Yes, Sally Field had been around for nearly two decades when this was released, but she had only begun to receive critical acclaim within the past couple years, starting with "Sybil" on TV and continuing with "Norma Rae" for which she had won her first Oscar just the year before. Fortunately, she had "Absence of Malice" the same year as this, but this is absent of anything resembling charm. For one thing, she is completely unbelievable as a prostitute, like Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli, playing this part seemingly with shock value in mind and coming out of it unconvincingly. She was reteamed here with director Martin ratchet who had led her to her first Oscar, but this wasn't wise choice of a script for her to take.

Her leading man, Tommy Lee Jones, had scored a success the year before by playing Loretta Lynn's husband in "Coal Miner's Daughter" opposite the oscar-winning Sissy Spacek. He's handsome but not charming as a drifter who scores with her but can't pay, and somehow, she can't seem to get rid of him, especially after he slugs a Vice Cop who is about to nab her. They end up crossing the country together, encountering a group of sailors (including a young David Keith),roll a drunk, and she tries to turn tricks in a town run by a taxi driving madam who threatens her. They nearly getaway with a free meal, but waitress Nell Carter gets amusing revenge on them.

So there are a few amusing moments among a lot of tacky ones, but ultimately, it's rather uncomfortable watching these two together. We're supposed to feel sympathy for her because she has a son that was taken away from her for some reason (a plot device that is more cloying than helpful to the story),and he's nothing more than a good old boy with the nose for a money-making scheme yet still rather unlikable. So these are two misfits traveling together, and you get to see the worst of what goes on between the east coast and the West Coast. It's not completely unwatchable. It's just not a film that I could recommend, especially as a career highlight for the two stars who could have done better.

Just recently checked out this little known film from 1981 called "Back Roads" and I knew it would be a winner when it had Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field in it and I was right the chemistry had worked. This is a heartfelt little tale of struggle and a journey of survival it touches your emotions showing that everyone has good in them and life is an unexpected journey. Set in the deep rural south I believe Alabama you have Sally Field as Amy Post a sweet and love like street walking hotel staying hooker who earns 20 dollars for each bang she gives. Things shakeup a little bit when she meets the rough and rugged Elmore Pratt(Tommy Lee Jones) a man who's dreams of becoming a prize fighter has blown up in smoke as now he moonlights as a taxi car washer! After hooking up the two decide to journey out to California the best way they can as money will not stop them. This is an interesting journey in which both each learn respect, love and courage it proves life is a journey of discovery and learning how to love. Overall good little underrated gem to watch.

Director Martin Ritt reteamed with his "Norma Rae" star Sally Field for this curiously thin road movie that appears to have been inspired by '40s comedies, although nobody at the time was clamoring for an R-rated Preston Sturges. Field retains her appeal in a role that I'm not sure was meant to be likable or not. She's a hustler-with-a-heart-of-gold down South who dreams of being a manicurist; Tommy Lee Jones is the ex-fighter who heads with her out West for a brand new start. They fight, they make up, they swat bugs, they hitch rides, they fight some more. Ritt obviously wanted to give brand new Oscar winner Sally Field the kind of star build-up she nearly had in the Burt Reynolds pictures from the previous decade, but he needed a judicious editor to shape the scenes of comedy and sentimental drama. He also has a problem transitioning from one tone to the next: there's a rousing bit with Jones scoring in the boxing ring, but the joyous mood is then immediately undercut by too-real violence involving a sadistic madam (a genuinely chilling Miriam Colon). Ritt blamed the poor box office returns on his star-leads, who reportedly did not get along. True enough, simply casting nice-girl Field as a streetwalker is little more than a stunt without strong material to back her up. Field does get a subplot trying to establish contact with a child she gave up for adoption, but it leads nowhere--just like the majority of the dead-end "Back Roads". ** from ****