roadhouse

THE SYNOPSIS

Dalton (Swayze) is the best cooler—head bouncer—in the business. An NYU graduate in Philosophy and a professor in the school of hard knocks—he takes a job in Kansas City working for Tilghman (Tighe) in his bar/club called The Double Deuce.

Arriving there, he rents a lovely loft from amiable farmer Emmett (Davis) and settles into his job by firing half of the crooked staff of druggies, grifters, hooligans and dope pushers.

Dalton also meets the sexy Dr. Elizabeth Clay (Lynch) when he ends up at the ER after a night of “throwing out the trash” (translation: beating up rowdy, drunken clients and troublemakers) and they hit it off.

Enter villainous entrepreneur Brad Wesley (Gazzara)—who owns most of the town and receives tribute from most of the businesses. The ones who don’t pay get their business destroyed! And the police? They’re under the Wesley payroll.

After having his right-hand man, Jimmy (Teague), blow up Red Webster’s (West) auto store and mow down Stroudenmire’s (Jones) car dealer because of dissent, Wesley sets his sites on taking over The Double Deuce.

Dalton enlists the help of his best friend/mentor Wade Garrett (Elliott) to take on Wesley and his band of hooligans. Things escalate to all-out war between the protagonists and antagonists and Garrett is killed by Wesley’s goons—but not before Dalton kills Jimmy after the sociopathic henchman blows up Emmett’s farmhouse.

In retaliation for the death of his friend, Dalton storms Wesley’s estate and takes out the hired help. Subsequently, Wesley goes down as well—courtesy of Tillman, Red, Stroudenmire, Emmett and the shotguns they’re using.

In the end, Dalton stays with Elizabeth and starts a new, Wesley-free life!

THE CRITIQUE

A modest hit ($30 million) in theaters, back in 1989 and a favorite home video rental and staple on cable, ROAD HOUSE is the ultimate guy flick!

I know that it has both its admirers and detractors (myself being part of the former group)—and that we can look back at the clothing, flashy cars, corny, tough-guy dialogue & bold mullets and laugh (especially Swayze’s perfect coif—which should’ve received it’s own star billing).

However…

ROAD HOUSE also represents a period in Hollywood filmmaking when heroes were larger-than-life (the 1980’s were rife with action-hero, flag-waving, derring-do motion pictures featuring action luminaries such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, the James Bond character, the late, great Charles Bronson and up-and-comers like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal.

Into this mix, we can also add Patrick Swayze as the cool, controlled Dalton (and its just Dalton—we never learn his given name). Cut from the same mold as many of the men in the aforementioned paragraph, Dalton also exhibits many of the characteristics of Clint Eastwood’s “Man-With-No-Name” persona rendered so vividly in Sergio Leone’s epic westerns of the 1960’s (A Fistful Of Dollars (1964), For A Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1967)—and I must add Charles Bronson’s “Harmonica” character in Leone’s opus, Once Upon A Time In The West (1969) for good measure).

As he elaborates in his solid audio coolmmentary (see my DVD review), ROAD HOUSE director Rowdy Herrington states that he envisioned the movie as a modern Western—with archetypical heroes and villains.

What is Swayze’s Dalton if not a modern-day (at least in 1989) John Wayne, mixed with a heaping of Eastwood’s cool, collected gunslinger from those spaghetti westerns? Oh yeah, don’t forget to add some Bruce Lee into this melting pot of action icons when Dalton has to whoop some ass!

Acting

I should add that ROAD HOUSE is definitely an interesting role for Texas-born, dancer-turned-actor Patrick Swayze. Coming off his red-hot role as Johnny Castle in the very successful Dirty Dancing (1987) and turning down the lead opposite Sylvester Stallone in 1989’s Tango & Cash (which thankfully went to the smirking, highly-enjoyable Kurt Russell)—Swayze brought all he could to this role and made it his own forever.

In the acting forum, I do believe it helped that Swayze was surrounded by a solid supporting cast: a memorable and slick villain in Ben Gazzara; a sexy (albeit not totally believable as a physician), photogenic female lead in Kelly Lynch; the paternal and tragic mentor in Sam Elliott (who’s always been a favorite of mine); and the cadre of other colorful actors and their characters who give ROAD HOUSE its distinct, cinematic flavor.

Direction

Behind the camera, director Rowdy Herrington (A Murder Of Crows/1992’s Gladiator/Jack’s Back) tackles the movie with a mixture of old-school visceral tenacity and modern artistic endeavor. This movie looks terrific—both in visual aesthetics & imagery and audio landscaping & soundtrack.

Cinematography

Part of this compliment also extends to one of my favorite cinematographers, Dean Cundey, A.S.C.—whose glossy, widescreen-lensing enhance, enliven and engross what really could’ve been a hokey B-movie type of action flick (for the record, Cundey has also shot movies like Halloween I & II, and films like Apollo 13/Back To The Future/1980’s The Fog).

(OK, OK, OK—it is a hokey, B-movie…but I love it anyway!!!)

Screenplay

Naturally, if there was anything bad about ROAD HOUSE, it would have to be the pedestrian script by David Lee Henry (Out For Justice) and Hillary Henkin (Wag The Dog)—chock full of bad dialogue and inane plotting.

But I digress: it’s the very thing that makes this movie enjoyably tongue-in-cheek. Also, I find it interesting that a movie with misogynistic leanings was co-written by a woman. But that’s showbiz!

Editing

The sharp editing—courtesy of veteran cutters John F. Link (Die Hard/Predator/The Quest) and Frank J. Urioste (Die Hard/Lethal Weapon 4/Basic Instinct)—gives ROAD HOUSE some class, and no doubt due to the cutting pedigree of its editors.

Music

Possibly the best aspect of the production is the musical soundtrack and selections. The former, courtesy of the late, great Michael Kamen (X-Men/Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves/Die Hard Trilogy,) is a beautifully-rendered composition of Western motifs while the selections are mostly performed on camera by the blind-yet-very-talented Jeff Healy and his band (all of whom have roles in the movie itself).

Production Design/Costume Design/Hair Styling

Most of the ROAD HOUSE sets, literally built from scratch (although you wouldn’t know it) were created by veteran production designer William J. Durrell (Addams Family Values/Rocky V) while everyone was fitted in 80’s cowboy chic by veteran costumer Marilyn Vance (Die Hard 1 & 2/G.I. Jane/The Girl Next Door).

By the way, though set in Kansas City, the solid mis-en-scene was shot entirely in California. Hell, even I didn’t know that!

Oh yes, before I wrap this up, gotta mention one more tidbit. As aforementioned, I totally feel that Swayze’s perfect mullet-hairdo should get its own SAG card.

It was created and tended to by famed hairstylist Paul Abascal (who has styled the hairdos of such luminaries as Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis & Arnold Schwarzenegger—and has since moved on to directing, most notably 2004’s corny-but-fun Paparazzi).

I don’t know who had the better hair: Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch or Sam Elliott? Either way, Kelly Lynch is still hot!

THE BOTTOM LINE

What more can I say about ROAD HOUSE?

It’s a fun movie with corny dialogue, plenty of action, fights galore, brazen mulletry, gratuitous sex & nudity, vulgarity, the Zen-like musings of Sam Elliott and hot, sexy Kelly Lynch.

A terrific date movie (think about it: plenty of T&A, action/fights and cool male-bonding for the guys and sexy Patrick Swayze in the buff for the girls) on one hand and the perfect male-legacy movie for the generations.

Perfect example: I can’t wait for my tweener brother Tarik to become a full-fledged young man so that I may incorporate ROAD HOUSE into his rite of passage into manhood. Should be a fun night!

Hell, my old man and I bonded over the movie many, many years ago when we rented it on VHS over a friend of his’s house (naturally, the ladies were out shopping) and it was a magical 2 hours for me as we all enjoyed the debauchery.

You know that they don’t make these kind of politically-incorrect movies anymore—so go and enjoy another screening of this classic again and again. The college kids are!

But just be warned that you may find yourself repeating much of the ROAD HOUSE dialogue in the shower…or in front of a mirror…or stuck in traffic! Not that I do…very often…

CAST: Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara, Kevin Tighe, Red West, Jeff Healey, Marshall Teague, Kathleen Wilhoite, Sunshine Parker, John Doe, Terry Funk, Travis McKenna, John Paul Jones, Gary Hudson & Julie Michaels

CREDITS: Director: Rowdy Herrington; Screenwriters: David Lee Henry & Hilary Henkin; Producer: Joel Silver; Director of Photography: Dean Cundey; Production Designers: William J. Durell Jr. & Jaymes Hinkle; Editors: John F. Link & Urioste; Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance; Music: Michael Kamen

AC/AL 1989 114m ENGLISH
N/SV