Filmed two years after The Karate Kid, 25-year-old Ralph Macchio reprises his role as a teen hooking up with his mentor in Crossroads. This time teen character Eugene Martone (nicknamed Lightning) studies classical guitar at the Julliard School for the Arts, but has the blues. He worships the legendary blues musicians of the early days and seeks Robert Johnson’s unrecorded 30th song by tracking down his surviving harmonica player Willie Brown (Joe Seneca) in a nursing home.

Brown plays the curmudgeonly bluesman who agrees to teach Eugene the missing song if he'll help him escape the Manhattan nursing home to return to his Mississippi Delta roots. He's got some unfinished business to take car of down there, dealing with his soul and the Devil.

Before you start thinking this sounds ridiculous, blues fans will recognize this motif. In fact, a commonly held myth holds that the great Robert Johnson met the Devil at the Crossroads (a real place near Clarksdale, Mississippi) and sold his soul — how else can you explain why he was able to play blues guitar as no man had ever played before? Here, we find that Willie Brown has made a similar deal, but wants out of it since his life has been mostly wasted in jails and nursing homes.

In the end, the fate of Brown's soul will rely upon his young student to defeat Jack Butler (metal guitarist Steve Vai). It may be a little difficult to think that Macchio could legitimately compete with Vai, but consider that Macchio has a guitar coach to make him appear legitimate, and that Ry Cooder will be laying down the real tracks behind the scenes. (As if anyone doubts the eventual outcome)

Much is made of the necessity for real bluesmen to experience life and suffer in order to play deep blues, so Brown scoffs that a Long Island born teen who attends a fancy music school and has been sheltered all his life could ever play the blues. According to Brown, “The blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' bad, thinkin' 'bout the woman he used to have.” This gives director Walter Hill an excuse to throw in the movie's weakest portion — a contrived short-lived love interest for Macchio with Jami Gertz as Frances. I was relieved when she leaves the scene because Macchio's best moments come with his blues mentor, just as they did with Miyagi.

While Hill is plays the race card for dramatic purposes, nothing feels true about the small Mississippi town with the white redneck country bar on one side of the street and the racially closed off black juke joint on the other. The one exception remains the singing and dancing that eventually gets revved up inside the blues shack. It's little more than a set-piece to symbolize Eugene's progression towards integrating the blues into his bones.

The most notable accomplishment of Crossroads is the long overdue recognition for pioneer blues artist Robert Johnson, who composed blues standards like "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Crossroads." Serious guitar players know of Johnson's incredible skills, and many others began to recognize Johnson after the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and other rock musicians credited the bluesman. I also remember encountering a number of young guitar players in the 1980s who were first introduced to Robert Johnson's music through this movie.

The well-known Johnson legend about his deal with the Devil, and Eugene's reference to the mystery surrounding Johnson's all too sudden death, most likely at the hands of a jealous husband, both lend credibility to the movie and spark interest in the blues.

Also lending an air of authenticity is Willie Brown's character. There really was a Willie Brown, who backed legendary country blues artists Son House and Charly Patton on guitar. Additionally, Willie Brown's blues name is Blind Dog Fuller, which sounds like a legitimate name since there were a number of similar monikers in the 1930s – Blind Willie McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and even a Blind Boy Fuller who lived hard and died young like Johnson.

Though it's rather elementary, the simple slide that Brown introduces to Macchio's character in the guitar shop is essential for Delta blues, and you gotta love the line Brown lays on Eugene when he says, “Muddy Waters invented electricity!”

The biggest legitimate contribution is made by Ry Cooder, who composed much of the music on the soundtrack and plays it all. Cooder is a legitimate blues guitarist, famous for his slide playing. His music makes a fine soundtrack, with some fine licks in addition to the famous "dueling guitars" sequence.

A lightweight film with plenty of flaws, Crossroads samples enjoyable music and provides historical references for blues junkies, and introductory material to introduce the blues to mainstream audiences.

It's cool to see the pair travel down the legendary highway 61, made famous with Dylan's reference and the subsequent pilgrimages that many rock icons have made. The Blues Brothers contributes tremendously to make the blues more popular in the U.S., and the Coen brothers pay homage to the "Devil at the Crossroads" legend in O Brother, Where Art Thou, but until the definitive movie about the blues is constructed, returning to Crossroads will have to suffice.