Ruby Jean and Joe (1996)

Sorry, this movie sucks

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Great Film overall

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

As this movie began I saw the crystal clear colour, sharp focus, and Western setting, and was about to turn it off. Then the young hitch-hiker appeared and I thought. "Oh no! Cutesy-pooh-made-for-TV family schmaltz," but, I was home, sick, on the sofa, and Tom Selleck's usually worth watching so.... The movie hadn't got very far before I realised that I was watching something pretty extraordinary. It was a movie that was inviting me to think, to think about what it means to be a man, and and in particular, a strong man who is facing the alien world of age and declining powers. Tom Selleck's performance showed, to me, a man who, through his relationship with the girl (great actress by the way!) learnt something about life, and drew strength and comfort from the knowledge, whilst she drew greater strength and understanding of the world as a result of being treated like an adult for the first time. If a really cheesy director had been in charge, I can see these words rolling across the screen at the end: "Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods." (Tennyson)

It's a beautiful movie. I was really surprised that it was made for TV. You are used to a lot less depth in the medium. Conforming to the conventions of the small screen (no cursing, no sex, no nudity, etc.) it manages to create a strong and heartfelt drama out of a very modest plot. It's a very sweet movie but it is never shy from exploring, in a very understated way, the tensions in the story. **SPOILER ALERT** A declining middle aged white rodeo cowboy and a very cute under-aged middle class black girl wandering in the wilderness. Bars, brothels, dirty old men preying for girls on the road, prejudiced cowboys, the hard choices of Rose the retired prostitute friend of Joe and the racial and sexual tension between Ruby Jean and Joe are all subtly but clearly recognized and aptly treated. Both characters are a little naive, honest, decent people dealing with life changing decisions who are lucky enough to find each other to help ease the transition. Ruby Jean is the perfect counter balance of freshness, intelligence and goodness to the embittered and stubborn cowboy with an above-average education, a good heart and an alcohol problem. Rebekah Johnson is a natural as Ruby Jean and Tom Selleck understated performance is the best one I have seen of him. The fact that they don't have sex during their last night together could make you feel that the story is a little bit incomplete but given the platonic mood throughout it is not only coherent but it adds a bittersweet charm to the end of the movie. When Joe explains, in one the last scenes, their emotional farewell to the puzzled bus driver he is jokingly admitting the impossibility of their romance. Joe could most likely be Ruby Jean's father than her lover.

It is no fun to get old and this is portrayed throughout the film. The wonderful twist was the incredible power of the eighteen year old girl. We baby boomers can learn a lot from the youth of today. Some of them have such cheerful and refreshing ways of looking at life. Often they see right through entanglements and facades as is demonstrated in part by the central female character in this movie. I hope the actress has a good career because she did hold together well in this one.

I was very moved by this movie as I could really relate with Tom Selleck's character. It was very true to life to me as I have been in a similar situation caring so much for a younger girl who was also a best friend and having everyone misunderstand the relationship as the JoBeth Williams character (Rose) and others did in the movie. I really felt sorry for Joe and Ruby Jean knowing how it feels to have people with overimaginations and dirty minds try to turn a wonderful relationship into something that it isn't. The movie hit home and brought me to tears and I very rarely have a movie do that.