“You don’t wanna drink with me? I ain’t good enough to buy
you a beer?” asks Lyle from Dallas early in Red Rock West, the
outstanding neo-noir from the pen and helm of John Dahl. Nic Cage, playing a weary drifter, has just
met Lyle and Cage has before that made two ethical decisions that will haunt the remainder
of the intricate plot. The question
challenges him; Cage’s bashfulness has nothing to do with Hopper’s seedy affect. But the challenge blows a whiff of kerosene into what
had been a friendly moment. Lyle and Michael (Cage) have just shared a “Semper Fi,” including the respectful recognition that Michael was injured in the
1983 truck bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. We now have to wonder if Lyle may not be good enough. Signifying the noir
grammar of the film, we just don’t know for sure.
In fact, the line is echoed later in the story, Lyle asking
Michael again if “you think you’re better’n me.” The interesting thing about all this is that Michael
initially gets in a fix because he impulsively assumes Lyle’s identity, the
assassin hired long distance by Wayne (J.T. Walsh) to kill Walsh’s wife,
Sharon, (Laura Flynn Boyle), neither of whom is actually who they claim to be
either. It is a testimony to Dahl’s filmmaking that all of this is easy to sort
out when you actually see the movie. No
one is anyone and everyone thinks they’re better than Lyle.
However, it is the confusion of Cage and Hopper that results
in a refreshing picture and also a thread to the vast dramatic web of mistaken
identity and hurt feelings. Is Lyle seeing a better and less demented version
of himself? Lyle is, of course, a
generation removed from Michael and did his warrior thing in Vietnam. “Last unit to leave,” he
says without comment. The implied comment
is on the ethical distinction between the two actions. Both were, arguably, mistakes and Hopper tells
him so. “You know, that never should have happened . . . over there in Lebanon.” Michael’s response is, “You get in there. You just gotta give it your
best shot.” Lyle offers no indication of
the motivation for his various tours of duty, in southeast Asia or Texas.
In the climactic struggle between the two, Lyle is ironically
bayoneted on a sculpture of a soldier. In their final bit of dialogue, Michael tells Lyle, “You know what? I am
better than you.” And we've come round to start. Lyle has been revealed as a monster and
requires a stake to be driven through his black heart. He’s the bad-ass, tough guy we imagine ourselves
to be, tossing back a shot of Jim Beam in a Victorville titty bar . . . even as we actually
pull into a Starbucks. However, when faced with the real deal, disgust ensues. As it does with Michael,
now free to do the right thing and he does indeed in the final five minutes
of the film. Red Rock West was a splendid role for Hopper and he was universally
praised. For not the first time, he steps into a dank corner of the collective male
psyche and pulls back the curtain. It’s hard to imagine anyone else
nailing it as he does.
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