Tagged: Truck Driver

Kurt Russell’s Tank Top and Trucker Style in Big Trouble in Little China

Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall in Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Vitals

Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, troublesome truck driver

San Francisco, Fall 1985

Film: Big Trouble in Little China
Release Date: July 2, 1986
Director: John Carpenter
Costume Designer: April Ferry

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

John Carpenter’s cult classic Big Trouble in Little China was released 40 years ago today on July 2, 1986. Following their initial collaboration in The Thing (1982), Kurt Russell stars as cocky trucker Jack Burton, who indeed lands in big trouble in little China—specifically San Francisco’s Chinatown district—when his friend’s fiancée is kidnapped by a local street gang and then again kidnapped by henchmen serving the reclusive sorcerer David Lo Pan (James Hong), who needs a green-eyed wife to break an ancient curse. Jack and his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) are joined by appropriately named attorney Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall) on their quest through the literal underground to retrieve Wang’s betrothed. Carpenter has explained he envisioned Jack as a sidekick who thinks he’s a hero, while the more comparatively reserved Wang more closely exemplifies the traditional leading man. Continue reading →

Kris Kristofferson’s Western Trucker Gear in Convoy

Kris Kristofferson as “Rubber Duck” in Convoy (1978)

Vitals

Kris Kristofferson as Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald, maverick trucker

Arizona to New Mexico, Summer 1978

Film: Convoy
Release Date: June 28, 1978
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costumers: Carol James & Kent James

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 90th birthday of the late Kris Kristofferson, likely best known as a pioneering singer-songwriter in the 1970s “outlaw country” movement alongside friends and fellow “Highwaymen” Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. After writing and recording hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, Kristofferson embarked on an acting career that began with Dennis Hopper’s offbeat The Last Movie (1971), his titular starring role in Cisco Pike (1972), and his first collaborations with director Sam Peckinpah in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and a more limited role in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). Following Kristofferson’s string in more romantic roles, Peckinpah again tapped him to play an adventurous anti-hero as the trucker Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald in Convoy (1978). Continue reading →

Stacy Keach’s Trucker Jacket in Roadgames

Stacy Keach in Roadgames (1981)

Vitals

Stacy Keach as Pat Quid, energetic American trucker and Navy veteran

Southern Australia, Spring 1980

Film: Roadgames
Release Date: June 26, 1981
Director: Richard Franklin
Costume Designer: Aphrodite Kondos

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

10-4, good buddy! For reasons obvious to anyone even remotely familiar with CB lingo, October 4th is annually celebrated as National Truckers Appreciation Day so today’s post hits the open road with Stacy Keach in the 1981 Ozploitation thriller Roadgames. Continue reading →