Just happened to come across this little gem on cable over the past few weeks. Didn't watch the whole thing the first time around, just sort of tested the waters a few times before diving in. I love well-done road movies, the best for me being the original (I cringe that I even have to say that) Vanishing Point, it's just that they aren't usually done very well. Doe is right on as the antihero lead, embarking on a motorcycle trip in honor of his one-day friend Dave, returning his ashes to a legendary casino somewhere in Nevada. Along the way nothing ever quite develops as you suppose it should. It is one of those ironies that the movies that you might consider weird and wacky are in many ways the most realistic of all, but that's the way it works with this one. The 60's cameos are great, and Balgobin adds needed spark as Ms. Mirage. Not the greatest movie ever made but fun and rewatchable.

It's another one of those collections of weirdos movies which seem to be the modus operandi of independent filmmakers. The best cameo belongs to John Cusack who plays Casper, the friendly pirate. He believes that there should be "free food for everyone." Yeah man, like, yeah. John Doe, everyman in name and features, takes an annoying dead guy's ashes to the homespun casino where everybody knew his name and they were glad he spent his money. It takes him the better part of the film to find it. He asks many, including Timothy Leary, who couldn't help him either, and finally dumps his remains in the desert. If, like me, you were perusing the oeuvre of Jennifer Balgobin, you may be interested to know that after an amusingly spastic exotic dance, she reveals her right nipple. Nice, but not worth having to listen to Abbe Wool's hippie logic or Adam Horowitz's every word. Best enjoyed by those who lived, and liked, the 60's or those who think that Easy Rider is a classic.

My friend pointed this movie out to me, but I was planning on watching it anyway. It was basically an English movie on SBS which usually means that it is an independent production and such movies are generally far superior to the movies shown on the commercial channels. Stan from Southpark quotes independent movies as being: gay cowboys eating pudding. This may be so, but generally they are nothing like that and focus on characters rather than on action. Roadside Prophets is such a movie and there is neither any gay people, cowboys, or pudding in sight.

Joe works at a steel mill in Los Angeles and one day after work he meets Dave. They go for a ride on their bikes and stop at a sleazy bar where Dave tells Joe about a place in Nevada called El-Dorado and the casino there that is really good. He then dies when the video game that he is playing shorts out. Joe was the only friend that Dave had and Joe discovers that Dave's family did not really want him, so he decides to ride out to El-Dorado and bury Dave's remains there.

The movie is about the people that Joe meets on his way. He meets another guy who has an obsession with Motel 9s. He buys a bike and rides with Joe. On their way across Nevada they meet a lot of strange people that seem to speak a lot of wise things. Joe's friend calls them all strange, but Joe seems to see wisdom in their words. They meet a couple who are dying of a disease, one of cancer and the other of aids. Both of them are dying so they joined together to die together. They speak of how one wanted to change they world, but that was taken away from him when he came down with cancer. The other raided an American Military Base and met her friend in prison. Another of the roadside prophets talks to Joe after he has left Billy and explains how everybody needs a friend. This guy is a lonely cook in a lonely town, and this spurs Joe to remember that the best thing to have is a friend and a riding companion.

This movie is a sort of life changing movie. Joe meets a lot of people on his trip, and loses all of his money at a casino believing that it offered hope. Dave spoke of how El-Dorado Casino showered them with money, but when they got there, such luck never turned out. In the end they lost their money and their bikes and were stuck out in the wilderness. Billy wanted to move on, but Joe just wanted to get back to Los Angeles knowing full well that there was a girl there -- Angie -- who had decided that she wanted to marry him, even though they did not know each other. But as Joe watches and continues to find an end to his quest, he sees that all the bonds tying him to Los Angeles are slowly being cut and are being replaced by new bonds. His friendship with Billy is one such bond and the girl from the Casino in Las Vegas is another.

I guess the main theme in this movie is listening to what people say. Joe takes his time to stop and listen to people, and the normal people on the road to his goal are more than just nameless entities -- they are fountains of wisdom waiting to be tapped. Billy called them crazy and that was because he could not see past his own obsessions, but Joe, a man whose mind was ready to be molded, was very eager to hear what they had to say.