Red Rock West

Michael Williams (Nicolas Cage) can't nail down a job due to his leg. He's running low on money. He goes to Red Rock to look for a drilling job. The bartender Wayne Brown (J.T. Walsh) assumes Michael to be Lyle from Dallas. He has hired Lyle (Dennis Hopper) to kill his cheating wife Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle). Michael takes the money and tells her. She makes a counter offer to double the money. He writes a letter to the sheriff. When he tries to leave town, he accidentally hits a man. He brings the injured man to the hospital but the man has actually been shot. Then Wayne Brown walks in as the sheriff of this little town but that's not the end of this twisty plot. This is stripped down. There is a desolate feel to everything. The characters are dark. Nicolas Cage does some of his best work. Dennis Hopper is doing his dark killer character. Lara Flynn Boyle nails the femme fatale act. It does add a few too many craziness but I do like the hard noir style.

Vaguely reminiscent of great 1940's westerns, like "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre" (1948), "Red Rock West" is a story about conscience, greed, and betrayal. Michael (Nicolas Cage) is a down and out, but honest, young man from Texas who goes west in search of work and money. He finds both, but not in the way he had expected. The film's screenplay contains plenty of surprises and plot twists. Excellent cinematography, adroit film editing, and moody western music add tension and suspense. The expansiveness of the big sky country provides a wonderful setting. And the acting ranges from good to excellent, with great performances from Dennis Hopper and J.T. Walsh. Dwight Yoakam's specially recorded country/western song provides the film with a strong finale. Correctly labeled as neo-noir, "Red Rock West" strikes me as being something else, as well. The plot is full of amazing coincidences and improbable timing, so much so that others may regard the screenplay as flawed. Ordinarily, I would agree. In this case, however, when combined with the moody atmosphere, and the fact that the small town of Red Rock seems almost empty of normal daily life, the coincidences and unlikely timing suggest a story that, beyond "noirish", is ... surreal. It's almost as if fate deliberately intervenes with improbable events so as to force Michael to come to grips with himself. From this point of view, the coincidences are not script flaws at all. They are necessary plot points in a nightmarish story of a young man who must confront his own demons ... disguised as other characters. All we need here is Rod Serling, in a postscript, explaining, in his always clearly enunciated voice, that ... a young man, searching for himself, stops in a small, almost deserted town a thousand miles from nowhere. It's his final layover in a journey to ... the twilight zone.

source: Red Rock West

Dumb. Poor acting. Freddy Kruger westernish. Everyone gets shot or stabbed at least once but just keep on going. Really?! What a waste. Those high raters are nuts!

After seeing this flick I knew Gage was going to be one of my favorite actors... I wasn't wrong. Hopper, as always, was a bundle of explosive energy, and deliciously evil... Great film.

Like the other comments made here, I definitely thought this movie deserved a wider release and is hugely underrated. The movie reminded me a great deal of "U-turn",(I'm surprised no one else made the observation)a movie that it preceded, and unlike U-turn, was able to remain interesting throughout. If you come across this movie late one night on HBO or stumble across it at the video store, definitely check it out.

Red Rock West is a wicked gem of rural noir. A case of mistaken identify ensnares penniless drifter and roughneck Nicolas Cage in the lives of greedy Sheriff J.T. Walsh and his adulteress wife Lara Flynn Boyle. Triggerman Dennis Hopper's arrival entraps them all in a web of lies, sex, betrayal, and murder. Excellent performances and a script rich in plot twists and surprises make this film a treat that improves with each viewing.

Recently, I've been re-watching many of Robert Mitchum's RKO noir movies - they are superb and I can think of no greater praise than to rank Red Rock West alongside them. A marvellous screenplay, combined with taut direction and universally excellent performances make for a hugely entertaining movie. Bravo to all concerned.

What an unexpected surprise. I found this movie surfing through Bravo or A&E, and it was riveting. The plot has been well-covered in other comments; suffice it to say that I thought this movie was basically a comedy, not a thriller. I don't generally like Nicholas Cage, but he was much more honest and straightforward in this movie than he has been in his more commercial successes; the other major players (especially Dennis Hopper as Lyle) were perfectly cast. My two favorite scenes in the movie: the initial meeting between Michael (Cage) and Wayne (JT Walsh) in Walsh's bar in Red Rock, and watching Cage conk Hopper on the head and escape from the house.

Dennis Hopper is the ultimate bad guy and is very closely matched by Lara Flynn Boyle who adds to the sleaze that makes her famous as an ADA in the TV's "The Practice." Nicholas Cage is cool as the good guy in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.