Bustin’ Loose (1981) Universal/Comedy RT: 93 minutes Rated R (language, mild violence including gunplay, sexually suggestive references, thematic elements) Director: Oz Scott Screenplay: Roger L. Simon Music: Mark Davis Cinematography: Dennis Dalzell Release date: May 22, 1981 (US) Cast: Richard Pryor, Cicely Tyson, Robert Christian, Angel Ramirez, Jimmy Hughes, Edwin DeLeon, Edwin Kinter, Tami Luchow, Janet Wong, Alphonso Alexander, Kia Cooper, George Coe, Bill Quinn, Roy Jenson, Fred Carney. Box Office: $31.3M (US)
Rating: ****
I would absolutely no problem allowing my children (if I had any!) to watch the R-rated comedy Bustin’ Loose. First of all, it’s rated R mainly for profanity (courtesy of star Richard Pryor) and a few suggestive references from a young girl (a child victim of sex trafficking). Aside from that, it’s a delightful and hilarious family comedy about an ex-con driving a busload of special needs children across the country.
Joe Braxton (Pryor, Stir Crazy), a lifelong criminal, cannot seem to stay out of trouble. His latest stunt, trying to steal a truckload of TV sets in broad daylight, puts him in front of a tough judge (Quinn, Archie Bunker’s Place). It looks like he might get some serious jail time. Thanks to some slick jive talking, the judge extends Joe’s parole by 10 years much to the annoyance of his uptight parole officer Donald (Christian). He threatens to send Joe to prison unless he does something for him. He wants him to tell his social worker girlfriend, Vivian Perry (Tyson, The Help), that the bus she intends to use to transport a group of unwanted orphans across the country doesn’t work. Her school has been shut down by the city (Philadelphia) due to budget cuts. She managed to relocate all but eight of the children. She decides to take them to live at her aunt’s farm in Seattle, but Donald doesn’t want her to go. When his plan backfires, he makes Joe drive Miss Perry and the children to their destination.
The children have a variety of problems- there’s a blind kid, a pyromaniac, a trio of young hoodlums, an obese girl with emotional problems, a physically handicapped girl and a former child prostitute from Vietnam. Joe doesn’t really like children and he doesn’t like this gig, but he learns that he has a special knack for helping out the kids. In one scene, he blasts Annie (Wong) for constantly coming on to him sexually, then turns around and praises her artistic talents.
After finding out Vivian falsified the kids’ records and does not have permission to take them out of the state, Donald shows up and tries to make them return to Philadelphia. That, of course, doesn’t happen. By the time they reach their destination, Joe is a changed man, but another problem rears its head. Vivian learns that she may lose the farm if she can’t raise $15,000 to pay the mortgage. It’s up to Joe to try and save the day (and the farm).
Pryor was in the middle of making Bustin’ Loose when he had his notorious freebasing accident (June 9, 1980). It’s the first movie he completed after his accident. Perhaps he had some sort of epiphany that prompted him to soften his image with this sweet little comedy. It has its share of outrageously funny moments. I’ll never forget the image of Pryor walking through the woods with a group of Ku Klux Klansmen who help him push the bus out of the mud. It must have been Joe’s BS story about all the children being blind that made them help a black man. The heart of the movie is Joe’s relationship with the children and with Miss Perry. Yep, she falls for him!
Bustin’ Loose came out when I was 13. I really wanted to see it, but I couldn’t talk my father into taking me as he was not a fan of “that G.D. Pryor guy and all his G.D. bad language!”. I guess taking me and my little brother to see Stir Crazy earlier that year was enough for the poor man. My mother took me to see it one weekday afternoon. It was the first time that I ever stood outside a theater and asked a complete stranger to grab my ticket for me. I thought it was such an awesome movie then and I still love it to this day.
For one thing, the filmmakers don’t use the children’s physical and/or emotional problems for cheap laughs; they’re handled with great sensitivity. For example, Anthony (Kinter) loves to play with fire, but we find out that his fascination with fire stems from him causing the accidental deaths of his parents (he set their house on fire). In a very touching scene, Joe has a heart-to-heart with the boy about his guilt over the incident and tells him that his parents would want him to let it go. It’s a sweet little movie with some nice songs by Roberta Flack.
Like I said, I think it’s safe to allow younger kids to watch Bustin’ Loose, although it’s doubtful that too many of them will understand the ending of the movie when Joe attempts to steal money from a group of con artists promoting some sort of “trapezoid scheme” (similar to a pyramid scheme). It’s fairly dated, but that doesn’t make it any less funny. Pryor gets to do some of his trademark jive-ass schtick and that’s always good for a few laughs. It’s also one of his last great movies. He appeared in a succession of disappointing movies throughout the 80s- Superman III, Brewster’s Millions, Jo Jo Dancer- Your Life is Calling, Moving and Another You (his final starring role). Technically speaking, that last one is a 1991 movie, but most people would prefer to forget that it exists at all. If you want to remember the late Richard Pryor at his best, you couldn’t do much better than Bustin’ Loose.
