Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13227 in VHS
• Released on: 1994-09-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Color, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Customer Reviews

Quirky Road Trip In Search of the Great Rock Guitar
"Candy Mountain" is a fine film by the great Robert Frank
that combines a minor coming of age theme with a road trip in search
of the elusive and great hermit builder of the world's best electric
guitars. This mythic figure, one Elmore Silk, has moved to rural Cape
Breton and disappeared with his fame and guitars, leaving nothing
behind him. Kevin O'Connor plays the innocent and affectless loser
who takes to the road from NYC, moving steadily north pursuing Elmore
Silk and hoping to return to NYC with one of the lengendary guitars.
At each stop along the way he seems to lose more and more of his
material possessions but keeps moving with a determination that is
fueled by the vague hope of somehow bringing back the Holy Grail. And
cashing in.

Populated with "characters", beautiful
scenery, and a kind of Zen-like rhythm, "Candy Mountain" has
the meandering feel of the journey in which the miles pass, scenes
shift, and not a whole lot happens, but some kind of insight arrives.
Here, the wisdom that seems to emerge is that the road is winding, the
end is not always in sight, the goal may or may not be obtained, but
the trip is worth it. This movie is a small gem that captures the
beckoning and lonely feel of the road that rolls off into the distance
and over the horizon. This also is a movie about and for people who
believe that music is a powerful and important force that touches the
heart and mind in seductive ways. Great Canadian country singer Rita
McNeil makes a brief cameo appearance. The acting is low key, as are
the movie's ultimate aspirations. No deep or sweeping message here,
just a sense of yearning as the miles pass and finally the coast
arrives, and there is nowhere else to go. See this: its offbeat and
likeable and oddly moving.
ÿ

Quest for the Holy Guitarmaker
The Canadian film CANDY MOUNTAIN (1988) offers interesting glimpses of rock musicians who were popular in the 1970s and '80s. (VHS only)

David Johansen (aka Buster Pointdexter) is Keith Burns-- a man obssessed with Elmore Silk's guitars. After ridiculing the playing abilities of Julius (Kevin O'Connor) during a NYC band rehearsal, Keith hires Julius to find the reclusive Silk. Appearing here with Johansen is his New York Dolls drummer, Tony 'Machine' Krasinski.

Julius first meets with Silk's brother Al. Tom Waits plays this man who seems to worry only about his investment portfolio. Julius and Al get drunk as they discuss Elmore and his guitars. Al tells Julius he should be out "playing golf, a LOT of golf!" Al noodles on the piano and sings in that inimitable gravel-filled Waits voice. Julius joins in.

After Julius sleeps off his buzz, Al sells him a '60s T-Bird and points him toward a sister who may know where Elmore is. She lives with a paraplegic husband (a most-convincing Dr. John). They both seem to despise Elmore, are glad he moved out of their shabby home. Julius trades them the T-Bird for an ancient Ford pickup and information of Elmore's whereabouts.

He falls asleep during a late-night drive, drifts across rural private property and crashes the truck into a drydocked boat owned by a justice of the peace and his son, the constable (Leon Redbone). When Julius doesn't have $600 for damages, he's imprisoned for two days in a furnitureless room, while outside his "cell" the lawman quietly croons and plays a guitar. A deal is eventually struck-- Julius gives $175 and the pickup for his freedom.

The hitchhiker reaches more dead ends but he eventually finds Elmore's current residence, located at the farthest point of Cape Breton. While Julius awaits the man's arrival home, a Japanese lady (Koko Yamamoto), who also has a vague business proposition for the guitarmaker, enters, snaps some photos of Silk's guitars, then leaves.

When he finally meets Elmore (Harris Yulin), Julius believes he's found the Promised Land, unaware however that Silk will soon do the absolutely unthinkable.