Is a Little Seen John Barth Film Adaptation a Lost Masterpiece?

Bold words from Lee Hill:

I know this is a minority view, but I think End of The Road is some kind of masterpiece, a tattered signpost pointing to a road not taken by American cinema. The New Hollywood of the late sixties and early seventies, like most new waves, promised more than it could deliver. As great as the work of Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg was in the seventies, their politics was often safely couched in genre or pyrotechnical display. If Road had been even a modest success, Avakian might have joined Robert Altman or John Cassavettes in creating a more rigorous brand of new American cinema.

Interestingly, the film was written by Terry Southern. Sadly, it appears unavailable on VHS and DVD.

One Comment

  1. There are nine VHS copies listed on amazon for sale. I bought one years ago and do enjoy it as a curio.

    “States Barth in the 1988 introduction to the book: ‘The film was X-rated by the Production Code Administration for scenes nowhere to be found in the novel (man rapes chicken, etc.) and Z-rated by the muses.'”

    http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/barth/endroad.cfm

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *