MY DOUBLE BILLS: U TURN & RED ROCK WEST
Directed by Oliver Stone with music by Ennio Morricone this 1997 film features a strong cast of Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez, Powers Boothe, Claire Danes, Joaquin Phoenix, Jon Voight, Billy Bob Thornton, Bo Hopkins, Julie Hagerty, Laurie Metcalf and Liv Tyler.
U Turn Trailer
Three years earlier Red Rock West was directed by John Dahl and stars Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dwight Yoakam and JT Walsh
A stranger rides into town; it's a familiar cinematic device most commonly associated with westerns, in these two movies we see that idea transported to modern day with a touch of film Noir in each. Both feature strangers in strange towns, murder plots, femme fatales and many a quirky twist. Dahl's film is what has come to be called a Neo Noir, further refined in his other hit the excellent Last Seduction. Stone's movie is more fractured with expressive use of the camera and great technique. Red Rock West features a collection of David Lynch alumni and in this aspect of casting it has a off kilter edge. U Turn follows on from Stone's earlier foray into a different style of film making that he used in Natural Born killers. Both have a strong lead who is more anti Hero than purely heroic and both have representatives from the 'never trust a dame' school. There are grand goignol caharacters in both towns and cross alongside double cross. Superior Arizona and Red Rock Wyoming are modern day Wild West Towns that have layers of intrigue hiden beneath the dusty streets and in some senses the movies are more like inbred cousins than siblings.
Yo, where is the commentary about this...I love both, but Red Rock West is the better of the two I think...
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