Highway 61 (film)

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Highway 61
Directed by	Bruce McDonald
Produced by	Colin Brunton Bruce McDonald
Written by	Bruce McDonald Don McKellar Allan Magee
Starring	Valerie Buhagiar Don McKellar Earl Pastko Peter Breck
Music by	Nash the Slash
Cinematography	Miroslaw Baszak
Editing by	Michael Pacek
Distributed by	Shadow Shows Incorporated (Canada)
Release date(s)	April 24, 1992 (USA)
Running time	102 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Highway 61 is a 1991 film by Canadian director Bruce McDonald.

[edit] Synopsis

The film stars Don McKellar as Pokey Jones, an orphaned barber in a small town near Thunder Bay, Ontario who dreams of becoming a jazz musician. One morning, Jones discovers a frozen corpse (Steve Fall) in his backyard, and soon meets Jackie Bangs (Valerie Buhagiar), a tough and mysterious roadie who claims the dead man is her brother.

Jackie's real intention is to use the body, a vagrant unknown to anyone in town, to smuggle stolen drugs into the United States. She convinces Pokey to use his parents' car, which hasn't been driven in decades, to drive her to New Orleans, Louisiana to bury her brother. So Jackie and Pokey set out along Highway 61, coffin strapped to the top of the car, and follow Bob Dylan's famous U.S. Highway 61 south through the heart of the United States. They're pursued by Mr. Skin (Earl Pastko), who believes he's Satan and wants to claim the body because the dead man sold Mr. Skin his soul.

Peter Breck is fourth-billed as Mr. Watson, the "stage-mom" father of 3 girls: Mississippi "Missy", Minnesota "Minnie", and Louisiana "Lousie".

The film also includes cameo appearances by Tav Falco, Jello Biafra, and Art Bergmann.

The film's soundtrack album includes songs by Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Rita Chiarelli, Nash the Slash, Acid Test and Tom Jones. Nash the Slash also composed the film's instrumental score.