Still hot off his feature
film debut with El Mariachi (1992), Roadracers (1994) marked Robert Rodriguez’s first foray into the Hollywood studio system and it was not a
smooth transition. Accustomed to shooting fast and loose and with complete
creative control, he met resistance from a crew that were used to working a
certain way and at a certain pace and they resented this young upstart coming
in and changing the way things were done. However, this experience prepared him
for his next project, which would also be done with a studio.
Roadracers was part of a series of made-for-television movies entitled Rebel Highway for the Showtime channel
that aired in 1994. The concept was a series of 1950s B-movies remade “with a
‘90s edge,” spearheaded by Lou Arkoff, son of legendary movie producer Samuel
Z. Arkoff, and Debra Hill (Halloween).
The two producers invited directors like John Milius, Joe Dante and William
Friedkin to pick a title from one of Arkoff’s movies, hire their own writer,
select their own director of photography and editor, and have final cut. They
were only given $1.3 million and 12 days to shoot their film with a cast of
young, up and coming actors and actresses. Used to shooting fast and cheap,
this set-up must’ve appealed to Rodriguez who created the most entertaining
installment and remained truest to the spirit of those ‘50s B-movies.
The film starts off in
typical energetic Rodriguez fashion as local juvenile delinquent Dude Delaney
(David Arquette) outwits the local cops in his hot rod while his girlfriend
Donna (Salma Hayek) cools her heels to the blistering rockabilly stylings of
Johnny Reno. The music and Rodriguez’s rhythmic editing perfectly compliment
the Dude’s wild driving and wild behavior as he arrives at the nightclub,
manages to charm his disgruntled girlfriend, and whoop it up to Reno’s music.
Dude’s best friend Nixer
(John Hawkes) hitches a ride, much to Donna’s chagrin, and babbles on about his
latest obsession – Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (1956). They soon cross paths with Teddy Leather (Jason Wiles),
the local tough kid, and his friends, challenging them to a drag race all to
the distinct strains of Link Wray’s music. Rodriguez has a lot of fun with this
scene as Nixer insults Teddy’s girlfriend (“I got a boner the size of your
head!”) and Dude casually flicks his lit cigarette on her hair (so obviously a
wig), which ignites it at the crucial moment in the race.
These opening scenes do an
excellent job of capturing the silly fun of goofing off with your friends when
you’re young and have your whole life ahead of you. Rodriguez himself was just
starting out and brings an energy and vitality that is exciting to watch as it
translates on-screen in the way he shoots and edits every scene. It is like the
frame can barely contain the action in it.
After the drag race, Teddy
swears revenge on Dude as does his father Sarge (William Sadler), who just so
happens to be the head cop in this small Texas town. He has been looking for any
excuse to bust the young punk.
With his slicked-back
pompadour, unshaven look and mischievous smirk permanently affixed to his face,
David Arquette certainly looks the part of a ‘50s juvenile delinquent – the
kind that wakes up in bed with his electric guitar and lives from one goof to
the next, epitomized by the tried and true cliché of live fast and die young.
Arquette has always been something of an eccentric performer that Hollywood
never quite figured out what to do with – the notable exception being the Scream movies, which allowed him to
indulge in his trademark quirkiness. Rodriguez gives him license to have fun
with the role, knowing what a plumb part it is for a young actor – playing a
cool delinquent that aspires to be a rock ‘n’ roll musician like his hero Link
Wray. Dude is a restless soul with unbridled energy that this small-town just
can’t contain and Arquette conveys this in his enthusiastic performance.
William Sadler appears to be
having a blast as the film’s antagonist – the authoritative cop. Rodriguez
allows the actor to stretch out in what amounts to a fairly standard role by
giving him substantial moments like early on when Sarge goes into detail about
how good the pigs in blankets his mother makes for him are to his new partner.
Just watch how Sadler savors the admittedly tasty-looking snack like it was the
best food on earth. It’s all a bit ridiculous but that’s kinda the point and it
gives us some insight into his character. As a result, Sarge is more than just
a faceless authority figure.
In an early role, John Hawkes
plays Dude’s best friend and movie fanatic, convinced that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is real. The actor gets to dish out
some of the funniest insults as his character gleefully pokes fun of Teddy and
his gang. Hawkes plays well off of Arquette and their scenes together are a lot
of fun to watch as they react to each other’s antics. For example, there’s a
scene where Nixer watches in awe as Dude applies a massive amount of hair gel
to his hair providing the sequence’s perfectly timed punchline, “Little dab’ll
do ya.” This is a set-up for an even more impressive scene where Dude uses said
gel to slick down a roller rink so that Teddy and his boys take a spill all to
the vintage rockabilly music of Hasil Adkins.
In what was her American
acting debut, Mexican bombshell Salma Hayek is just fine as Dude’s girlfriend.
Admittedly, she doesn’t have much to do except look beautiful and act
exasperated at her boyfriend’s antics. Rodriguez tries to give her something to
work with by showing the racism Donna encounters from her white classmates. He
uses the allegory of conformity in Body
Snatchers for the small-mindedness of the town that treats her like a
second-class citizen because of her ethnicity.
When Wes Craven dropped out
at the last minute to make another A
Nightmare on Elm Street movie, the producers of Showtime’s Rebel Highway series of made-for-T.V.
movies asked Robert Rodriguez to fill in because he had proven with El Mariachi that he could make one fast
and cheap: “So I had the least amount of money out of everyone else in the
whole slate of pictures. They figured they would make up the difference on
mine, and that’s why I got in on it.” He was given a budget of $700,000 (El Mariachi was made for only $7,000!),
wrote the screenplay in two weeks and was given 13 days to shoot Roadracers, one less than he did on El Mariachi.
Rodriguez meant with
resistance from the get-go as he clashed with the producers over the film’s
composer. They had already hired one and he told them to give the man half the
money and let him use the other half to bring in Texan musician Johnny Reno
whom Rodriguez knew from elementary school. The filmmaker saw Roadracers as an opportunity to work on
a larger film before making Desperado
(1995), the sequel to El Mariachi
with Antonio Banderas. It also gave him a chance to show that Salma Hayek could
act in English so he could cast her in Desperado.
For Rodriguez, it was a film
of several firsts – it was first time shooting on 35mm and the first time he
worked with professional actors and crew, the latter of which proved to be a
challenge for the young filmmaker. A lot of the movies in the series were going
over budget and over schedule in terms of hours (18-20 hour days) and Rodriguez
inherited a crew that was burnt out. He ended up shooting most of the film
himself. “I was just this little punk, so they looked at me and were
questioning everything that I was doing because I was shooting really fast and
I was shooting my edits. I wasn’t shooting full shots.”
In
addition, his preferred method was to work fast: “The actors didn’t have much
time to overthink what they were doing, and I didn’t either as a filmmaker. I
just went by complete instinct and let my subconscious take over.” John Hawkes,
who played Dude’s best friend Nixer, remembers that Rodriguez “was kind of
frustrated, because even though it was a small project by Hollywood standards,
I think he felt like it was over-crewed, that there were just too many people
around … He was very much a do-it-yourself guy. About a couple of days into the
shoot, he was pretty much shooting it himself.”
Roadracers received mostly positive notices from
critics. In his review for The New York
Times, John J. O’Connor wrote, “From square parents to ominous rumbles, Roadracers doesn’t miss a cliché in the
depiction of rebels without a cause. Skillfully done, though.” The Los Angeles Times’ Chris Willman wrote,
“Roadracers, too, looks and feels as
if it were done on the fly, with adrenaline dripping into the editing bay.” In
his review for the Austin Chronicle,
Lewis Black wrote, “Arquette and Hayek are good as the leads, Arquette’s
goofiness confusing enough to serve the story, with ex-Austinite Hawkes turning
in an inspired turn as Arquette’s kind-of-geeky friend.” Entertainment Weekly gave it a “B-“ rating and Mike D’Angelo wrote,
“Buoyed by winning performances from David Arquette and Salma Hayek and
ferociously kinetic editing by Rodriguez, it makes for a fun pastiche…at least
until it turns needlessly violent and ‘realistic.’” Finally, New York Magazine’s John Leonard called
it, “surprisingly entertaining.” In
retrospect, Rodriguez said of this film: “You look back and go, ‘I don’t even
direct or shoot or edit like that anymore.’ You wish you could get back to
that.”
Rodriguez inherently
understands what ‘50s iconography is cool – hot rods, rock ‘n’ roll music,
black leather jackets, and beautiful women – and fills Roadracers with them. If there is a particular emphasis on period
music it’s because he’s a musician himself and applies the energy and rhythm of
‘50s rockabilly to the pacing of his film so that it is the cinematic
equivalent of this music. This explains why Rodriguez revels in Dude’s musical
epiphany – when he messes up his amp but as a result gets an awesomely loud and
distorted sound reminiscent of the thunderous sound of his hero Link Wray.
Rodriguez proceeds to contrast this with the safe, sell-out sound of Reno’s
other band that turns out to be nothing but a façade as Nixer finds out they’re
miming to a record player, which is the ultimately betrayal as far as Dude’s
concerned. It drives Dude a little mad and the film along with until it builds
in intensity to a nightmarish climax. What Roadracers
lacks in substance it more than makes up for in style and let’s face it,
Rodriguez has never been pre-occupied with substance. His films’ primary goals
are to entertain and have some fun and this one delivers on both counts.
SOURCES
Brennan, Patricia. “Fast
Cars, Fast Girls and Raging Hormones.” Washington Post. July 17, 1994.
Corliss, Richard. “I was a
Teenage Teenager.” Time. August 15, 1994.
Gallagher, Brian. “John
Hawkes Talks Roadracers.” MovieWeb.
April 20, 2012.
Huver, Scott. “Robert
Rodriguez Looks Back at Roadracers,
Ahead to Machete Kills and Sin City 2.” Popcorn Biz. April
24, 2012.
Nicholson, Max. “Rodriguez
Reflects on Roadracers.” IGN.
April 20, 2012.
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. “The Way
We Weren’t.” Chicago Reader. November 18, 1994.
Sullivan, Kevin P. “Robert
Rodriguez Reminisces about his Early Film Roadracers.”
MTV. April 24, 2012.