Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cigar smokin', beer drinkin', womanizing Elvis, May 18, 2004
Stay Away, Joe was filmed in the beautiful Sedona, Az area circa 1968. The aesthetic value of enjoying this unspoiled scenery is worth the price of admission or price of the video. A departure from the previous Elvis formula movie...Elvis drinks beer, smokes cigars, puts the moves on every women he sees, regardless if she is spoken for or not. Oddly enough, Elvis does not "get the girl." in the end. Stay Away, Joe is totally slapstick, silly, outrageously camp. The indian stereotypes are politcially incorrect by today's standards. But both whiteman and indians are portrayed as boozing, brawling buffoons. This is perhaps the worst editing I ever saw in a film. Fight scenes and dance scenes and at time the music soundtrack is uneven and incongruous. Burgess Meredith portrays Elvis' indian father and is without a doubt the worst makeup job ever fimed. His makeup looks like it was applied with a putty knife. Surprisingly Elvis sings only 4 songs. "Stay Away" set to the tune of "Greenselves" starts with the opening credits with an aerial view of Sedona and beautiful redrock formations. Another is "All I Needed Was This Rain" a slow tempo blusey number positions Elvis out in a rainstorm with four canine companions. And "Dominique" a silly little ditty set to a suggestive seductive romp up the canyon, where two women wear Elvis out. All in all a pretty silly, low budget and poorly edited film. The humor is arcane, inane and most certainly dated. But dated to a much simpler time in America when humor was less sophisticated, uncomplicated and unchallenged by the ethical and moral morass of today. Buy it if you are an Elvis fan.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
DANCES WITH WOLVES of 1968, September 8, 2004
Before people lose their minds about the title of my review, just think about this: I genuinely wonder how the Native American community viewed this film when it was released. Sure, the stereotypes we see in STAY AWAY, JOE are now considered highly offensive--that Native Americans are irresponsible and alcoholic and such--but were they thrilled to be shown in a movie where they weren't getting shot off a horse by John Wayne?
As politically-incorrect as these images are, I gotta say that there was something...hip...about this nonstop party. I'd be really curious to find out how Native Americans felt about this movie when it came out.
Elvis chasing two beautiful Indian girls in Sedona's spectacular red rock country plays like a dream. Although most of the humor dropped with a thud for me, I did get a chuckle out of Elvis running off to the same liquor store with a carload of girls every time his character got a hold of a couple bucks.
I'm not saying this is a great movie.
But I think I'd enjoy it again before signing up for the guilt-heapin' pretensions of the Billy Jack films.
Maybe if Elvis had been Billy Jack....
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than 100 minutes of pure fun !, June 25, 2006
I must say I decided to review this film because it had so much negative reviews. I LOVE this film. It's pure fun and completely crazy and it's fine like that. If you want to watch an art film, don't watch an Elvis Presley film.
I would really like this film to be released on DVD. I don't understand it's not on DVD yet as you can find horrible Elvis films like HARUM SCARUM or FRANKIE AND JOHNNY already on DVD. As I'm writing this review the following Elvis films have not been released on DVD yet: KISSIN' COUSINS, TICKLE ME, LIVE A LITTLE, STAY AWAY JOE and ELVIS ON TOUR. With the exception of COUSINS, the other four films are among Elvis's best.
STAY AWAY JOE is a fun film to watch but it's sure that you won't like it if you don't like Elvis. So if you don't like Elvis, stay away!
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