Movielogr
Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)
Directed by Norman Mailer
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Overview
Tim Madden awakens one morning to discover a fresh tattoo on his arm, his car covered in blood, his girlfriend in bed with the town sheriff, and a woman’s severed head in his weed stash. Sensing a setup and in desperate need to clear his name, he begins an investigation that soon begins to expose a web of corruption in the small coastal community of Provincetown.
Length 109 minutes
Actors
Ryan O'Neal | Isabella Rossellini | Debra Stipe | Wings Hauser | John Bedford Lloyd | Lawrence Tierney | Penn Jillette | Frances Fisher | John Snyder | Stephan Morrow | Clarence Williams III | Kathryn Sanders | Ira Lewis | Ed Setrakian | Jodi Faith Cahn | Edward Bonetti | Katrina Marshall
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09/11/2021 | Home Theater | Blu-ray | Owned | 6 stars |
| (Average) 6 stars |
Viewing Notes
Lawrence Tierney and Wings Hauser give compelling performances (for entirely different reasons and at entirely opposite ends of the acting spectrum) in this overwrought, pretentiously dialogue heavy film that feels like it was written to be nostalgic for a time that never existed.
The washed out wintery, off-season setting of Provincetown, MA, which is situated at the far northern tip of Cape Cod, makes for a gorgeously languid background for the goings on, and the cinematography does its environment justice.
Layered on top of that is a twisty, convoluted neo-noirish plot that almost doesn’t even matter. It’s just grist for some hilariously stilted dialogue that’s too wrong to be self-aware, which just makes it all the more entertaining.
The cast is a strange mix of good name actors, all of whom are remembered for parts in films so much better than this one. Watching Ryan O’Neal gamely, cardboardishly deliver such classic lines as “Your knife…is in…my dog” and a spinning mantra of “Oh God, oh man, oh God, oh man…” is easily worth the price of admission.
One would like to imagine that this film inspired the making of THE ROOM, or at least the dialogue.
Back to Tierney and Hauser. Tierney, perhaps best remembered these days for his great turn as Joe Cabot in RESERVOIR DOGS, manages to pull off his crazy dialogue and really grounds the scenes he shares with O’Neal, as his dying father who’s still salt of the earth, tough as nails, and does the shit that needs to be done.
Hauser delivers a strange, exceedingly over-the-top performance as the local sheriff who more than once calls on O’Neal’s character for reasons still unknown, alternately menacing and helping him. It’s a strange but great performance, even by Hauser standards, and tends to lift the affair into the realm of high camp. Again, I don’t believe for a second this movie was self-aware enough for that to have been done on purpose.
This is one of those highly entertaining films for all the wrong reasons and feels like a vanity project for Mailer who was adapting his own novel.
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