White Line Fever
Sometimes the biggest Achilles Heel to any kind of a movie trying to stand apart on its own is with its issues of sheer implausibility. Whether it happens because the filmmakers are looking to make a hit film and don’t want their audience to be bored to tears or if it’s just an old fashioned exploitation film type mentality rearing its ugly head as the film itself purports to be telling a serious story while its screenplay goes completely off the rails with utterly ridiculous story elements, it can lead to a disaster of its own kind, a serious movie that’s hard to take seriously when one knows that the majority of the characters’ actions would never occur in real life. This 1975 release is pretty much just that, essentially the story of a union labor dispute that haphazardly tries to shoehorn in elements of an action / revenge thriller in order to satisfy a certain box office quota (an attempt was made in its initial release to liken it to Walking Tall). The lead actor here is Jan-Michael Vincent, one of the more tragic stars of the 70s whom despite the fact that he lived until the age of 74 before passing away in 2019, saw all of his early promise and potential to be a major movie star go down the drain due to having severe drug and alcohol issues which saw him spending much of the 80s in a complete career haze before descending forever into B movie hell, never to reemerge. But at this time (even though director Jonathan Kaplan alleged that Jan-Michael was using cocaine on the set), he seemed to have his whole career right in front of him as he took on the role of Carrol Jo Hummer, a young man who would appear to have his entire life nicely laid out when he returns home from Vietnam complete with a cute wife (Kay Lenz, also a VERY big deal in the 70s who still works as a character actress today), a new yet modest little house, and an ambition to become a truck driver like his late father before him (whom it appears was extremely well liked by the other truckers as well). After buying his own personalized truck (The Blue Mule), he goes to work for the trucking company where one of his dad’s oldest friends (The Legend Slim Pickens) is an assistant manager. But there’s trouble afoot. One of the members of the loading crew (Martin Kove a.k.a. John Kreese) takes an instant disliking to him and starts employing bullying tactics (not a good idea since Jan-Michael’s Nam vet is more than capable of defending himself) and on an even worse note, he learns that the trucking company is expecting him to haul contraband items (namely slot machines and untaxed cigarettes) which despite the increase in pay to do so, would result in him losing his trucker’s license if he was to be caught in the act by law enforcement. That’s the basic setup for the plot that just gets more out of control and ludicrous as the film goes on (and is certainly nothing resembling any known real life labor disputes). The main glaring issue at hand is in the way both Jan-Michael’s heroic main character and the bad guys themselves seem to consistently make the most reckless and stupid decisions all throughout the story, starting when Jan-Michael (who has found himself blackballed by all of the other local trucking companies after refusing to carry the dirty cargo) walks back into Pickens’ office wielding a shotgun, acting like a maniac and threatening them to fill up his truck with a load to haul or else (think Michael Douglas in Falling Down type behavior after only the first 20 minutes). Moreso, it turns out that the main boss of the company (L.Q. Jones, second to none at playing a fucking asshole) who always seems to be partying with hookers in his office whenever somebody bursts in on him also has a special arrangement with the corrupt local sheriff, one which enables him to have certain troublesome types set up to be beaten severely or even murdered. An even more nutso concept is that even though Jan-Michael has now become a literal heat seeking missile, the other truckers (who presumably had no problem hauling the contraband themselves before Jan-Michael spoke up about it) have now rallied to his side, in the process risking their own livelihoods (and lives) even as their involvement in his cause is played off as being a plot twist rather than the script giving Jan-Michael a big acting scene where he can give The Big Speech that compels everyone to follow his lead and risk the wrath of the dirty, grinning sheriff. Meanwhile, if one pays attention, even though a point is made that Jan-Michael has to keep on truckin in order to make his truck payments to the bank, not only does it appear that he never successfully delivers a load, but his truck actually gets trashed by the bad guys several times over the course of the film only to be immediately repaired and set up for the final charge which is more like a suicide attempt than an actual quest for revenge. Of course, Jones’ diabolical trucking manager finally starts orchestrating some actual murders, framing Jan-Michael in the process complete with a false witness to the event (whom we learn has made a living out of falsely witnessing innocent people committing heinous crimes) but wouldn’t you know it during the Grand Jury hearing, Jan-Michael’s pretty little wife goes in to testify with tears in her eyes that her husband would never murder anybody…AND IT WORKS?! Jan-Michael is freed from jail and the feud resumes, leading to an action packed ambush and fistfight and finally a sitdown conference with the corporate owners of the trucking outfit (who helped orchestrate the frameup but also had their own convenient scapegoat) where Jan-Michael is offered a seat at their table and a position of reasonable power from which he can take care of his fellow truckers (and with the corporate salary take care of his pregnant wife and finally pay off his truck) which he then turns down…for some reason. And then there’s more violence and then…well one should get the point by now that we’re not watching a demonstration in neither realism nor realistic behavior nor are we watching a display where any of the characters (especially Jan-Michael) are even remotely interested in doing what’s best for themselves or their own well being (the bad guys are guilty of this also in doing things that not only screw over Jan-Michael but also wreck their own reputation as well) just as long as we can get some convoluted action scenes or instances where the truckers are standing tall against the corrupt system all at the cost of serious credibility. Would this have worked as a straight up drama about the complexity of legitimate labor issues? Perhaps, but in exchange we get a story of a fed up crusader whose career in his chosen field would have been over and done with in real life due to the extreme nature of his actions…
5/10