Tough Guys Don't Dance

When I saw who had directed it, I was surprised. When I saw Coppola had produced it, I was surprised. After I saw the movie I wasn't at all surprised that Golan Globus had distributed it. Nobody else would touch it. It stinks. The acting is so over the top I had to wonder if it were trying to be a parody of itself. Badalamenti who wrote so many great scores, scored a complete zero on this one, unless he felt the only hope was to go for the laugh factor. And the "acting." The only one who has a clue, and he is fine, is Tierney. O'neal is O'terrible...one of the worst acting jobs I've seen since I was in a high school play. The others, who try so hard to affect Southern accents, sound like cartoon characters. I just kept wondering how bad it could get and when Pomp and Circumstance began to intone as the bodies were dumped into the bay, I knew. Clearly Mailer was inebriated during the whole production, attempting to keep up with the cast.

This is a hard film to stomach.It has a lot of intense,extreme scenes of sex,violence and obscurity.Ryan O'Neal could have done better.Wings Hauser outshines all in his role of sadistic,sex crazy chauvinist police officer.Who at the end turns insane.And thats what he isnt alone in.There are even more obscure characters here,like southern reverend Big Stoop and his "friendly" ex-wife Patty.They create a spiral of sex and intrigues which ends in suicide of the first and death of the other. All in all,a movie every sado-masochist would love to own.For normal people-a torturingly mad 2 hour experience.

I always quote this as one of my two favorite movies (the other being "The Ninth Configuration"). Like that film, it's unpolished, awkward and brilliant. Ryan O'Neal, a brilliant empty vessel, as in "Barry Lyndon", is the perfect receptical for Mailer's essentially passive protagonist. Grotesque, awkwardly paced and fascinating, this should be considered manditory viewing. Mailer's hand is so heavy and the film feels so writerly that the experience is play-like and unusual. This exploratory quality is to be hugely prized (see "Kids", "Ninth Configuration", "Safe", "Dancer in the Dark" to see vastly different but equally praiseworthy examples of what can happen when Hollywood outsiders are allowed access to decent budgets and distribution).

This was one hell of a ride! I was on board from the get go and eventhough there were some moments I had got a bit lost, I always found my way back. Did I get the plot? Oh, god no! I have some idea but that's not what is important here. This movie is wild, crazy, horny and deranged. Everyone is chewing the scenery so hard that you just can't take your eyes of any given "actor", the directorial choices are mind-boggling, dialogue way over the top and the overall tone is so perplexing. But it so wants to entertain and entertain it does! Loved it!

If you view it in the right frame of mind , it is one of the most perversely funny films ever made. Completely over the top. It's hard to see how anyone ever could try to view it as a serious example of film noir. In reality it is an acid-washed satire of the genre. And Lawrence Tierney rocks in anything he does.