Red Rock West (1993)

In co-writer and director John Dahl's overlooked western-themed neo-noir crime thriller - it was similar to the works of the Coen Brothers (Blood Simple (1984)), David Lynch (Blue Velvet (1986)) and Oliver Stone (U Turn (1997)). Director Dahl had already helmed the noirish Kill Me Again (1989), and in the following year directed the post-modern classic noir The Last Seduction (1995).

It was a familiar but complicated tale with unexpected twists and turns amongst a group of amoral characters, initiated by a case of mistaken identity ("the wrong man" archetype). An innocent, wounded and vulnerable male drifter became caught in a double murder-for-hire scheme in a dusty western town, to kill a shady husband's swindling femme fatale wife - AND vice versa. Themes included double-crosses and betrayal, deceit, infidelity, the greedy allure of money, entrapment within a small-town's corruption, revenge, and death. A running joke was the repeated appearance of the two signs that welcomed and bid goodbye to visitors to the town. The body count was two dead, and at least two left seriously wounded.

With a budget of $8 million, the film flopped with revenues of only $2.5 million. It first premiered on the HBO cable channel in the fall of 1993, and then premiered in some showings in second-run theaters before its release on home-video in February 1994. Its tagline was: "Where All Roads Lead To Intrigue. And Nothing is as it Seems."

• intermixed with the title credits, the film followed the unfortunate wanderings of hang-dog, hard-luck itinerant loser/drifter Michael Williams (Nicolas Cage); he was a broke and unemployed vet who was still suffering from a serious, military service-related right knee injury; Michael had driven 1,200 miles from Odessa, TX to Wyoming in his run-down, gas-consuming white 1967 Cadillac Coupe DeVille with the promise of work; parked on the side of a deserted state highway Rte 487 in Wyoming next to a field with a windmill, he had been sleeping in his car; he slipped a knee brace onto his right leg, and then made an attempt to clean up, shave, and put on a fresh white western-styled shirt for an upcoming appointment; on the road next to his car, he also performed a set of one-armed pushups with each arm
• at the oil drilling site's office, jean-jacketed Michael filled out a job application as a "formality" for an oil-rigger job recommended by his friend Jim (Craig Reay), one of the current workers; afterwards, Michael listened as hiring boss-foreman Mr. Johnson (Vance Johnson) rejected him - he was considered too much of an insurance risk due to his war-time injury (a "f--ked up leg") that he hadn't concealed on his application
• as he drove off, he punched the interior roof of his car in utter frustration, and then noticed his gas tank gauge was almost empty; with only one $5 dollar bill in his wallet and barely able to afford gas, he revealed he had integrity when he resisted the temptation to clean out an abandoned gas station's unattended cash box filled with $20 dollar bills

An Indication of Michael's Integrity - He Resisted Stealing Money From an Unattended Cash Box at a Gas Station

• the elderly gas attendant (Bobby Joe McFadden) suddenly appeared from a back room, and helped put $5 bucks worth of gas in Michael's vintage car; the old man recommended that Michael possibly could find work in dusty Red Rock, WY, about 50 miles down the road; in "The Red Rock" bar where most of the local oil crew members hung out, he thought that he might get a lead on employment
• the desperate Michael drove into town - he passed the WELCOME to town sign, parked outside "THE RED ROCK" bar before entering, and spoke to the local bartender-owner Wayne Brown (J.T. Walsh); in a case of mistaken identity (due to having noticed Michael's Texas license plate), Wayne slightly scolded Michael: "I thought you was supposed to be here last Friday"; he then said: "You are here for the job, aren't you?"; Wayne assumed that Michael was "Lyle, from Dallas"; without correcting Wayne about being wrongfully identified, the nearly-mute and extremely passive Michael was led to Wayne's back office
• Michael dumbly accepted a down-payment of $5,000 - a stack of 50 wrapped $100 dollar bills (half of the job paid upfront, and half to be paid later); it soon became clear to him that he was being hired and paid to be a professional hitman to eliminate Wayne's wife for a total payment of $10,000; Wayne even suggested how to carry out the murder of his younger wife Suzanne Brown (Lara Flynn Boyle) that day: "I think the, uh, best way to do this is to make it look like a, uh, simple burglary. Just go out to the house, break in, and uh, mess the place up a little, you know? Uhm, not too much, just enough. And uh, then when she, uh, when she comes in, you, uh - well, you know what to do"
• with a pair of binoculars, Michael spied on the Brown ranch house property, and saw femme fatale Suzanne return from a horse-back ride; he watched as she met up with her beefy, long-haired ranch hand Kurt (Dale Gibson) who was living on the expansive ranch property in a trailer; as he looked on and saw them enter the trailer together, he suspected that she was involved in a secretive, adulterous and unfaithful sexual affair with Kurt - presumably the reason that Wayne had paid him to have her eliminated

Michael Spying on Suzanne and Ranch-Hand Kurt Entering His Trailer on the Brown's Property - Were They Having an Adulterous Affair or Not?

• [Note - Spoiler: in the first of many twisting plot developments, there was no affair between them; in reality, Kurt was hoping for a blackmailing pay-off from her due to 'dirt' he had on her; however, Suzanne's intention was to kill him inside the trailer to end his threats.]
• the extremely-frazzled Suzanne rode to the ranch house, entered and was pouring herself a drink [Note: It was revealed later that she had just shot her hired hand Kurt in his trailer.] she noticed an uninvited stranger (Michael) seated in the corner of her living room who asked: "Your name Suzanne? You're married to a guy named Wayne, right?"; Michael reluctantly revealed to her that her husband Wayne was plotting to murder her: "I don't know how to tell you this, but, uh, your husband, Wayne, he, uh, plans to have you murdered...He paid me to do it"; he showed her the stack of bills he was paid with, and her house key; he identified himself to her as 'Lyle'; she responded about the unfortunate direction of her marriage: "Have you ever been married, Lyle? Well, it does strange things to people"
• and then to Michael's surprise, she offered him double his money if he would kill her husband: "Suppose I double his offer and you do something for me...Take care of Wayne"; it was assumed that he promptly accepted her offer, was given another stack of bills, and drove off
• in the next scene at a Chevron gas station at about 6:20 pm, the self-satisfied Michael was at a gas-station and convenience store; he was happily filling up his gas tank with $29 dollars worth of gas (with the hose between his legs!), and afterwards inside with the astonished cashier (Ted Parks), he bought a few large bags of groceries (including a loaf of Holsum sliced white bread, snacks such as Fritos and Wheat Thins, cigarettes, and a BIG HUNK chocolate bar) and two six-packs of Budweister beer for $90.78, and paid for everything with two $100 dollar bills
• before attempting to leave the town behind him, to do the responsible and moral thing - and to escape his troubling fate, Michael sat in his car and wrote a letter addressed to Red Rock's Sheriff -- he warned of the two plots of the married Brown couple to kill each other: ("Wayne Brown may have hired a killer to murder his wife. She is likely to do the same. Please talk to them before someone gets hurt. This is not a joke"); he promptly mailed the letter in a stamped envelope by inserting it into a US postal box - a bolt of lightning illuminated his face
• a few moments later in his bar office, Wayne phoned his home and was shocked to hear Suzanne's voice when she picked up the phone; he hung up without identifying himself
• as in any plot-twisting story, a number of further complicating and entangling developments happened in rapid succession
• during a blinding night thunderstorm while listening to the radio playing Jeff Chance's "Alone in San Antone," Michael drove out of town past the "YOU ARE LEAVING RED ROCK" sign; he had with him approx. $10,000 in cash ($5,000 from Lyle and $5,000 from Suzanne) thrown into his glove compartment; with poor visibility, he accidentally ran over ranch-hand Kurt standing in the middle of the road (flagging him down while fixing his left front flat tire on his broken-down 1957 Ford F-100 pickup truck); after transporting Kurt to the Red Rock County Hospital's ER, Michael was told a couple hours later by Sheriff's Deputy Matt Greytack (Timothy Carhart) that Kurt's injuries were due to a possible "attempted homicide" - he was shown the two bloody, extracted bullets; the Doctor (Robert Guajardo) added: "He's been shot twice in the stomach" - the victim had been shot before the car injury

Deputy Matt Greytack (Timothy Carhart) in Hospital Questioning Michael

The Two Bloody Bullet Fragments Removed From Kurt's Stomach

The Sudden Shocking Reveal: The Local Sheriff Was Wayne!

• in the hospital, the town's local Sheriff arrived and was revealed to be Wayne as he raised his head and his face was visible under his hat!, now, Wayne knew of Michael's duplicity!; the Sheriff ordered Michael to be taken to the station as a suspect in the shooting, although Michael's motivation to shoot Kurt was very dubious as noted by Deputy Greytack: "...it doesn't make much sense he'd shoot him, then bring him to the hospital, does it?"; (off-screen) Michael's vehicle was subsequently impounded
• on the way to the station in the Sheriff's 1982 Ford Bronco, Wayne offered the handcuffed Michael the key to release his handcuffs and a chance to run away - presumably to kill him during the escape attempt; however, Michael struggled with him and foiled his plan, and ran off into the woods with the Sheriff's pistol; to defend himself, Michael fired back as the Sheriff pursued him with a shot gun; after he slightly reinjured his knee, tumbled down a hill and landed in the middle of a road, Michael was almost hit by a driver in a black 1973 Buick Riviera
• Michael fibbed to the driver about his non-existent car breaking down nearby over a ridge, and then asked: "Do you think you could give me a ride?", causing the hesitant driver to ironically ask: "You're not dangerous, are you?"; as the car drove off, it was revealed that the car bore a rear Texas license plate, signaling the arrival of the real "Lyle from Dallas" (Dennis Hopper); Sheriff Wayne picked up Michael's discarded gun and watched from above the ridge as they departed together [Note: Why was Lyle a week late?]

The Arrival of the Real "Lyle from Dallas" (Dennis Hopper)

The Driver's Texas License Plate - on His Black 1973 Buick Riviera

• the two shared small talk about their military service - Michael had served in the Marines in Lebanon in 1984 (during the truck bombing incident that killed 241 servicemen), while Lyle was in a Recon unit at the close of the Vietnam War in 1971; as they passed the sign and pulled into town, Lyle insisted that Michael have a drink with him - in The Red Rock Bar - and Lyle was insulted that Michael was so hesitant about a good-natured invitation to have a drink and then get his car: "You don't wanna drink with me? I'm not good enough to buy you a beer?"; in the bar, when the driver asked to see the owner Wayne Brown, Michael instinctively knew that he was being aided by the hit-man from Dallas who was wearing a huge black 10-gallon Texan hat; Michael excused himself when the bartender (Michael Ruud) offered to call Wayne, and he retreated to the restroom while Lyle remained at the bar
• once Wayne arrived, he asked Lyle: "Did you just pick somebody up just outside of town?"; when Lyle answered affirmatively - a response overheard by Michael in the nearby restroom, Michael made a rapid bathroom window escape and fled to the bar's flat roof; he made a daring tightrope-walk traversal on a 2x4 plank extended from the side of the bar's roof to the top of a 1988 Isuzu Warfield Trucking (WT) truck parked below, just before the truck driver (singer Dwight Yoakam) pulled away; after driving a short distance, the trucker realized he had a hitch-hiker atop his truck and pulled a gun on Michael, who lied about how he was ditching his "old lady" that had just caught him in the bar
• on the way out of town, the trucker dropped Michael off at the Brown ranch house, where he immediately confessed to Suzanne that he had lied to her and was only a hit-man imposter; however, he warned Suzanne about the 'real' killer Lyle who was now in town and was the one hired by her husband to gun her down; he also told her that he had transported her gunshot-wounded ranch hand Kurt to the hospital; when she curiously asked who shot him, Michael hypothesized: "I wouldn't be surprised to find out your gun-crazy husband had something to do with it, would you?"
• at that moment, Michael spotted Lyle outside and entering into the living room with a gun; upstairs in the bathroom, Michael threw a heavy metal statue (of a cowboy riding a bronco) into Lyle's forehead and then punched him unconscious; when asked what she should do, Michael suggested bluntly: "If I were you, I'd get a divorce"; they fled in a 1988 Jeep Cherokee parked behind the barn; Michael noticed it was almost empty - and muttered to himself: "F--king story of my life"; Suzanne talked Michael out of his first inclination to report everything to a different Sheriff in nearby Medicine Bow, and instead conspire to leave the country altogether
• meanwhile, in the Red Rock impound car lot where Michael's car had been taken from the hospital, Deputy Greytack noticed two suspicious wads of cash in his car's glove-compartment; Michael and Suzanne pulled into an Arco gas station to fill up the Jeep; Michael joined Suzanne for a beer (she ordered a tequila) at the nearby Country Girl bar, where she thanked him for coming back to save her and lightly kissed his cheek; she suggested that they might head to Mexico together; then she described Wayne's motive to hire a hit-man and eliminate her: ("It's all about money") - to acquire the "fairly large insurance settlement" she had received after her parents died; he would receive nothing if he divorced her
• Lyle regained consciousness and phoned Wayne in his bar office to report that "cowboy" Michael had knocked him out and then had taken off with Suzanne - and he didn't know their destination: "I've been staring at my damn eyelids for the last hour and a half"; Lyle demanded an additional payment for the extra work to find them, plus another $5,000 dollars up front that would be paid to him the next morning in Wayne's office
• before leaving, a very drunk Suzanne and Michael spent the night together in a Comfort Inn Motel; after having sex, both of them fantasized about the idyllic place for escape - Mexico: (Suzanne: "We could go there together. Get a little house by the ocean. Drink margaritas all day. Watch the sunset." William: "And take siestas together." Suzanne: "Morning, noon, and night.")
• the next morning, because the two needed to acquire more cash for their getaway to Mexico before leaving the area, Suzanne suggested that they go back to Red Rock, enter Wayne's bar office, and steal money from his safe; after entering the office and opening the floor safe, they found four stacks of $5,000 dollars each (50 100's in each stack), and took all of it; they hid and listened from inside a closet as Wayne arrived and suspected someone had tampered with his safe, but was interrupted and confronted by his two deputies

$20,000 Dollars Found in Wayne's Office Floor Safe

The 'WANTED BY THE FBI' Flyer

Suzanne Trying to Explain Away Her Guilt to Michael

• the officers informed him that various unusual items had been found in Kurt's possessions (clothing) at the hospital, including a "WANTED BY THE FBI" flyer (unseen at first) about how Wayne (with real name Kevin McCord) had stolen $1.9 million from the Illinois Benton and Barnes steel mill; the FBI had been alerted, but in the meantime, the two deputies would be arresting Wayne and taking him away to jail; Deputy Greytack also produced Michael's letter that had arrived in the mail, and had Wayne read it outloud; its contents incriminated Wayne further in a murder-for-hire plot; the Deputy also thought and surmised, incorrectly, that Wayne shot ranch-hand Kurt for blackmailing Wayne over his former crimes; Greytack was right about the motive, but he was wrong about the shooter - it was Suzanne who had shot and almost killed Kurt; due to all of these revelations, Suzanne put her finger to her lips to keep Michael quiet until the group left to take Wayne to jail
• Suzanne and Michael emerged from the closet; Michael picked up the WANTED flyer that displayed a picture of both Suzanne and Wayne accused of embezzlement, and realized that Suzanne (alias Ann McCord) was Wayne's dishonest and crooked partner all along; the two had stolen almost $2 million dollars: "Looks like the only thing you didn't lie about is your marriage"; to clear herself, Suzanne blamed Wayne for everything, and then urged for them to look for the $500,000 dollars that she had expected to be in the safe ("He must have moved it")
• at that point, Michael decided to leave Suzanne for good, but as he opened Lyle's office door to exit, he was greeted by a punch in the face from vengeful hired hit-man Lyle; once Michael regained consciousness later in the day, Lyle explained to him how Suzanne had confessed to him, as he held up the flyer: "Did you know that these two were a couple of f--kin' crooks?...Now, Suzie here says that Wayne was a bookkeeper in a steel mill in Illinois and he figured out how to walk out of that plant with $2 million dollars. And she says that there's half a million layin' around somewhere, but that Wayner is the only one that knows where it is. Now, is that true?"
• to confirm the untrustworthy Suzanne's account about possible hidden money, Lyle took the two handcuffed hostages with him to release Wayne from his jail cell - planning to take all of them to where allegedly some of Wayne's stolen cash was buried; on the way, Lyle created a distraction by setting fire (with Red Rock Bar matches and a pile of alcohol-soaked clothes) to the "old Duncan place" outside of town, leaving Sheriff Wayne guarded in the office's jail by only one inexperienced officer - Deputy Ted Smith (Shawn Michael Ryan)

Lyle Set Fire to an Abandoned House Outside of Town As a Distraction - To Leave the Jail Mostly Unguarded

• cold-blooded opportunist Lyle entered the Sheriff's County office, shot Deputy Smith point-blank in the head at his desk, and then extorted Wayne for half of the $500,000 dollars in exchange for breaking him out of jail; Michael was ordered to drive Lyle's car out of town, while the handcuffed Wayne and Suzanne sat in the back seat; Michael dangerously and recklessly raced an SP freight train along the tracks, and was able to cross over the tracks in front of the train
• on the way, Lyle asked Wayne how he ever became Sheriff; Suzanne answered for him: "It wasn't hard, he bought every voter in the county a drink"; [Note: The original amount stolen was $2 million, but Wayne had spent 3/4ths of the money to buy the town's bar, his ranch house, and votes to win the election for Sheriff, leaving him with only $500,000 dollars.] Lyle became fed up with what he interpreted as Michael's attitude: ("Thought he was better than everybody else"), taunted him with his gun, and to scare him shot out one of the car's side windows
• as night fell, the group arrived at a remote, mist-covered cemetery to dig up the money [Note: A common ending plot point for many films, i.e., The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)]; Wayne bargained successfully to have his cuffs removed if he would specify where to dig; Michael was forced to shovel dirt, while Lyle sat on the hood of the car drinking and wielding his authority; Suzanne was persistently sawing through her bindings with a penknife, while Wayne was begging to have Lyle put down his weapon; once Michael dragged a large metal box out from the ground, Lyle and Wayne entered into a violent confrontation; at first, Lyle threatened to shoot Wayne and drive off with the money; but Wayne reminded him there was a caretaker living nearby who would hear the shots and it would get messy; attempting to appease his "partner" so they could share the money 50/50, Lyle laid down his gun; after Wayne opened the money box, he pulled out the sack of cash and his own gun from the box and aimed it at Lyle; he picked up Lyle's gun on the ground and threw both the bag of money and Lyle's gun into the front seat of Lyle's car
• Wayne's objective was to flee in Lyle's car, but Lyle still had the keys; to prevent Wayne from leaving after tossing him the keys, Lyle flung his concealed switchblade knife into Wayne's neck and seriously wounded him; in reaction, Wayne fell backwards next to the car and discharged his gun, alerting the caretaker Mr. and Mrs. Hornaday (Robert Beecher and Jody Carter); Michael charged at Lyle and knocked him down; as the two continued to wrestle, Suzanne freed herself, kneed the downed Wayne in the face and took his gun, causing it to fire a second time, but she couldn't leave without the keys that he was hiding from her in his hand
• meanwhile, the caretaker's wife phoned the Red Rock Sheriff's office about gunfire at the cemetery, and the incident was reported by radio to Deputy Greytack who was already out searching for the black Buick
• during their fight to the death, Michael swung Lyle around and tossed him backwards into a bayonet sticking out of a military soldier's grave marker-statue - it impaled him through the back and out through his chest; as Michael walked back to Lyle's car, Suzanne was about to shoot Michael when Lyle (who had pulled himself off the bayonet) snuck up behind him; Suzanne finished Lyle off by shooting him dead, until Wayne's gun clicked empty; the sound of police sirens was heard approaching closer and closer; Suzanne dropped Wayne's gun on the ground, reached for the bag of cash that Wayne had thrown into the car - and Lyle's gun underneath it, bashed Wayne in the head with the sack hoping that it would finish him off, and then followed after Michael who had run off to board a passing freight train

The Eerie Scene at the Cemetery	The Recovery of a Metal Box From a Hole in the Ground	Wayne Pulling a Gun on Lyle After He Laid Down His Weapon
Wayne Seriously Wounded by Lyle's Switchblade Knife in His Neck	Lyle Impaled Through the Back by a Bayonet on a Military Grave Site	Lyle Shot to Death by Suzanne as He Came Up Behind Michael

• with Lyle dead and Wayne seriously injured, Suzanne had demonstrated to Michael that she was the real conniving murderess who was willing to kill others to abscond with the money; Michael and Suzanne (holding the bag of money and Lyle's gun) escaped on a passing freight train; now was her chance to also betray him; she wielded the gun at him, obviously revealing her duplicitous intentions as he quipped: "I guess this means you'll be going to Mexico by yourself, huh?"
• Suzanne confessed that she - not Lyle - was the one who had shot blackmailing ranch hand Kurt who had found out about her criminal past - and she had intended to kill him: ("Obviously I didn't do a very good job. Next time I'll be a little more thorough....He found out about me. He wanted my money"); Michael realized her intense greed: "That's what it's all about, isn't it?"; Suzanne also wanted to eliminate Michael also when he disobeyed her and picked up the bag of money; at first, she suggested that he jump from the train: ("I kind of like you. Don't make me shoot you"); but then, after she pulled the gun's trigger and it clicked empty, she was forced to bargain with Michael - proposing to split the money half and half: ("There's enough money for both of us"), but Michael was disgusted with her; to atone for his previous mistakes and to rid himself of the troublesome money, he scattered the stacks of cash from the bag into the wind from the open train door

Suzanne Running to Board the Train With the Bag of Money

Suzanne Threatening to Kill Michael on the Train During Their Escape

Suzanne Thrown Off the Train and About to Be Arrested

• after she called him a "stupid son-of-a-bitch," Michael tossed her off the moving train too: ("You want it? Go get it!"); she stood there, knowing that she would soon be arrested by Wayne's deputies who drove up behind her - had a still-surviving Wayne in the cemetery directed his deputies to pursue them?; Michael stuffed one remaining, left-behind stack of bills into his shirt pocket (for expenses?) and bid goodbye to the town forever as the train took him away: "Adios, Red Rock"
• the closing credits were accompanied by Dwight Yoakam's country-western hit: "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" - Michael's ending location - on the soundtrack