce?
