Direct-to-video no longer
has the stigma it once did. Back in the heyday of home video for a film to
bypass a theatrical release and go straight to video was reserved for the likes
of cheesy erotic thrillers and B-movies starring washed-up actors. Like time,
stigma is a funny thing. The scarlet letters of yesteryear are a distant memory
due in large part to streaming services like Amazon and Netflix, which have
begun to change this perception by releasing high profile movies like Bird Box (2018) on home video as opposed
to giving them a wide theatrical release.
Back in 1993, however, Red Rock West (1993), a modest neo-noir
starring Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper and Lara Flynn Boyle, was unjustly sold to
cable television when it wasn’t considered easily marketable by the studio that
owned it. Fortunately, it was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival
where a San Francisco-based theater owner rescued it from obscurity. While it
still didn’t make back its modest budget at least it was given a second chance
before being relegated to home video.
Michael (Cage) is a
down-on-his-luck war veteran living out of his car and looking for work. A knee
injury rules him out of jobs such as an oil drilling gig he shows up for in
Wyoming. We learn some important things about him in this opening scene. He’s
honest. He could’ve lied on his application about his injury but didn’t. He has
integrity. After failing to get the job his buddy told him about he offers
Michael a few bucks to which he refuses, telling him, “Don’t worry about me.”
This scene is important as it establishes what kind of a person he is – he’ll
make his own through life. This is especially crucial later on when we begin
wondering who we can trust.
Michael soon finds himself
in the sleep little town of Red Rock, arriving like a gunslinger when he goes
into a bar looking for leads on any work in the area. Wayne (J.T. Walsh), the
owner, mistakes him for a hitman from Dallas he hired to kill his wife Suzanne
(Lara Flynn Boyle). Michael goes along with the ruse long enough to take half
the money, warn the wife, take her money to kill Wayne, and skip out of town,
letting this clearly dysfunctional couple settle their own issues. Of course,
this being a noir story it is never that simple and Michael runs into the real
hitman, Lyle from Dallas (Dennis Hopper), and finds it increasingly difficult
to get out of Red Rock. Part of the fun of watching Red Rock West is seeing poor Michael get deeper and deeper in
trouble as his attempts to leave town are thwarted.
Coming off the modest hit
that was Honeymoon in Vegas (1992),
Nicolas Cage brought an affable everyman quality to Michael as he tones down
his trademark Cageisms, which may explain why it isn’t one of his more
celebrated performances. Some might consider this to be one of the actor’s
tamer performances but so what? You can’t have crazy all the time as that too
becomes predictable and stale. I like that Cage plays Michael as a reluctant
protagonist that seems to always make the wrong decisions. There are scenes
where we see Michael weighing his options over in his mind or berating himself
after a particular one goes badly.
Hot off her role as
good-girl-next-door Donna in Twin Peaks,
Lara Flynn Boyle plays a duplicitous femme fatale. With her flinty gaze and
emotionless demeanor, Suzanne is clearly not to be trusted but for some foolish
reason (perhaps sex with her clouded his judgment), Michael does and this
unnecessarily complicates his life. With the exception of the first season of Twin Peaks, I’ve found Boyle to have a cold
presence, which may explain why her most believable role is as an alien in Men in Black II (2002). Dahl finds a way
to use her iciness to effect as a scheming woman that manipulates Michael to do
her bidding.
When Dennis Hopper shows up
he gives the film a jolt of unpredictable energy as Lyle from Dallas, the real hitman. He’s a genial, good ol’ boy
until he has to do his job and then Hopper brings his trademark scary intensity
that we all know and love. The great J.T. Walsh plays the tightly wound bar
owner/sheriff of the town that also harbors a secret. The role doesn’t require
the actor to show much range but it does allow him to do what he does best –
play an uptight authority figure that makes the protagonist’s life hell.
The first two thirds of Red Rock West is a slow burn as director
John Dahl establishes all the characters and their relationships to one
another. The last third is particularly enjoyable as we get too see the likes
of Cage, Hopper and Walsh share the screen together as they head towards an
inevitable confrontation.
Director John Dahl
establishes an atmospheric tone right from the opening shot of an empty highway
out in the middle of nowhere with ominous storm clouds overhead foreshadowing
trouble. The opening credits play over a sunny version of this desolate stretch
of road as we see Michael get ready for his job interview and it gives us some
crucial insight into his character in economical fashion with no dialogue,
instead conveyed visually. With its wide open vistas and twangy, country
music-esque score, complete with frontier-type town, Red Rock West feels like a modern western fused with a neo-noir.
In 1992, Red Rock West was made in Arizona on a
$7.5 million budget, financed with a negative pick-up deal selling off the
cable T.V., video and overseas rights with Columbia TriStar Home Video covering
$3.5 million of the production costs. They made a deal with HBO to recoup some
of their money.
The film didn’t test well with
audiences and fell between the cracks as it wasn’t deemed commercial enough for
a strong advertising campaign or artistic enough to go out on the film festival
circuit. As a result, there was little incentive for someone to buy the
theatrical rights. This didn’t stop Red
Rock West from opening well in Europe in 1993, which caught the attention
of Piers Handling, director of the Toronto International Film Festival. He
decided to show it at the festival that year.
It was well received, but
none of the usual art house movie distributors were interested despite the
pedigree of the cast and it aired several times on HBO. Bill Banning, owner of
the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, saw it at the film festival and wanted to
book the film and couldn’t believe it didn’t have a distributor. It wasn’t
until January 1994 that he was able to find out who owned the rights. Once it
began screening at the Roxie it broke the house record in its fourth week due
in large part to positive reviews in the local press and strong word-of-mouth.
Red Rock West received strong critical notices. Roger Ebert gave the film
three-and-a-half out of four stars and wrote, “It’s the kind of movie made by
people who love movies, have had some good times at them, and want to celebrate
the very texture of old genres like the western and the film noir.” The New York Times’ Caryn James wrote, “The
director and co-writer, John Dahl, keeps up this perfect swift timing
throughout the film, playfully loading on every suspense-genre trick he can
imagine. Red Rock West is a
terrifically enjoyable, smartly acted, over-the-top thriller.” In his review
for the Los Angeles Times, Kevin
Thomas wrote, “Cage’s naturalness as a nice guy in a big jam lends the film
considerable substance while Hopper’s wily foil, Boyle’s tough dame and Walsh’s
minor-league baddie provide much amusement.” Entertainment Weekly gave it a “B-“ rating and Owen Gleiberman
described it as “a tongue-in-cheek film noir gothic…a likably scruffy knockoff
of the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple.”
While Red Rock West doesn’t have the acclaim of The Last Seduction (1994) or the cult appeal of Rounders (1998), I still find it to be
Dahl’s most engaging and entertaining film. It didn’t deserve its initial fate.
Some films get all the breaks in the world, seemingly destined for greatness.
Some films get no breaks and are forgotten. Some films take on a life of their
own. Time erases stigmas. No one cares if a film was released direct-to-video.
Truly good art survives. It can now show up on Amazon or Netflix, waiting for
someone to discover it without any pre-conceived notions.
SOURCES
Bearden, Keith. “John Dahl.”
MovieMaker. August 2, 1994.
Galbraith, Jane. “Following
the Long, Strange Trip of Red Rock.” Los
Angeles Times. April 8, 1994.
Hornaday, Ann. “Film Noir,
‘Tweener or Flub’?” The New York Times. April 3, 1994.
