Review of Red Rock West (1993) by Alec B — 20 Apr 2013

Red Rock West a neo-noir film directed by John Dahl, the film was co-written by Dahl and his brother Rick. Starring Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, J.T. Walsh and Lara Flynn Boyle. Red Rock West was shot in Montana and Willcox (Arizona). The film was shown at Toronto Film Festival by the director of the festival, after movie was dubbed by marketing department to have fallen short of audience-expectations.

Michael is innocent ex-marine corps wandering in his Cadillac in search for job at oil-drilling from Texas to Wyoming; which he could not get due to his knee-injury. He arrives one day at Little Rock, where the bar-owner Wayne (J. T. Walsh) mistakes him for the hitman, and hires him successfully to kill his wife Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle) - handing over to him $5000 USD before and half after work-done. Instead of killing Suzanne, he informs her about the motives of her husband, the two try to runaway but it's too late as the real hitman Lyle (Dennis Hopper) has just shown up.

Wholly entertaining movie, really miss this sort of acting/movies from Nicolas Cage. Cage's character in the film is caught between different souls, a heartless hitman and beauty vamp. He is struggling to beat the notion of greediness and love-for-the-money, while attempting to withhold his moral tenets. Dennis Hopper reminded me of his character Frank Booth from David Lynch's Blue Velvet, however here we could witness from him humor-filled dialogues.

Excellent locations, and smooth playing of simple plot with twists and thrill, make it classic example of those beads that we seldom come to discover laying ashore.