Subject: Film Review: Red Rock West Date: Thu, 11 Aug 1994 06:36:28 UTC From: ""B. Sue Blair"" Red Rock West ------------- A nifty film based on the well-known theory that men are dogs and women are psychopaths. Another all-too-believable performance by Dennis Hopper as an Edge City dweller, plus a cameo by Nicholas Cage's tight-jean clad buttocks make this worthwhile fare. Sarah Boyle Flynn's (or whoever it is) character is basically greedy and paranoid, which is a valuable edge, but then she gets hosed over by men too much and the greed/paranoia thing spirals into a classic fatal flaw. We see the progression: as a result of greed, Flynn commits a heinous crime to get cash and lots of it- As a result, is she living the life of Riley high on the hog? Hell no- she's living in a bumfuck town where her husband is a two-bit sheriff and she has to get her jollies squanking some beefcake loser in a trailer. She finally meets up with Cage who might actually be able to help her out. She notices that Cage wears snug Bugle Boys and so obligingly blows the bugle in the mandatory love scene. This is a key scene- could Cage have won her over if he would have reciprocated, i.e., been a cunning linguist? Did he reciprocate? We don't know- the scene went cloudy too fast to see anything other than a dumb animal expression on Cage's face during Flynn's skin flute recital. This film explores the age-old question: Are men driven to be dogs by the incomprehensible and psychotic behavior of women or are women driven insane by men being insensitive dogs? Or do the two feed upon themselves like a viper eating its own tail and choking on the venom, unable to stop, driven on by a morbid instinct toward self-destruction? Are gay men and lesbians free of such idiocy? Tune in to the next "Geraldo". Back to the canine theme: Every man in the film is a dog: Hopper is a rabid mad-dog, the deputy is a hounddog- always one step behind in sniffing down the clues- Cage is kindof a lost, furry puppy dog, and the sheriff is just a dog. The rest of the male characters are incidental scruffy mutts. Lots of gratuitious violence for people with short attention spans and some nice Greek mythos overtones (Medea) for the literate family members.