Online
Underneath some unfortunate and era-imposed style choices, Road House is actually a well-executed piece of storytelling. It’s got it all. It delivers.
The setting: It’s perfect - a lively Road House (and by the 80s that kind of bar itself was more a relic than anything else) on the edge of a town under control of a corrupt few who have the legitimate folks cowering in fear.
The hero: let’s be clear, Patrick Swayze was cheesy but Dalton is a kick-arse character. He’s a man (of talent and depth that is slowly revealed) with a past who’s called into town (through some apparent for-hire network of bar managers who get sheet done) by a lone businessman trying to stand on his own - and there Dalton runs headlong into those forces of corruption, and saving the bar becomes the fight for saving the town . . . a task his sense of justice just won’t let him resist.
The sidekick: Sam Elliot’s Wade Garrett is hands down the best individual performance and the best sidekick of the 80s for my money (with aplogies to Goose and Short-Round). We all know Sam Elliot is a bad-arse but I think most of us just believe that Wade Garrett is exactly how Sam Elliot really is in real life. Probably isn’t true, but it just feels like it must be.
The Girl: Doc, the local single professional-type who at first is above the likes of Dalton, but he’s deeper than she expected and he’s got great abs and hair - so, you know. But of course she used to be involved with bad Brad Westley , and now things just got personal.
The Bad Boss: Westley isn’t a great character but he effectively personifies injustice - an all around jerk has no real merit yet controls everything to his corrupt ends. He’s willing to have monster trucks destroy car dealerships because that’s what he is: a monster. It’s deep symbolism.
The Bad Boss’s Champion: I don’t know this dude’s name but the movie long foreshadows the coming fight with Dalton that will be the culmination, the coming together of all of the strands of the film - and boy does it deliver. Dalton knocks the guy off his dirt bike and the two go at it for four minutes as the barn burns in the background.
The Relief: A blind guitar-player/singer who cracks jokes? Does it really even need any more? Jeff Healey is great and one of the songs was a top 5 radio single.
I think people are still confused about what to make of Road House. It still hangs around because, I think, for the same reason any movie hangs around - it’s legitimately entertaining. I think the people who wrote and made Road House knew what they were doing.
The setting: It’s perfect - a lively Road House (and by the 80s that kind of bar itself was more a relic than anything else) on the edge of a town under control of a corrupt few who have the legitimate folks cowering in fear.
The hero: let’s be clear, Patrick Swayze was cheesy but Dalton is a kick-arse character. He’s a man (of talent and depth that is slowly revealed) with a past who’s called into town (through some apparent for-hire network of bar managers who get sheet done) by a lone businessman trying to stand on his own - and there Dalton runs headlong into those forces of corruption, and saving the bar becomes the fight for saving the town . . . a task his sense of justice just won’t let him resist.
The sidekick: Sam Elliot’s Wade Garrett is hands down the best individual performance and the best sidekick of the 80s for my money (with aplogies to Goose and Short-Round). We all know Sam Elliot is a bad-arse but I think most of us just believe that Wade Garrett is exactly how Sam Elliot really is in real life. Probably isn’t true, but it just feels like it must be.
The Girl: Doc, the local single professional-type who at first is above the likes of Dalton, but he’s deeper than she expected and he’s got great abs and hair - so, you know. But of course she used to be involved with bad Brad Westley , and now things just got personal.
The Bad Boss: Westley isn’t a great character but he effectively personifies injustice - an all around jerk has no real merit yet controls everything to his corrupt ends. He’s willing to have monster trucks destroy car dealerships because that’s what he is: a monster. It’s deep symbolism.
The Bad Boss’s Champion: I don’t know this dude’s name but the movie long foreshadows the coming fight with Dalton that will be the culmination, the coming together of all of the strands of the film - and boy does it deliver. Dalton knocks the guy off his dirt bike and the two go at it for four minutes as the barn burns in the background.
The Relief: A blind guitar-player/singer who cracks jokes? Does it really even need any more? Jeff Healey is great and one of the songs was a top 5 radio single.
I think people are still confused about what to make of Road House. It still hangs around because, I think, for the same reason any movie hangs around - it’s legitimately entertaining. I think the people who wrote and made Road House knew what they were doing.
Last edited:
