Product Details

• Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Debra Sandlund, Wings Hauser, John Bedford Lloyd
• Directors: Norman Mailer
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: September 16, 2003
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00009Y3PK
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,359 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Tough guys don't dance--and tough authors can't direct. Or at least that was the case with Norman Mailer and this mid-1980s potboiler. An overheated murder mystery obviously written for the money, the book became Mailer's return to moviemaking (after his quixotic efforts in the mid 1960s). This one, which stars Ryan O'Neal, is about a writer whose excessive drinking means he can't remember if he committed a murder and so must talk to everyone he knows to find out. Unfortunately, even with a cast that includes Isabella Rossellini, Lawrence Tierney, and Clarence Williams III, all of that talk doesn't make for an interesting movie. --Marshall Fine

Product Description
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer wrote and directed this charmingly cracked nightmare comedy (Los Angeles Times) based on his best-selling 1984 novel. Set during the lonely emptiness of off-season Cape Cod, Tough Guys don't Dance features outstanding performances from Ryan O Neal and Isabella Rossellini. When wannabe writer Tim Madden (O Neal) wakes up from a memory-erasing drinking binge with an atomic hangover, he learns that it'll take more than a day to recover'since there is blood in his car and a severed head in his basement! Now, with a corrupt chief of police watching his every move, Tim must piece together the hazy events of the night before to solve a murder he mayor may nothave committed!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nobody Will Read This But I'm Writing This Anyhow, April 17, 2005

By	David Baldwin (Philadelphia,PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The mere fact that MGM deemed this film worthy of a DVD release has to be a cosmic joke. I remember seeing this film on it's initial run back in 1987 in it's opening(and closing) week and there were, including myself, three people in the audience. I loved every minute of it. This film has it all. Ham-handed direction by writer Norman Mailer, convoluted plotting, overwought writing. In other words, brilliant. Mailer is ably assisted by a game cast that includes Ryan O'Neal(Mr. Box-office Poison), Isabella Rossellini(fresh from "Blue Velvet"), Wings Hauser(brilliant in the film,"Vice Squad"), Lawrence Tierney(Joe Cabot from "Reservoir Dogs"), and Penn Jillette(Penn and Teller). In a perfect world the catch phrase "Deep-six the heads" should have entered into the common vernacular. Anyone who fancies themselves a film buff should see this film once. Just to believe it.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep six the one-star reviews!, January 7, 2004

By	D. Hartley (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

If "offbeat noir" is your clarion call, this is your movie. (Our one-star reviewers completely missed the bus to Irony on this one). Written and directed by iconoclastic writer Norman Mailer, "Tough Guys Don't Dance" is assured cult status,now that it is available on DVD. Ryan O'Neal gives a deadpan performance reminiscent of his work in "The Driver". O'Neal plays an inscrutable ex-con with a conniving "black widow" for a wife, who experiences five "really bad days" in a row, involving drugs,kinky sex,blackmail and murder. Due to some temporary amnesia,however,he's not sure of his own complicity (O'Neal begins each day by writing the date on his bathroom mirror with shaving cream-keep in mind, this film precedes "Memento" by 13 years!) Veteran film noir icon Lawrence Tierny (cast here 5 years BEFORE Tarantino thought of resurrecting him for "Reservoir Dogs") is priceless as O'Neal's estranged father, who is helping him sort out events (it's worth the price of admission alone to hear Tierny bark "I just deep-sixed two heads!"). Equally notable is a deliciously demented performance by B-movie trouper Wings Hauser as the hilariously named Captain Alvin Luther Regency. Norman Mailer's "lack" of direction has been roundly criticized, but his minimalist style actually works perfectly for the story, giving his movie a David Lynch feel (although that might be due to the fact that Isabella Rossilini is in the cast and the soundtrack is by Lynch stalwart Angelo Badalamenti!) Film fans who also happen to be LITERATE (i.e., those who actually READ) will eat this one up.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eccentric Classic, May 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Tough Guys Don't Dance [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Obviously not for everyone, this movie has more astonishing moments than 20 normal films. Beautifully cast, the film has the ability to reveal some new facet each time I see it. So many movies aspire to feel spontaneous and over the top, this one succeeds.