Synopsis
You're in for the ride of a lifetime!
An old trucker steals his truck for one last cross-country run, with a madam and her crew on board.
The Great Smokey Roadblock
1977 Directed by John Leone
Cast
Henry Fonda Eileen Brennan Austin Pendleton Robert Englund Dub Taylor John Byner Susan Sarandon Melanie Mayron Leigh French Mews Small Daina House Gary Sandy Valerie Curtin Johnnie Collins III Bibi Osterwald Ben Freedman Lyman Ward Tony Cacciotti Dave Morick Rick Sandack Lesley Woods Herb Armstrong Hank Rolike Gary Downey Sander Vanocur Herman Rowland Ernie Paul Sherri Wheaton Jackson Baker Show All…
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Alternative Titles
The Last of the Cowboys, L'ultima frontiera, Viaje final, La Dernière route, 车队出重围
Releases by Date
Premiere
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France
Theatrical
21 Jun 1978
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USAPG
Physical
21 Jun 1978
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UK15
Releases by Country
France
07 Sep 1977
- Premiere
UK
21 Jun 1978
- Physical15
USA
21 Jun 1978
- TheatricalPG
Popular reviews
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Lifelong trucker "Elegant John" Howard (Henry Fonda) has his truck repossessed while in the hospital. Despite his ill health, Elegant John breaks out of the hospital and steals his truck, intent on making one last elegant run. He picks up a hitchhiker (Robert Englund), runs afoul of an old nemesis (Gary Sandy) and eventually reconnects with an old acquaintance and professional madam (Eileen Brennan) who has a proposition: Transport her and her six girls from Wyoming to South Carolina. An elegant mission, and one that John Howard is willing to undertake.
The Last of the Cowboys, aka The Great Smokey Roadblock is one of those "comedies" where not much funny is ever really happening. That doesn't make it a bad…
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Jimmy: Uncle Harley, I’m doomed, I am doomed!
Harley: If that’s the worst thing that ever happens to you during your life, I’m going to follow you to the ends of the world, because you gonna have a remarkable passage.
The poster would have you think this was a fairly raucous comedy, and it is a comedy, for sure, but it's a sort of bittersweet one. Henry Fonda plays Elegant John Howard, an ill sixty-something trucker who steals back his repossessed rig so he can do one last perfect run. If that sounds a little sad, it's because it is—don't be shocked when the movie starts off with a weird dream sequence of Elegant John wandering…
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Has very little to do with the titular police barricade and much more to do with a terminally ill Henry Fonda hauling a truck full of hookers cross-country. Amiable enough, not particularly exciting.
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As it turns out, the "great" roadblock is just four police cars and a couple pieces of wood. And yet who could dislike a film that costars John Byner as "Bobby Apples."
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John Leone’s comedy-drama. Aging trucker named Elegant John Howard (Henry Fonda) decides he and his truck Elenor has one more good run in them. Also starring Eileen Brennan and Austin Pendleton.
The story concerns an elderly trucker who chooses that he and his vehicle Elenor has another decent run in them, and with the assistance of a traveller and a few others to make it occur.
Henry Fonda gives an okay performance in his part as John Howard, the ageing trucker who, along with his vehicle Elenor, hopes to have another good lot of fun, with the help of some others along the way.
Elsewhere, Eileen Brennan, John Byner and Dub Taylor are all alright in their respective roles as…
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I don't know why the LB rating is so low for this, probably expecting more backwoods hijinks while a banjo or mouth-harp plays on the soundtrack. Good acting, likeable cast turns this into more of a hangout movie than your classic drive-in rednexploitation fare. Fonda and Brennan have great chemistry. The Ladies of the Oldest Profession have a Seven Dwarfs group dynamic with each allowed their own personality. There are stakes involved in sick old man Fonda's foolhardy quest for one more load and one last shot at dignity. Great location shooting. Nice stuntwork.
I don't see why this rates a 2.7? The movie has a lot of heart, some nice T & A, a great dope smoking scene with Austin Pendleton and Jon Byner, has young Susan Sarandon... I guess it's not so Grindhouse as some would like.
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I'd like to hear the story of how Susan Sarandon ended up being a producer on The Great Smokey Roadblock. It was her first producing credit, and it would be another twenty years before her next.
I sometimes bewilder myself in how I end up watching movies like this. For one reason or another, I've got this interest in the cowboy myth and the different ways it can be interpreted in a movie. The Great Smokey Roadblock was originally titled The Last of the Cowboys. You can understand why 70-something old Henry Fonda was attracted to such a project. And you can understand why trucker movies briefly became an viable analogy for the cowboy -- the romanticism of being out…
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The funniest truckin' you've ever seen!
"The Great Smokey Roadblock," a 1977 film starring Henry Fonda, leaves much to be desired, especially compared to the cinematic standards set by other road films of its era. Touted as a comedy road film, it falls short, appearing more as a haphazardly assembled, low-budget attempt to capitalize on the popularity of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit."
Henry Fonda, a revered actor, seems to be in it just for the paycheck. His portrayal of an ailing truck driver on one last run lacks the depth and charisma we've come to expect from him. Seeing such a legendary figure deliver a performance that feels more like 'phoning it in' than fully embodying the character…
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Fonda-thon Part 16
Fonda and Leone do great things together. Oh wait, wrong Leone. Extremely cheesy, yet shoehorns in very serious moments like Fonda’s character dealing with the heavy burden of his own mortality, at one point completely breaking down into tears. It doesn’t work. The movie climaxes with the truck barging through a police roadblock on a bridge in the most chaotic way possible - cut to Fonda and posse hippie dancing in a forest. I don’t know.
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It’s not a bad movie but the plot wasn’t the best but if your a Henry Fonda fan or want to see a young Robert Englund it’s worth checking out
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Possibly the most maudlin and boring look at '70s interstate trucking. Like a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie full of whores. The premise screams "screwball Burt Reynolds & Sally Field comedy" but there's not a single laugh to be had here. It's played completely straight, even the scenes that seem to be written for laughs. God bless the sick minds at Tubi for making this dull garbage widely available.