Synopsis
Don't take it so hard... life ain't no candy mountain!
A mediocre musician goes on the road in search of the world's greatest guitar maker
Candy Mountain
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Alternative Title
糖果山
Releases by Date
Premiere
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Switzerland12
Theatrical
20 Jan 1988
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France
19 Feb 1988
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USA
Digital
24 Nov 2022
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Switzerland
Releases by Country
France
20 Jan 1988
- Theatrical
Switzerland
09 Aug 1987
- Premiere12
24 Nov 2022
- Digital filmo.ch (digitally restored)
USA
19 Feb 1988
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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A not-as-good Two-Lane Blacktop from the same screenwriter; has the makings of a true indie hidden gem, but not sure I personally find it enough of a gem to call it that. Strange and wry, and at times the most boring "bounty hunt" film. Randomly features one of the most disturbing egg-eating scenes I've ever seen.
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Low-key sort of revelatory. Borderline so-hip-it-hurts (just look at that cast!) but gets right at that vulnerable beating heart of dorkiness lying just beneath the surface of every hipster pose. In a sense the perfect missing link between Local Hero and Hal Hartley. It's easy to forget, but probably shouldn't be overlooked, that this was co-directed by two guys old enough to have been a part of the original Beat Generation, despite feeling unmistakably like the product of the post-Jarmusch, pre-Tarantino '80s indie film scene. Kind of makes me want to move to Nova Scotia?
Further reading, a typically insightful piece from Rosenbaum: www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2019/07/60s-wisdom/
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A meandering, cheerfully morose road movie exploring the pleasures and virtues of going nowhere much at all. With legendary photographer Frank as co-director, the mood is more Beat-era hangover than post-Jarmusch hipsterdom; not seeking a pose of resistance within consumer capitalism, but an actual escape route from it. Book’s search for Silk’s legendary guitar maker ends up a nearly Beckettian kind of breakdown; vehicles that keep on stalling out, cars traded and lost and given away, perpetual motion even in the eventual absence of all the usual ways of getting from one place to another. “Don’t take it so hard. Life ain’t no candy mountain, you know?” So many eccentrics met along the way, many of them trapped in their…
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What happens when a 50s Beat Generation photographer and a 60s counterculture novelist make an 80s movie about commerce and artistic integrity with a bunch of 70s musicians? The ambling yet profound Candy Mountain is what happens. You can read some thoughts on this elusive film over at Aquarium Drunkard.
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It took me a bit to find it, so I'll start off by saying that it is on archive.org in case you want to watch it. Alright, onto the movie itself.
The reason why I wanted to see it was Tom Waits and Joe Strummer, there is even some involvement by Jim Jarmusch. It is an alright movie, it drags a bit and is frustrating at times, but it is rather short, so that makes it alright in the end.
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Maybe made a mistake by watching this so soon after another late 80's road movie in which a poorly pompadour'd mediocre musician sets off from New York City, buys a used car from a future guest on Fishing With John, and drives cross-country in an attempt to reach a bordering nation in search of music industry success, but at least Leningrad Cowboys Go America knew better than to fill the slow parts with the pseudo-philosophizing that saturates Candy Mountain. If you're gonna make a movie about the greatest luthier of all time, at least have their instruments look like something you couldn't buy for a few hundred bucks at any given Guitar Center. Finally broke my streak of liking every movie with Joe Strummer in it, I guess.
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What (Do) We Mean by Frank Cinema—and Is That a Question or a Statement?
With his death earlier this year, the artist Robert Frank, best known as a photographer, leaves behind an unusual legacy of moviemaking.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
•18 NOV 2019
mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/what-do-we-mean-by-frank-cinema-and-is-that-a-question-or-a-statement -
I think the thing I miss the most in modern cinema is films that were just... inconsequential. The subject of this month's Patreon exclusive episode of Pop Screen is a killer example of a film that goes nowhere, and is perfectly happy with it. Watch in weird fascination as future Paul Thomas Anderson regular Kevin J. O'Connor plays Julius, a man who casually quits his job, dumps his girlfriend and risks it all, indolently, looking for a legendary guitar manufacturer. Does he find him? Who gives a shit? The fun of the film is the journey, and the legendary supporting cast including Joe Strummer, Dr. John, Leon Redbone, Tom Waits, and even some actors.
Stray observations:
- Rockets Redglare, who…
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"So I spent all my buttons on an old pack mule" in return for a release of Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer's great long forgotten road trip, Candy Mountain. The day of releasing this film on DVD and Blu-Ray still hasn't happened, but it's the freshest PATREON EXCLUSIVE of Pop Screen - hear us chat about Tom Waits's orange golfing gear, interpretations of the title, discussions on Waits, Joe Strummer, David Johansen, Dr. John, and Leon Redbone, and much more. As a bonus - we coin the term "Shrekcore", a subgenre dedicated to characterful needle drops found in the Shrek movies. Enjoy!
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a jarmusch knock-off in many ways, but a great one. yet another example of a european with mixed feelings about the US and its mythos making one of the great oddball american road movies. this is real outsider go-nowhere off-the-beaten-track shit, quiet and wistful and sprinkled with little eccentricities and absurdities. oh yeah, and tom waits cameos as a yuppie golfer.
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A Canadian-French-Swiss co-production from the late '80s featuring the likes of Joe Strummer, Tom Waits, and Bulle Ogier (!), directed by the photographer Robert Frank and the novelist and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer. It's a charming and punkish road movie about a young man crossing the United States and up to Nova Scotia in search of Elmore Silk, a reclusive guitar-making genius.
In all honesty, it sounds more amazing than it actually is to experience, since neither Frank or Wurlitzer have much of a directorial sense; the (often remarkable) individual elements never quite coalesce, and the tone is rather stiff throughout. Still, what is here is really nothing to sniff at. The restoration is beautiful, emphasising some of the miracles Frank…
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Fundamental outsiderness to the American mythos of the road, it seems, lead Robert Frank to send his protagonist not west into the deserts, but north into Canada, and this is all the better for it. Bonus points for driving so drunk you crash into a boat.