There was potential here, but it's extremely poorly done and full of ham-fisted analogies and caricatures. The movie insists on "telling" rather than "showing". It does have some nice photography, and Peter Boyle is slightly miscast but still easily the highlight of the movie, playing the dumb-yet-menacing racist white guy. The ending [spoiler] with the daughter being murdered[/spoiler] really soured me on the movie, or else it'd be worth recommending. The movie really only works if you're rooting for Joe alongside Bill, which goes to prove how bad it misfired.

When you hear the name director John G. Avildsen, you probably think of “Rocky” and “Karate Kid." But at the beginning of his career, he had already made a pretty interesting movie with "Joe." I would characterize it as a social satire that explores class dynamics in the US. In particular, the eponymous Joe (Peter Boyle), a conservative factory worker with a hatred of hippies, provides some black humor moments. The movie hasn't aged perfectly; it's a little too dated for that and takes the easy route with the story in places. But at the same time, it also deals with serious topics in an interesting way, which certainly weighed on society around 1970 (and still do to some extent today). Overall, I wouldn't necessarily say that I had a great time with the movie, but I also don't regret having put it on my watchlist.