YMMV / Joe (1970)

• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The movie offers a bleak picture of both sides of the Generation Gap, but ultimately treats Bill and Joe's attitudes as far more destructive than the hippies, and their generation's refusal to understand their kids as the cause of all the problems. Norman Wexler, the screenwriter, was active in left-wing causes, and was even arrested for threatening to kill Richard Nixon shortly after the movie came out (apparently as a joke), so it's clear that we're not supposed to root for Joe and Bill's killing spree. Naturally, many contemporary viewers fed up with hippies, protesters and youth culture ignored this obvious subtext and decided that they were heroes.
• Ho Yay: Bill and Joe, more obvious when watching the film today.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Joe's friend, Bill Compton.
• Misaimed Fandom: Audiences cheered at Joe and Bill murdering hippies, much to Peter Boyle's disgust (which caused him to turn down the role of Popeye Doyle in The French Connection).
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film features a middle class man joining forces with a working class boor to "rescue" his daughter from a commune of hippies (and ends up slaughtering them all). The movie was a huge hit in its day, influencing the vigilante film genre and kick-starting the careers of Peter Boyle and Susan Sarandon, but has long since faded into obscurity. Besides the dated fashions and stereotyped characters, it plays so heavily on the early '70s "Generation Gap" that it's difficult for modern viewers to connect.

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