Convoy

Citizen Band radio takes to the freeways for fast-lane thrills and fly-over spills. Trucker "Rubber Duck" (Kris Kristofferson) signals the big ‘10-4’ when he and his unsuspecting ridealong (Ali MacGraw) are chased through three states by a corrupt traffic cop named "Dirty Lyle" (Ernest Borgnine). The green light is sent out over the CB airwaves for a convoy of truckers to help keep the police off his trail. Director Sam Peckinpah steps on the gas for this all-action adventure jam-packed with sensational stunts.

Absolutely unacceptable DVD

I made the mistake of buying the CheezyFlicks DVD of Convoy. This movie was shot in Panavision which is an anamorphic process whereby the camera lens "squeezes" the image horizontally to fit in a normal 35mm frame. The picture is then "unsqueezed" to an aspect ratio of 2.4:1 by the projection lens.

The "widescreen" CheezyFlicks DVD has an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1 and the image remains "squeezed" so that everything -- people, trucks, scenery -- is shown at about half its proper width. The distortion is so great as to make this DVD unwatchable. I would have given it zero stars if Amazon permitted.

There is no excuse for putting out a DVD in this manner. Pan and scan ("full screen") would have been better -- at least the half of the original image that was on the screen wouldn't be distorted.

If this is an example of the integrity of CheezyFlicks then their products should probably be avoided. I certainly won't be buying any more of them.

Please don't write me off as one of those "purists" who enjoy nitpicking over aspect ratios. The problem with this disc is not the aspect ratio, but rather the gross distortion of the image. September 1, 2008

CONVOY

WHEN I ORDERED THIS MOVIE, IT WAS BECAUSE I HAD JUST WATCHED IT ON TELEVISION AFTER NOT BEING ABLE TO FIND IT IN STORES FOR YEARS. BUT I WAS DISSAPOINTED BY THE QUALITY, THE WORDS CAME BEFORE THE MOUITHS MOVED THROUGHOUT MOST OF THE MOVIE. THE SOUND QUALITY ITSELF WAS HORRIBLE, I HAD TO ALMOST TURN MY VOLUME UP ALL THE WAY JUST TO HEAR WHAT PEOPLE WERE SAYING, AND HAD TO TURN IT WAY DOWN WHEN THE SEMI ENGINES WERE REVED. I LOVE THIS MOVIE SO I WILL BE KEEPING IT, BUT I AM DISSAPOINTED IN THE QUALITY. April 14, 2008

Peckinpah muscles in on Burt Reynolds' turf

Somewhat surprisingly, the watchable but completely forgettable Convoy was the biggest hit of Sam Peckinpah's career, though by all accounts Peckinpah was so stoned on drugs and booze throughout the shoot that he directed little of it, with assistants and James Coburn filling in on the many occasions he couldn't get up the enthusiasm to leave his trailer. It's the kind of film that makes Smokey and the Bandit 3 look substantial and is pretty much a shoo-in as Peckinpah's worst film. There is one good almost balletic sequence of police cars running off dusty backroads set to the accompaniment of a semi-classical version of the C.W. McCall country-and-western song (originally written as a jingle) that provided what little inspiration there was for the film and some good support from Madge Sinclair's Widow Woman. But you can't help feeling that it's straining for significance a bit at times to hide the thinness of it all - truckers are the last of the real cowboys, just tryin' to live free without rules or reasons, don'tcha know - and that it would have been a whole lot more fun with Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason in the Kris Kristofferson and Ernest Borgnine roles. On the plus side at least the action scenes are better handled than in The Killer Elite, although even here some of the signature slow-motion here seems almost accidental, with some scenes fuzzily step-printed in post-production to slow them down (presumably because the few big stunts happened too fast to register onscreen) sticking out like a stylistic sore thumb amid the clarity of the much more effective sequences shot in genuine in-camera slow motion.

A word of warning on the DVD too - the English-language territory releases all omit the three-minute sequence of the governor's aide interviewing the truckers which contains Peckinpah's cameo as one of the camera crew. The German DVD is the uncut version with English soundtrack, though the 2.35:1 transfer is not very good quality. February 17, 2008

Christmas gift

My husband loves this movie. Fast service, got here in time for the holiday. December 25, 2007

New DVD release??

I recently watched "Convoy" on the new MGM HD Channel on DirecTv. It was presented uncut, commercial free and in it's correct aspect ratio (2.35:1)The picture looked clean (remastered)and the sound was very good, 5.1 I believe. It looks as though MGM may have the video rights to this title and as such may re-release it on dvd. If so I hope they release it with some extras. October 29, 2007

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