Hard Livin'

Payday (1973)
Dir - Daryl Duke
BTSNAT 2.5

Second film of the day/night came from Micah (@ReelDistraction) and, as any of us could have guessed, it was a film from the 70s. Heh. This features Rip Torn as hard living country musician who's always on the road, always drunk/drugged and facing some serious problems. This film has a lot of grittiness that only certain directors in the 70s could provide. Torn gives one of the best performances I've seen of him, probably rivaled only by his role in The Man Who Fell to Earth. Another standout performance goes to his driver/bodyguard/cooking enthusiast Chicago (Cliff Emmich). This guys cracks me up and has a great dialog with one of Torn's women all about omelette pans that is not to be missed. At times this can be a funny film (it does have the most gratuitous McDonald's product placement outside of Mac & Me) but it's mostly pretty damn serious and tells a great tale.

Bonus Fun Fact: Many of the country songs in the film were written by Shel Silverstein!