Red Rock West

"Red rock west" superbly ends on a train,while Dwight Yoakam's sensational "A thousand miles from nowhere" is heard during the final credits.One should note that the excellent soundtrack features two songs of the late great Johnny Cash and other chestnuts.

What about the movie?It's an excellent entertaining flick.Two tremendous leads :Nicolas Cage ,who always seems overtaken by events,always looking stupefied and Dennis Hopper who does not take his character seriously and deliciously overacts while displaying a lot of humor.All the supporting cast is excellent ,and as absolutely no one can be trusted in this money story,there are enough twists to satisfy the action-packed movie buff.One should notice that ,towards the end ,in the graveyard ,the movie verges on horror.

An excellent entertainment for a hard day's night.

Red Rock West (1993)

Nicolas Cage gets embroiled in a deadly crime without at first knowing it, and the dominos lead to increasing peril, adventure and misadventure in the wild forlorn American West of the 1990s. Red Rock West is often brutal and sometimes hilarious, and Cage pulls off the mixture with his usual sardonic wit and wary ease.

Is the plot over the top? Yes. Is Dennis Hopper perfect as a crazed, almost likable killer? Yes. Does Cage stand a chance? Well, you have to watch and see. It never lets up, and it took me by surprise the first time I saw it. On second viewing yesterday, I was surprised at how well it held up, how well constructed it was, and how macabre and funny it was at the same time.

Director Ron Dahl (who also helped write) is known more for his TV work, but with Rounders and this film he shows a deft hand with sensational plots. It's saved by its humor by the way, and by the caricatures. The bar is sleazy, the cops questionable. And don't miss a really inspired cameo by Dwight Yoakam as a truck driver.

A little known neo - noir (read all about this after watching this) gem, RRW is supremely well constructed and makes great use of its plot and minimalist setting.

I would request watchers to not read the IMDb summary and pledge head long into it. It's unpredictable and is a lot of fun to watch, without knowing where the narrative is heading.

Nicholas Cage, Dennis Hopper and JT Walsh give A grade performances. But, it is the assured direction and the superb screenplay that keep you glued to the screen.

Highly recommended.

Red Rock West is what all films should be like. A genuinely interesting film with enough twists and turns to satisfy any sane human, it was tragically overlooked on its release. With Nicolas Cage (before his career went into orbit) in fine form and Dennis Hopper stealing scene after scene, this is a movie that withstands repeated watchings. The rest of the cast are uniformly excellent and the quirkiness of the setting (a small town in the middle of nowhere) never gets in the way. In short this is a great little film that deserves to be seen.

Michael Williams (Nicolas Cage) can't nail down a job due to his leg. He's running low on money. He goes to Red Rock to look for a drilling job. The bartender Wayne Brown (J.T. Walsh) assumes Michael to be Lyle from Dallas. He has hired Lyle (Dennis Hopper) to kill his cheating wife Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle). Michael takes the money and tells her. She makes a counter offer to double the money. He writes a letter to the sheriff. When he tries to leave town, he accidentally hits a man. He brings the injured man to the hospital but the man has actually been shot. Then Wayne Brown walks in as the sheriff of this little town but that's not the end of this twisty plot.

This is stripped down. There is a desolate feel to everything. The characters are dark. Nicolas Cage does some of his best work. Dennis Hopper is doing his dark killer character. Lara Flynn Boyle nails the femme fatale act. It does add a few too many craziness but I do like the hard noir style.