Right its time for a bit of post revisitation as I have been roaming through the archives of my blog for one to do redo and I figured I would give my original post on the action film, Roadhouse, another lick of writing paint (so to speak!).
So, let's take another look at this cheesy action flick and see how it fairs nearly 30 years on....
And the usual warning is coming up...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the film starts with well known professional bouncer or "cooler" Dalton (Patrick Swayze) being recruited by businessman Frank Tighlman (Kevin Tighe) who owns a bar/club called the Double Deuce in Jasper Missouri. Frank is having problems in cleaning out the unwanted elements in the bar as fights break out every night and he intends to invest money in the place to renovate it, so he needs Dalton's help keep the place running trouble free.
When Dalton arrives in town, he takes a lodging at a local farm and he soon finds out the town is under control of the corrupt local business magnate, Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara). As Dalton starts work in the Double Deuce he dismisses some of the corrupt employees, which soon causes unrest with Wesley as several of them were connected through him, one in particular being his cousin, Pat (John Doe) who was the bartender. Wesley then sends some of his henchman to intimidate Dalton into giving Pat his job back, but Dalton fights them off and sustains a knife wound. Later Dalton goes to the hospital where he meets a doctor, Elizabeth "Doc" Clay (Kelly Lynch) who gives him stitches and after they talk they develop a friendship and soon become romantically involved.
Wesley later invites Dalton to his mansion where he offers him to work for him but Dalton refuses, after this Wesley then punishes the club's business by preventing the liquor from being delivered as he sends his thugs, whom Dalton manages to fight off with help from his friend and mentor, the aging cooler, Wade Garrett (Sam Elliott) who arrives on the scene.
Meanwhile Wesley also as part of his intimidation tactics decides to punish the local businessmen in town, who all owe money to Wesley as part of his extortion rackets, and he does this in an effort to try and sicken Dalton into leaving town. Wesley one evening shows up at the double deuce with his men, including his main henchman, Jimmy (Marshall Teague) and he has them fight Dalton and his bouncer staff along with Wade for his own amusement, but then he calls it off after a while and he warns Dalton things aren't working out.
The following night, Dalton who is now enraged by Wesley's muscling tactics to get him to leave town, argues with Elizabeth who shows up at his place at the farm and during their row there is a loud explosion as the farm house is destroyed, but Dalton manages to rescue the owner, Emmett (Sunshine Parker) just in time. Dalton then spots Jimmy fleeing the scene on a motorcycle and he jumps him and they engage in an intense fist fight, which ends with Dalton killing Jimmy by ripping his throat out with his bare hand.
The following day Dalton while at the bar receives a call from Wesley, who gives him an ultimatum that either Wade or Elizabeth will die and he must choose who and he hangs up on him. At this point Wade stumbles into the bar who has been badly beat up by Wesley's men, at this point Dalton decides to give in and leave town with Wade and take Elizabeth with him. As Dalton goes to the hospital to convince Elizabeth to leave she refuses as she is sickened by Dalton's own violent behaviour and that he is no better than Wesley. Dalton then goes back to the bar to find Wade has been murdered as he has been stabbed with a knife in his chest, which Dalton tearfully removes and he sets off in a vengeful rage to confront Wesley for the last time.....
THOUGHTS
There is little doubt that while Roadhouse is incredibly cheesy, it is also a very entertaining film as well and its perhaps because it dares to be so cheesy that it actually works really well. The story is of course nothing original, as its basically like a good old fashioned western (sorry that should be modern!) with the new cowboy (i.e. Dalton) coming to town to sort out the bad sherriff (i.e. Wesley) with his girl, Elizbaeth at his side.
Dalton of course is a far more intellectual and sophisticated cowboy so to speak in that he is also a philosophy graduate and he uses his brains as well as his brawn to resolve situations. Wesley on the other hand is more like a childish bully who insists on having everything his own way and he takes great sadistic pleasure in toying with townsfolk and the local businessmen as well. And Wade Garrett is the good old fashioned, charming and genial cooler, who is old but still has a few teeth left and knows how to fight.
And while the film wasn't a big success on its release and it wasn't criticallty well received it has over time become more popular and has gained a cult following since. And to this day Road House even pops up as references in popular culture and in television shows such as in Family Guy, as the main character Peter Griffin is often shown in some scenes where he will kick someone and say "Road House!".
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers and strong language!)
Performance wise Roadhouse isn't too bad overall as the cast all put in fairly solid performances for an action flick.
Starting with Patrick Swayze who gives a likeable performance as the cool headed tough guy, Dalton who goes to town to clean things up. Swayze has several highlights in the film and he does really well in the film's fight scenes, especially the fight scenes in the bar and the main fight he has with Wesley henchman, Jimmy.
Swayze also get's some good lines as well such as the scene where he first briefs the bar staff on how he will run things and he says to them "If someone get's in your face and calls you a cocksucker I want you to be nice" and one of the staff asks "Isn't being called a cocksucker personal?" and Dalton says "No its two nouns combined to illicit a prescribed response!". And one of the other bouncers ask "What if someone calls my mother a whore?" and Dalton says sardonically "Is she?!". Dalton then continues and tells the staff "I want you to be nice until its time NOT to be nice" and one of the bouncers asks "How will we know when that is?" and Dalton says "You won't, I'll let you know. You are the bouncers and I am the cooler. You just watch my back and each others and take out the trash".
Swayze also nicely deals with Dalton's weary but good humoured attempts at hearing the same thing being said about him that for the line of work he is in that "I thought you would be bigger!". And this is said to him by Frank and later by Elizabeth and in particular when she says it to him while she treats his wounds he just laughs and says "Gee, I've never heard that before!".
Then there is the scene where Dalton confronts some of Wesley's thugs as they try to enter the bar and he says to them "Sorry we're closed" while a band plays in the background and the placed is filled up with people dancing. So, the thug asks "Well, what are all these people doing here?" and Dalton replies "Drinking and having a good time" and the thug says "Well that's why we are here" and Dalton grabs his boot, which has a concealed knife and says "You're too stupid to have a good time!!".
Another good scene is when Dalton talks to Elizabeth in a heated exchange where Elizabeth warns Dalton that he shouldn't underestimate Wesley as he doesn't know him. However, Dalton angrily says "Bullshit! I know exactIy who Brad WesIey is. I have seen his kind many times. He keeps taking and taking untiI somebody takes him. It's obvious nobody here can stand up to him!". And Elizabeth asks him "But you can stop him??" and Dalton tells her "Brad Wesley picked me. And when he did he fucked up! I am onIy good at one thing, Doc. I never lose!".
And this is followed by Dalton's fight with Jimmy, who taunts by saying "Prepare to die!" just as they are about to fight and Dalton angrily says "You are such an asshole!". And after they fight and well...Dalton wins by ripping out Jimmy's throat, he drags Jimmy's body into the river and shouts out to Wesley, who looks out across the river and Dalton yells "WESLEY!! FUCK YOU!!!".
Ben Gazarra is also really good in his role as Brad Wesley, the town's leader who controls all the business and he tries to intimidate Dalton into leaving.
Ben also has some good moments in the film, such as in the scene where Wesley invites Dalton around to his mansion and we hear some cheesy 80s music play in the background as his girlfriend does aerobics, and he yells "Will ya shut that shit of???! I can't listen to that crap! Its got no heart". Wesley then starts to taunt Dalton by bringing up his troubled past involving a self defence killing and Wesley says "Dalton, I have a cousin in Memphis. Tells me you killed a man down there. Tells me you said it was self-defense at the trial. But you and I know that isn't so, don't we?". And as Dalton starts to become visibly angry, Wesley says "Relax. Relax. Tell me, if I owned a bar and I wanted to clean it up, how much would it take to get you to come work for me?". Dalton then simply stands up and says to Wesley "There's no amount of money" and he walks out angrily.
Another good scene is where his men, O'Connor come back having failed to intimidate and beat up on Dalton, and he punches one of them in the face and knocks him down "You know what I don't like about you? You're a bleeder! You are a messy bleeder! You have no endurance for pain!" and as he is helped back up he says "You know what you're gonna be fine and you know why? Because I like you". However then Wesley punches O'Connor in the face again, knocking him to the ground and he says "Get this piece of shit coward out of here!".
Then there is the scene where Wesley has his thugs demolish one of the town's businessman's car dealership business, and he says to Elizabeth "Well Elizabeth you better get Dalton out of here, because if you don't he's goin down, and I won't lose a second's sleep over it!". Wesley then turns to the car dealership owner and he says to him "This is my town and don't you forget it!".
And lastly there is the scene where (SPOILER!!!!!) Dalton has his showdown with Wesley at his mansion and Wesley looks around for him in his trophy room and finds that Dalton has killed off most of his men. And Wesley calls out to him "I see you found my trophy room, Dalton. The only thing is missing from it is your ass!". And as the two men fight each other, Wesley wearily tells Dalton "I thought it would be fun to fight you, Dalton. I really did. But right now I just don't have the time" and he takes out a gun but Dalton kicks it away and pins Wesley to the sofa he sits on and prepares to do his throat rip kill but ultimately he relents just before the local businessmen come in and finish the job.
Sam Elliott is also really good in his role as Wade Garrett, the charming, aged cooler, who despite his age still can throw his fists.
Elliott has some good moments in the film, such as in the scene where he arrives at the double deuce to find Dalton being beat up by Wesley's men, and one of them says to Wade "You wanna fight dickless?!" and Wade says "Well I sure ain't gonna show my dick!" after which he hits the thug in the balls and says "I bet that hurts don't it?!". And after Wade, Dalton and the other bouncers at the club fight off Wesley's men, the bar's resident band leader, Cody (Jeff Healey) introduces them to Wade Garret and one of the bouncers exclaims "Holy shit!" and Wade smiles and says "Exactly right!".
Another funny line he has is when Wade dances with Elizabeth and after she leaves to go to the toilet, he watches her fine bottom wiggle as she goes and he says "That girl has entirely too many brains to have an ass like that!". And in the same scene Elliott shares a good moment with Swayze when Wade confronts Dalton over the guilt he feels of his past when he had to kill someone in self defence.
So, Wade says to Dalton "I can't believe you're still draggin' that shit around with ya. It seems to me, you'd be a little more... philosophical about it. AND CUT IT THE FUCK LOOSE. You know, that fucking cu-... that girl never told you she was married. DID SHE? And when a man sticks a gun in yer face, you got two choices; you can die or you can KILL THE MOTHERFUCKER!".
And lastly there is the scene where Wade tries to persuade an angry and frustrated Dalton to leave town after Wesley turns up the heat on him by enciting a fight in the Double Deuce and later trashing a local car dealer's business. So in this scene, Dalton practices his punching against a wooden board in a barn and Wade comes in and says to him "Hey, mijo. You're all fucked up aren't you? Let's crank that thing up and head down the road. We can be gone by dawn, never see this place again". However, Dalton refuses to and says "You can leave anytime you want to" and Wade sighs and says "Oh, shit, kid!" and Dalton then climbs up a rope to the top level of the barn and continues his practice hitting a punching bag.
So, Wade tries again and says "You don't need this" but Dalton while punching the bag, says "Don't tell me what I need! If you want to go, then go, get the fuck out of here and leave me alone!". And Wade says to Dalton "Yeah, you're right. I ought to stop telling you what to do. Maybe I ought to kick your ass!". Then, Dalton suddenly spins round furiously and attempts to punch Wade, who firmly stops the punch with his hand. And Wade says "No, we don't wanna do this. I wanna tell you something else. You taught me as much as I ever taught you. I Iove you, "mijo." I'll see you" and leaves.
As for the other cast members, Kelly Lynch is not bad as Elizabeth, the doctor, who falls for Dalton and she was also a former lover of Wesley's.
Their first scene together is also quite a nice one when Elizabeth gives Dalton his stitches for his knife wound and she says as he leaves "You know for this line of work I thought you would be bigger!" and Dalton smiles and says "Gee! I never heard that before!".
Kelly's best scene comes when Elizabeth argues with Dalton about staying in town and she says "But what are you gonna win? Who's this for anyway? Are you doing it for them? I don't think so. You think you're gonna save these peopIe from WesIey? Well, who's gonna save 'em from you?!". And this is proceeded by a loud explosion as Dalton and Elizabeth run out to see the barn of Dalton's landlord has been blown up.
Kevin Tighe is also good in his role as the rather meek but ambitious businessman, Frank Tilghman who hires Dalton, and he get's a good line where he says to Dalton at the start of the film "I own a club called the Double Deuece. It used to be a real sweet deal, but now its the sort of place where they sweep up the eyeballs at closing time!".
And later there is the scene where Frank along with the other local businessmen and Dalton talk over what they should do against Wesley after he gatecrashed the Double Duece the night before with his men. And Frank says to Dalton "You scared him last night. Brad Wesley, he's not afraid of anything, right? Well, Iast night that son of a bitch was afraid!" but Dalton says "No, he wasn't".
Red West as the character Red Webster also has some good witty moments in the film such as in the scene where after Red's auto parts business is raided by Wesley's men. And in the scene Dalton asks how much Wesley takes and Red tells him "10% to start. Oh, it's aII IegaI Iike. He formed the Jasper Improvement Society. All the businesses in town belong to it". So, Dalton asks Red "Does everybody pay?" and Red looks at Dalton as if he were stupid and says "Does a hobby horse have a wooden dick?!".
Marshall Teague while he hardly gives the film's best performance as he essentially just plays the film's main henchman, Jimnmy, and as such just kicks ass and sets fire to things, he does provide some good moments as well. And Teague's fight scene with Swayze in the Dalton vs Jimmy showdown remains one of the film's highlights, and Teague delivers the priceless line "Prepare to die!" followed by Dalton's reply "You are such an asshole!".
And later during the fight Jimmy makes the hilarious confession that "I use to fuck guys like you in prison!" and later as he starts to kick Dalton's ass he says "Damn boy! I thought you were good!" and Dalton says "Go fuck yourself!" and they fight on. But as Dalton finally gains the upper hand in their fight, Jimmy then takes out his gun and says "I'm gonna kill you the old fashioned way!" but Dalton kicks the gun away and the "ends" Jimmy by ripping out his throat!
Kathleen Wilhoite is not too bad in her role as the rather geeky bar maid, Carrie-Ann, who takes a bit of a shine to Dalton although of course nothing happens between and she later on reveals she has a pretty decent singing voice in the film.
Kathleen's best two scenes however are first up the one where Dalton first turns up at the Double Duece and surveys the chaos around him and he is nearly accosted by Morgan, who threatens Dalton and says "If you're not drinkin, then YOU'RE out!!". And Dalton laughs it off and Carrie-Ann says to Dalton "Don't let him bother you. Morgan was born an asshole and just grew bigger!". So, Carrie-Ann asks Dalton "So, you got a name?" and Dalton says "Yeah" and Carrie-Ann impatiently asks "So, come on, what is it?!" and he says "Dalton" which prompts a big surprise from Carrie-Anne who excitedly gasps and says "Oh, my God! Shit, I heard of you!".
And later there is the scene where Carrie-Ann visits Dalton the next morning at his place on the farm after his first day on the job as the DD cooler. And Carrie-Ann giggles in the scene, prompting Dalton to wearily ask "What is the joke?" and Carrie-Anne says "Its no joke. I just think I'm lookin at a dead man" and Dalton sighs and says "It seems everywhere I go, I hear that same joke!" and she tells him "Well, something tells me you bring it on yourself!".
And lastly I will mention Jeff Healey, who provides a nice little performance as the blind guitarist Cody, who's band plays at the double deuce most nights. Healey also get's some good lines in the film such as when Dalton first goes up to meet with Cody after their gig at the deuce and he quietly hands him a towel and says "You don't play too bad for a blind boy" and Cody quips back "Yeah and I thought you would be bigger!".
And also slightly later as one of the hotheaded bouncers, Morgan (played by Terry Funk) asks what the story with Dalton is. So, Cody says "The story is, you fuck with him and he'll seal your fate!" only for Morgan to spit back "Oh yeah? So far he hasn't shown me shit!". Jeff Healey who had been blind for most of his life, sadly died years later from cancer in 2008.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the director, Rowdy Herrington does a good job here in keeping the pace nice and tight and the action pretty thick and fast, and while its a no brainer of a film, he still knows how to keep the audience engaged in the action. Herrington's directing career however didn't improve much after this as he went on to make poorly received films such as Gladiator (starring Cuba Gooding Jr) and Striking Distance (starring Bruce Willis) so you would have to say that Road House was the highlight of his career!
And as for the music score, Michael Kamen provides the score and its a pretty good one it has to be said and it features his usual mix of orchestrations and electronic synthesziers along with electric guitar thrown in. It actually still resembles the scores that he did for the Lethal Weapon series but its still a pretty good one given the cheesy standards set by the film.
Its also worth mentioning of course in regards to the other music in the film that Jeff Healey makes a solid contribution to the film's soundtrack also with his band (known as The Jeff Healey Band). And Healey and his band play among other songs, two memorable cover numbers such as The Door's "Roadhouse blues" and also Willie Dixon's "I'm your Hoochie Coochie Man".
FLAWS
So, Road House, its a masterpiece without any flaws, right???? No, of course not, it has its share.
And I would have to start off by simply saying that realistically the film is a load of utter tosh and is basically a lot of brainless fist fighting, which features some nice boobs in it as well and in both instances you would be absolutely right! Road House is also hardly original or in any sense innovational, but then again in its defence, why would it be as it attains to be nothing more than an action movie.
However the film's action also tends to highlight the lack of overall plot and there are also one or two cringeworthy moments in the film as well such as the scene where Denise, Wesley's girlfriend performs a corny strip tease in the double deuce. This is often a scene I find quite cringeworthy to watch (even if the girl has a nice pair!). Then there is the scene where Wesley has a loud house party where he invites girls back and some numpty who he loves because he dances like a complete dick (in fact the guy looks a little bit like a discount Nick Nolte!).
And in terms of the story, one of the scenes I had a problem with is where Dalton's car is vandalised after his first night on the job as one of his windows has been smashed and a knife has been stabbed into one of his tyres, leaving Dalton to smile to himself. Now, why in the hell did Dalton park his car out front of the bar???!! Why didn't he just park it around the back of the bar and cover it up or something?! Then it wouldn't be such an easy target for unruly customers to vandalise it!
Another issue I had with the film was to do with Dalton's backstory regarding the self defence killing he was involved in back in Memphis, it is made reference to in the most superficial sense of the word and no more than that. And what makes it that bit more vague is in the scene where Wade tries to convince Dalton to put it behind him or "cut it the fuck loose" as he nicely puts it and Wade mentions that "you know the girl never told you she was married!". But, which girl is he referring to??? Its not Elizabeth surely as Wade had just met her, so it must be the girl Dalton was involved with around the time of the killing. But again its just not that well explained.
In fact further to this point, it is suggested in the film that Elizabeth was in fact married to Wesley as she alluded this to Dalton but didn't mention, who she was married to simply that she "picked the wrong guy". So, its kind of surprising that Wade would have known about this, or maybe it just comes down to the local gossip of the town and Wade had his ear to the ground already! Either that or in Hollywood action films it is assumed everyone knows everyone elses business!
I also thought the film's ending is pretty farcical and OTT (but again what do you expect I guess!) with (PLOT SPOILER) Dante ready to kill Wesley at his mansion but he let's him off the hook only to have the local businessman including Kevin and Red, shoot him dead, and they conveniently stash the shotguns away in time before the police arrive! Not only that but the men all deny any knowlegde of anything that happened that would cause Brad Wesley to lie on the floor in a pool of his own blood, with mutliple shotgun wounds in his chest and we can imagine given that its a film the police will just sweep it all under the carpet and probably say "Aww forget it, he was an asshole anyway!".
So, again its the Hollywood machine producing another happy ending where logic, reason and all common sense go out the window and we are left with an ending that really insults an audience's intelligence, but hey it is only an action film after all!
Anyway, so that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, Roadhouse is pretty much a mindless action movie, its loud, somewhat crass and full of broad humour not to mention some liberal doses of violent action and it also has its fair share of cheesy, cringeworthy moments. However, despite all that its still a very enjoyable film and it has earned its cult status over the years and for me it remains one of those guilty pleasure films, which is worth revisiting every now and then, so for that alone its still worth checking out after 28 years and every time I see it, it never fails to bring a smile to my face.
Right, so that's it for now and I will return once again soon with some post or other of some kind, not sure yet of course but it won't be another revisitation.
So, until the next one, its bye for now!
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