The Ballad of Andy Crocker

The Ballad of Andy Crocker
DVD cover
Genre	Drama
Written by	Stuart Margolin
Directed by	George McCowan
Starring	Lee Majors Joey Heatherton
Music by	Billy May
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Aaron Spelling Danny Thomas
Producer(s)	Aaron Spelling
Cinematography	Henry Cronjager, Jr.
Editor(s)	Bob Lewis
Running time	74 mins.
Production company(s)	Thomas/Spelling Productions
Distributor	ABC
Release
Original release	November 18, 1969

The Ballad of Andy Crocker is a 1969 American made-for-television film produced by Thomas/Spelling Productions, which was first broadcast by ABC.

The film tells the story of a young man's struggle to reclaim his life after fighting in the Vietnam War. It approaches a surreal, allegorical tale, similar to The Swimmer, starring Burt Lancaster. Written by actor Stuart Margolin, the film is notable as being one of the very first films to deal with the subject matter of Vietnam veterans "coming home". It is also noted for its unusual casting, which placed a number of noted musical artists in key acting roles.

Lee Majors, in his first lead acting role, stars as Andy Crocker, a soldier who is wounded in a firefight in Vietnam and awarded the Purple Heart. After leaving his best friend David (Marvin Gaye), he meets a young hippie girl (Jill Haworth) who invites him to a party. The men at the party (Peter Haskell, Stuart Margolin) do not want him present; Crocker leaves and returns their hospitality by stealing one of their motorcycles that he rides home to Dallas, Texas where he reunites with his parents (played by Pat Hingle and Claudia Bryar). Crocker says that all that kept him going during the trials of Vietnam was his dreams of running a motorcycle racing track and repair shop and marrying his sweetheart, Lisa (Joey Heatherton).

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Wikipedia