A couple of honorable mentions to reinforce that Road House is not the only movie like this. The Quick and The Dead has Gene Hackman as a gunslinger ruling a small western town. Straw Dogs is about an outsider who marries a small town girl and they move to her town. Bad Day at Black Rock - more small town corruption to cover up a murder. A single person or small group (oligarchy) rules the town by wealth, not by being kind or being “right” about anything. Outsiders are bullied and harassed instantly because they haven’t been forced to fed the oligarch propaganda. Anybody that had a conscience and functioning critical thinking left the town after high school graduation to try their luck in the big city. Here’s someone else’s thoughts about the matter in real life outside of media:
In movies, there’s not enough time to cover all the details of the backstory for all the characters. Especially the lower level thugs. Star Wars Stormtroopers are as vanilla as you can get, virtually identical in appearance to provide instant recognition - this is cannon fodder. This is instantly a recognizable bad guy, someone that it’s OK for the good guys to level a blaster at and fire away. In Roadhouse, the thugs are a bit more human, but they’re pretty obviously what could be described most simply as a redneck. Someone that has been culturally cultivated, educationally stunted, and economically intimidated into continually going with the flow. A flow that is exceptionally bigoted and hateful.
This movie is even something I talked about ages ago, indirectly. Before Qanon subverting into more direct pro Trump and anti-liberal content and extremely common self generated theme for the undereducated and financially intimidated was calling people the N word a doing gematria on the N word. At that time, in 2018 it was common practice to look for and proudly announce you found a 42. You would get your Attaboy!TM from your gematria oligarch for matching it up with the celebrity death of the day, despite that fact that numerous words and synonyms related to rednecks where easily available to choose from. The only thing Qanon changed was not picking Trump or Biden vs. not picking N word vs. Redneck when cherry picking your matches.
Nowadays, you might actually have to start a conversation with someone about Roadhouse and remind them that Ben Gazzara’s character is the bad guy. Some people - people that aren’t voting in their own best interests or the best interests of an entire country. Fun in the redneck town is what’s fun for the redneck cult leader as he deems fit to allow. While not busy not having enough money to go to college and not having enough money to afford a place of your own you do get to go to the roadhouse, get drunk off your ass, buy drugs, and throw bottles at the blind band member. Gazzara would adore his flunkies posting gematria decodes on social media with illusory thoughts of financial gains via magic.
Roadhouse stops short of having the rednecks lynching people who have the wrong skin color. But Dalton (Patrick Swayze) is a fine stand in for the well intentioned, not bigoted, academic outsider. He spouts philosophy long before resulting to violence. His rules:
Keeping within the movie instead of diving into allegory (the smarter among you can do that on your own), rule 1 applies to the in movie bar fighting. Something like that mouthy skinny guy might have a big ass knife on him. Something to equalize the odds to make up for his lack of effective kicking someone in the face skills. Rule 2, avoid collateral damage. Some people just want to escape the forced economic misery for a night. Don’t let them become the victim of a thrown bottle intended for someone else. Rule 3, provocation is intended to get a reaction. Don’t give them the luxury of getting inside your head. And the modification to rule 3 will be addressed in a bit.
The plot is straightforward. A businessman wants his bar to be profitable. The bar is in a bad spot, because Gazzara doesn’t like the idea of someone else being successful. This is my town. I do what I want. I like being the top dog so much I’m going to have to teach you a lesson. Tom Cruise wasn’t available to play his patented best at something every role, so Swayze gets the call. The pure of heart good versus the moustache twirling evil. It’s kind of silly popcorn fun when you don’t look for trouble, and that trouble is how the wealthy man who controls the town really doesn’t want to lose any control. Let’s just say that Gazzara would definitely be a modern day Republican because paying taxes is not something that rocks his boat.
The one allegory I do encourage thought on is the expansion of rule three while keeping in mind the other two.
Be nice, until it’s not time to be nice anymore. The U.S. Democratic Party sucks at this. Forever “being nice” will magically make the opposition magically see the error of their ways. I swear if Schumer plays nice to try and compromise one more time…. Sometimes you have to throw in the towel and just admit that being nice is not working on someone who needs a good (metaphorical) kick to the face. Some people, spurred by ungodly wealth, are too far invested in upping the ante to provoke that actual systemic change is necessary.
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