Director: Rowdy Herrington
Pigeonhole: Action / ‘Comedy’
The Basics: Swayze plays a character named Dalton (yes, he only goes by the one name throughout), a “cooler”, or specialized bouncer, who is hired by a bar owner from Jasper, Missouri to help him clean up his establishment, the Double Deuce, from the current low-class patrons and staff who fight, sell drugs, prostitute, vandalize, or otherwise engage in illegal activities on a nightly basis. Beyond the patrons of the bar, Dalton also clashes with a rich local resident, Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara), who earns his money buy extorting local businesses and land owners. Dalton’s love interest, Doc (Lynch), is a local doctor who treats him one night after he gets cut in a fight with several of Brad Wesley’s thugs.
Recommendation: If you are looking to watch a film with bar brawls, a decent soundtrack, a very simplistic dialogue and several scenes with topless women – then you could be highly entertained. If these things do not interest you, you probably won’t like this movie.
My Take: **spoiler alert** I like Road House because it does not appear to take itself too seriously. Any movie that can use the line “you’re too stupid to have a good time!” is worth my viewing. The fights are staged reasonably well, although outside of Dalton and Jimmy whose fighting show some martial arts training, it appears everyone else are straight fist fighters. I also like that Wesley’s goons can apparently drive a monster truck on the city streets, legally. Throw in Sam Elliott as Dalton’s mentor (an aging cooler named Wade Garrett), the Jeff Healy Band as the Double Deuce house entertainment, and the fact that Dalton’s landlord looks like Santa Claus, and you can hopefully see why I used the word ‘comedy’ as a descriptor. The few “dramatic parts” of the movie revolve around Dalton questioning his ability to settle down or have a long term relationship, because he previously killed a man who pulled a gun on him during a fight, over a woman, no less. The real question (tongue in cheek) of the movie is who will step into Brad Wesley’s place after the local business owners/extortion victims gun him down in his home? My thought would be Dalton.
Final Thought/Extras/For Fun: Apparently there was Road House 2, which I have not seen as of this writing. In #2, Dalton’s first name is revealed as James… so the “big fight” of #1 was James vs. Jimmy. I find it interesting the Director’s name is Rowdy.
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