w o r l d o w n f a l l

No, not the Britney Spears movie of the same name.

The Karate Kid of guitar films. Certainly doesn’t help that Ralph Macchio (yes, THE karate kid) actually starred in this 1986 film of a classical guitar student, trying to find his inner voice and becoming a Mississippi delta blues protege out on a road trip back to Mississippi with grizzled blues harmonica player legend, Willie Brown a.k.a Blind Dog Fulton (Joe Seneca). Turns out that following Robert Johnson’s (Blues pioneer and legend) deal with the Devil somewhere at a crossroads in Mississippi (I’m tired of typing Mississippi, it’s a tricky word to type seriously), Blind Dog did the same, to pursue a life of fame, fortune and riches out of playing the blues just like ol’ Robert but decided that the Devil didn’t hold up his end of the bargain well at all since pretty much all he’s obtained in life was a shitload of years behind bars. Enter guitar whiz kid Eugene Martone a.k.a Lightning Boy (Macchio), who helps the old geezer escape from a low security nursing home for convicts, whose passion for the blues led to him to find the old man in the first place. Lightning Boy also pesters the old dude to teach him a so-called ‘lost song’ from a Robert Johnson recording session. Blind Dog agrees to teach the white kid the old blues tune - which was never recorded by Johnson, once they are in (here it goes again) Mississippi, but only if he helps him escape out of his current shithole. And so he does, not knowing that there isn’t any ‘lost song’ and that the reason the old geezer wants to get back to (and here it is once again ladies and gentlemen) Mississippi, is really to get himself out of his shitty contract with Satan. And so, together, the odd couple embarked on an adventurous journey that ends with young Lightning Boy taking on a climatic guitar duel with Steve Vai and coming out victorious. Yes, THE Steve Vai.

Now I haven’t seen this film in years, so when I found the DVD at HMV i just grabbed it home. It goes without saying that guitar enthusiasts should watch this film and also, you’d definitely want to watch a very cocky Steve Vai getting his ass kicked by the Karate Kid who unleashes venomous amount of Mozart-influenced shred attack once he realised his blues slide lick ain’t gonna save him. A very Karate Kid moment indeed. A classic.