One for my baby, and one more for the road

Another of the movies that I had the chance to DVR during one of the free preview weekends was the 1989 Road House. I recently got around to watching it to do a review on it now.

Patrick Swayze plays Dalton, a "cooler" at a bar in New York. Although he can be a bouncer, he tends more toward supervising the other bouncers, only springing into action when things go really far. And anyways, his philosophy is to do everything he can to get the rowdy people to leave the bar peacefully, rather than have to resort to violence. He gets a call from Frank Tilghman (Kevin Tighe), who runs the Double Deuce bar in Jasper, MO. The Double Deuce has gone from being a nice place to really violent, and in need of someone with Dalton's talents. He'll take the job, but at a fairly steep price.

Dalton goes out to Missouri, and finds out just how bad the Double Deuce is. His friend Cody (Jeff Healey) leads the house band, and they play behind chicken coop wire so that nobody will attack them. Goodness knows there's enough fighting going on. That's not the only problem, as the bartender is also skimming the drinks and pocketing the difference. Dalton, on taking the job, fires several of the staff immediately.

This is a big problem, because there's a reason why the Double Deuce is the focus of so much fighting. Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara) has moved to town, and started the Jasper Improvement Society, which is really just the sort of protection racket you'd see in a movie like Blackwell's Island back in the years just before World War II. Most businesses in town are members, and if you're not a member, then Brad is going to have his hired goons deal with you. And some of those goons had been bouncers at the Double Deuce. To complicate things further, Wesley also controls the alcohol distribution in the region.

So while Dalton tries to deal with the situation, he's going to have to get in some real fights, and these get him injured enough to go to the emergency room (bringing his medical records with him; as the doctor notes, he gets injured enough). He's treated by Dr. Clay (Kelly Lynch), and the two fall in love despite the fact that Clay had previously been in a relationship. This is going to get Brad even more pissed.

Don't pay too much attention to the plot, however, because that's not really what Road House is about. Instead, the plot is a thin reed upon which to hang one fight scene after another, the fights getting increasingly more ridiculous until the climactic shootout in Brad's mansion.

Although the plot is thin and the acting is at best adequate, the movie still works since it's about sitting back to watch all those fights, and have some good laughs when they strain credulity. Patrick Swayze died tragically young from cancer; his Dalton here probably would have died young from the effects of CTE, although pretty much everybody keeps getting back up right away after yet another concussion.

(Not related to the fights, but Jasper's landscape looked suspiciously like California. And then, about 85 minutes in, in the scene when the Ford dealership is being destroyed, if you look carefully you can see a highway sign with an arrow pointing to the obviously Missouri towns of Los Angeles and Bakersfield.)

If you're looking for high cinematic art, you may want to watch the 1940s Road House, a noir completely unrelated to the 1980s Road House other than having the same title. If you want to be entertained, by all means watch the 1980s Road House. You'll have a blast.