RED ROCK WEST: Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle, J.T. Walsh. Rated R (violence, sex, profanity)
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By Chris Hicks
Deseret News movie critic
Here's a delightful surprise, an independently produced film noir thriller that has more twists and turns than a canyon road.
In fact, "Red Rock West" is probably the best picture of its type since "Blood Simple."
Nicolas Cage stars here as a Texan who drives to Wyoming for a job as an oil rigger. But when he gets there, he's turned away because he has a leg injury.
Discouraged, Cage drives down the road to the one-horse town of Red Rock, where he is told he might find work at the local saloon.
Cage goes into the bar, orders a drink and is immediately mistaken for someone else by bartender J.T. Walsh. But it's halfway through the conversation — after he's accepted the job — that Cage realizes he is being offered $500 to kill Walsh's wife (Lara Flynn Boyle).
Cage is shaken but he takes the money and heads out to Walsh's ranch, confronts Boyle and receives a counter offer. Boyle will give Cage $500 to kill Walsh.
So, Cage takes the money and hits the road . . . but as you might suspect, he doesn't get far before he's entangled in murder, robbery and high-stakes double-crosses.
Cage is perfect as the bewildered everyman, a Hitchcock innocent who finds himself in the midst of events over which he has no control. And Walsh and Boyle are also quite good, though they are overshadowed by Dennis Hopper, terrific as the real hit man who had been hired by Walsh but was late getting into town. Hopper's eccentric style blends perfectly with Cage's, and they make terrific adversaries.
Toward the end, the film gets a bit brutal, but on the whole it's a delightfully unexpected take on the genre, and it's far superior to such glossy Hollywood efforts as "Malice" and "Final Analysis."
"Red Rock West" is rated R for violence, profanity and language.
© 1994 Deseret News Publishing Co.