Red Rock West (1994)

Good movie but grossly overrated

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Not many of these thrillers about deceit that are truly to die for get made nowadays. Red Rock West fortunately is one of the few that is. Guaranteed thrill.Mad man Dennis Hopper and the cool Nicholas Cage together with the gorgeous Lara Flyn Boyle (Twin Peaks) make the heart beat of this movie. They act splendidly. Great joy to watch them act together. Add to that a suspenseful story with many surprising twists and turns and a great soundtrack and you have got a winner called "Red Rock West".What's the story about? Nicholas Cage gets stranded in a dead end town looking for work. He gets mistaken for a hired gun by the local bar owner who wants to assassinate his own wife. Nicholas Cage plays along for the money and accepts the hit man job. How soon will the bar owner find out that Nicholas Cage isnt the hired muscle he thought he was? What follows next is a rather bizarre story, but generally it is portrayed realistically enough to not mind some small flaws in the credibility of the story. It is really suspenseful. Seen it many times already and I can still revel in this juicy plot of deceit.Too bad, about the Hollywood ending, that just made me cringe a little. Because of the last 15 minutes this movie fails to become a classic, which it could have been. Now it is just great.But I'll gladly settle for just great...

Small towns in the middle of nowhere are made for the movies. To onlookers, a city like Red Rock would be a quaint checkpoint under the umbrella of a long-winded road trip, perfect for a pit stop and a quick bite to eat. Stay there too long, though, and you'll find yourself desperate for entertainment, money, love, and more. Maybe that's why the characters in Red Rock West are so cold-blooded.When the film was first introduced to audiences during the Toronto Film Festival in 1993, it was immediately well-received, a neo-noir praised for its uncommon quality. Distributors weren't as smitten. When its domestic rights were sold to Columbia Tri-Star, a theatrical release was out of the question. "The film doesn't fall neatly into any marketable category. A western film noir isn't something people can immediately spark to," the head of the marketing department of Polygram declared. So it was disregarded, branded as a cable and direct-to-video product. It was shown on HBO seven times in the fall, but the small-screen, after all, is certainly not a distinguished place for a movie to be shown, especially one that should be taken seriously.But just as things could not have gotten any worse, they suddenly became better: When Bill Banning, the owner of San Francisco's famous Roxie Cinema, saw Red Rock West for the first time, he disagreed with the distribution it was receiving. Surely, the film had an audience. And after a year of trying to secure the rights, his faith in the film paid off; it became such a box-office smash at the Roxie that it eventually was given a proper limited release, becoming an art-house favorite within a few weeks.Normally, I wouldn't go so deeply into the backstory of a film that came out more than 20 years ago, but as of 2015, Red Rock West still feels like a classic waiting in the wings, desperately wanting to be discovered by another Banning. Even after all the ruckus it made throughout 1993- 1994, it remains a hidden gem, deserving to sit on the same golden throne that Blood Simple currently lounges on.A drifter in the same caliber as John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Michael Williams (Nicolas Cage) finds himself in the city of Red Rock after failing to acquire a promising oilfield job. When he stops by a local bar to wash away his sorrows, he is confronted by the owner, Wayne Brown (J.T. Walsh), who mistakes him for a hit-man he hired to kill his wife, Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle). Michael is young and stupid, so when Wayne offers him an eye-grabbing stack of cash, he fails to correct him that he's actually Michael Williams from the Navy, not Lyle from Dallas.Being the nice guy that he is, he breaks into the Brown home, hoping to warn Suzanne that she's in grave danger. But when the real hit-man (Dennis Hopper) shows up, Michael finds himself tangled in a net of lust and sin that can only end badly. And it surely doesn't help when he becomes romantically involved with Suzanne.In the ashen throes of the film noir genre, there is almost always a recurring feeling of déjà vu; once you've seen a disciple with a drifter, a femme fatale, and a shady husband mixing it up, you've probably seen them all. Film noir has hardly changed since its peak years (the 1940s and '50s), yet it has maintained a startling freshness in the same way comic books have. You may have experienced every storyline possible, but the way those story lines are told, with hard-bitten cynicism and dark alleyway peril, have infinite allure.Red Rock West is a consistent delicacy, a greatest hits album of film noir adventures. Look at the way a cigarette dangles on Lara Flynn Boyle's kissable lips. Look at the way Dennis Hopper handles his gun, like a detective flying off-the-rails of his sanity. John Dahl is a director who knows his movies — after only a few minutes into the film do you get the sense that Murder, My Sweet and Raw Deal are not just B- movies to him, but cookbooks, its recipes lingering in the cinematography and the writing.Red Rock West isn't without its issues: Music plays when a scene should be strictly silent, destroying any tension waiting to be had, and it would have been interesting if the film had explored Michael and Suzanne's relationship as thickly as Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson's. But two minor flaws can hardly deter the success of a film as striking as Red Rock West. Ignoring the disconcerting violence that plagued the majority of '90s independent neo-noirs, the film is deliciously old-fashioned and deliciously stylish.

Well, "Red Rock West" isn't a very original or innovative film, since it repeats many of the western's clichés from the eighties. Also, it may not have a great scenario or photography direction-- because of that, it seems to be much older than it actually is. However, the film is extremely entertaining; the story develops quickly, with an engaging and professional cast-- Nicolas Cage himself hasn't aged a day since this was released, he now looks exactly the same. The story has some interesting twists that help the film not become boring-- which is the worst element a film can have. See it without commitment and you'll have a good time.

There are certain people who scream out to be typecast. Looing for a small-town bigwig with an air of corruption and a nasty streak? How about the late (and much lamented) JT Walsh? How about a contract killer with superficial charm and a centre of pure viciousness? Has to be the late (and even more lamented) Dennis Hopper. Penniless drifter with a hard luck story? Nicolas Cage, who else? Only femme fatale wife of small-town bigwig doesn't immediately scream Lara Flynn Boyle, but she does a perfectly adequate job in the role.Red Rock West is a noir movie, updated for modern audiences. The plot involves murder plots, opportunism, corruption, double-dealing, and assorted twists and turns, and is splendid fun. The performances are all dark, and all the principals get their teeth into the piece.Highly recommended, if you're in the mood for some dark fun.