Customer Reviews

Tough Guys Don't Dance

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

Disregard all the negative reviews! Whatever Mr. Mailer's intentions, this film contains some of the funniest dialogue in cinematic history! Nearly every line is a classic. Examples:

"Lonnie's dead! Jessica is dismembered! Patty Loraine's off on some kind of a toot! And I'm about to go into business with you two unbelievable sleazos!" - Wardley Meeks

Police chief: "I believe that you love your wife."
Ryan O'Neal: "No more than twice a week."

O'Neal: "What makes surgeons happy? To cut people up and get paid for it. That's happiness."

In addition to the dialogue, Tough Guys Don't Dance boasts fine photography that evokes the light and atmosphere of Provincetown, some of the wackiest characters this side of a John Waters comedy, and a labyrinthe plot that rivals Chandler's The Big Sleep in terms of complexity and utter confusion.

See it now! Before the ghosts of Helltown invade your seance!

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.

Oh God, Oh Man, Oh God, Oh Man, Oh God...

If you can find this movie, watch it simply for the laughs and don't expect to get anything else from it. Might I add that the source material for this movie, Norman Mailer's novel of the same name, isn't a whole lot better. I don't even think it's in print anymore.

May we inter this farce to the ground. In God's name we pray, amen.

When classmates in the 60's were reading Salinger I started reading Mailer. And haven't stopped. Until he died last week. Happily I've read and collected all but a few of his titles. I enjoyed his film translation of TGDD because I'd read and enjoyed/learned from the book.Now I guess it's re-reading time.

This film is as Mailer as the book. With a strong, character-driven plot drawn with the brilliance and pomposity Mailer's famous for. Personally,
I like his departure from expected forms, taking risks which might prove embarrassing. Flowing or stumbling, the flow of TGDD is still audaciously Mailer-brilliant. Funny on purpose or an egotistic misstep, artistically insightful or hung-over-off, it's still is way up with acknowledged smartest, entertaining flicks.

TGDD is an learning experience as well as an entertainment, in terms of the human experience as well as film writing and directing. Somehow, the characters seem exactly as I saw them when reading.

For a double hit, try reading the book before or after viewing the movie - I've come to like reading after viewing, for the imagery. It will make an impression, and an impressive one.

Norman Mailer - writer and director of this film - says, in the interview extra on this DVD - that he wanted to make a "subtle horror movie." Subtle? No. Horror? Most people would say the movie is not a "horror" movie - but a "horrible one." But is it? If one of the main purposes of a film is to entertain, than this film delivers in spades. Beautifully filmed, romantically scored, captivatingly acted by one and all, this movie - with perhaps the most macho title for a movie ever - deals with everything under the sun and moon: love, lust, drugs and death, kinky swinging, homophobia, machismo and murder, mystery, drunken blackouts and mysterious tattoos, cancer and its possible cure, crooked cops and trashy blondes, a pet dog that enters the movie out of nowhere, crashing waves and sandy dunes and SCREW newspaper and seances and ....most importantly, dialog like its never been spoken before or since! This is one of those rarest of movies - one that MUST be seen to be believed. Or perhaps it is more apt to say it has to be HEARD to be believed. Oh man, Oh God, Oh man, Oh God - it's selling for a song! Buy it and bask in Mailer's cinematic masterpiece! Enter his weird world and - love it or hate it or just sit there slack-jawed once it is over - you won't be able to believe your eyes and ears. Do you, indeed, have the "deathguts" to go on a "toot" and watch a movie that may "tickle your stick," guys, or "scorch" your pubics, gals? Or will you say whilst watching it - as does the character Wardley - "I know I am out of my mind, but I have never felt more alive!"

Back in the 80s, Norman Mailer turned his novel "Tough Guys Don't Dance" into a screenplay that he went on to direct. It's a entertaining mess of a film with over the top lines coming one after the other while the bodies pile up. While generally a competent director when Mailer made a mistake, it turned into a disaster. The worst scene, as Mailer admitted in a 30 minute interview included as a special feature, is clearly when Ryan O'Neal stands on the beach yelling "Oh God, oh man" over and over again. To be blunt, O'Neal is not very good here and Isabella Roselleni is barely in the film. The supporting cast, from Wings Hauser to the always excellent Lawrence Tierney, make the film watchable.

While the plot moves along quick enough despite a lack of sympathetic characters, the film is also helped by a good score and some lush landscape and setting. Mailer, for all his faults as a director, used Cape Cod to his advantage in shooting the film.

The special features include the interview with Mailer which explains how the film came together and his experience with the cast and as a director. Mailer clearly had a soft spot in his heart for the film and admitted that while the film contained flaws, he was responsible for them. The other special features include a look at Provincetown and a funny preview where Mailer reads critical reviews insulting the film.

A great film? No. But entertaining enough and if you can buy it cheap then take a gander on it. And be prepared to laugh your head off at the dialogue.

After stumbling across the unforgettable "Oh God, oh man!" YouTube sensation of a clip, I bought this movie hoping for a delightfully awful movie a la "Troll 2" or "The Room."

No such luck!

Sure, the acting was terrible and there are some undoubtedly clunky lines, but overall, this movie wasn't awesomely bad, just DOWNRIGHT bad. Luckily, I only paid $3.50 for it, and was able to score back another $2 at the used bookstore. The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one was because of the "Oh God, oh man" scene, so kickassedly inept it warrants a star on its own.

Bottom line? Awesomely bad movie fans will likely be disappointed by this one. Stick to YouTube for your "Tough Guys" clip fix--at least it's free!

One scene out of this movie (Oh man, oh God) goes around the internet as being the worst movie scene ever. I wanted to see the movie so ordered the DVD. I actually enjoy the movie a lot! It really puts you in the atmosphere of the 80s and it's filmed on real locations. Drugs, sex, murder, a corrupt sheriff and fantastic actors make this movie one you should see!

I also liked the extra's on the DVD, a map of Provincetown and an interview with the director.