For today's Hippie Hotties, we are going to look at a truly strange hippie movie. The mainstream Hollywood film gave us nudity and a lot of violence against hippies as two older men go on a hippie-killing rampage. Oh, and Susan Sarandon makes her nude debut. Let's talk about the 1970's drama Joe.
This low-budget movie, produced allegedly for only a little over $100,000, was a critical success and shines a very effective light on late 60s/early 70s fears and motifs. Hippies are the enemy, but they aren't the bad guy in this film that has us following two misguided, angry anti-heroes. Did I mention there is nudity? Okay, let's dive in!
The plot follows an advertising executive named Bill Compton and his wealthy family who live on the Upper East Side in The Big Apple. His daughter Melissa - played by Susan Sarandon - has been sneaking off to live with her boyfriend who is a drug dealer.
She winds up forming a serious drug habit and overdoses, landing her in the hospital. The angry father goes to confront the boyfriend and get her things from his apartment, but during their argument he kills him. HE KILLS HIM! He is so filled with rage that he kills him!
He goes to a bar to unwind where a factory worker named Joe, played by Peter Boyle, is nursing a beer and ranting to anyone who will listen about how much he hates hippies. Our newly murderous leading man chimes in that he actually just killed a hippie. Then he gets uncomfortable with his murder confession and says he was just joking. Ummm!!!
Several days later, the news reports on the murder. The bar fly sees this news report and finds the guy who confessed to him. They talk, but Compton is scared that Joe might just want to blackmail the wealthy hippie murderer! So he befriends him in order to stave off that fear, inviting Joe over for dinner.
Melissa comes back home and overhears her dad talking about the murder AGAIN. This guy can't stop talking about murdering hippies. She yells at her dad about it and then runs away, so Joe and Compton search for her. Their search is dismayed when they meet a group of hippies in a Manhattan bar.
They think the hippies, horrible as they may be, might know something about Melissa's whereabouts. So they go back to an apartment with the hippies where they learn that the hippies just want to do drugs and have sex...you know, hippie stuff. Joe can't be trusted and he freaks out at the hippies.
There are more nude babes at the apartment who can't be bothered to wear clothes. That's the hippie spirit! In an upsetting scene, he beats one of them up until she says that some boys spend time on an upstate commune where Melissa might be.
Things get EVEN WEIRDER, folks. Joe and Compton, pissed and armed, head to the commune. Joe has a ton of rifles that he brings along. They argue and once again rage takes over. Joe and Compton fire at all the hippies...unwittingly killing Compton's own daughter who was there.
This film is actually Susan Sarandon's movie debut. She did her movie debut and her nude debut all in one go. That's my absolute favorite type of debut! She auditioned for the movie, her very first, with her then-husband. He didn't get a part, but she sure did. Her career took off from here.
This movie is kind of wacky by today's standards, but the screenplay was actually nominated for an Academy Award. The movie was a sleeper hit and was pretty well-received at the time even though several critics said it dipped too far into melodrama by the end of the film.
Throughout the 1980s, there were rumors that there might be a Joe sequel. Reknown schlock filmmakers Cannon Films would flirt with the idea of making Citizen Joe, a sequel, but it never actually happened.
That is probably for the best as Peter Boyle said that he was disturbed by crowds cheering at the violence in the movie. He felt that they were missing the point. He then said he wouldn't do a violent role again (even though he certainly did dabble with gangster roles now and again), so that reaction may have been the push Boyle needed to do more comedic work.
Joe is an odd film, but it is kind of fascinating to see this anti-hippie rage play out. I kept asking myself 'why are these guys so angry?' I understood Compton being angry on behalf of his daughter, but Joe's rage isn't 100% clear. He might just be a homicidal maniac! Even though he's the titular character, I know I'm here for titties and Joe offers plenty of those.
