Saw Road House (1989) for the first time tonight. Holy shit, what a fun movie that is.
There's probably a really fun essay to be written about what it says about American masculinity in the late 1980's too. It's fun to see a movie be as horny for its male lead as it is for any of the female characters. There's no reason for the shirtless Tai Chi scene in front of the barn with horses in the background except to really appreciate Patrick Swayze's good looks.
And he's clearly the masculine hero. He's a cowboy figure: respected, objectively superior to everyone around him in a fight, sardonic without being an asshole about it, respectful to his elders, defender of the weak, calm and collected and able to handle himself up until he's driven to terrible violence by the forces of an evil man threatening a small town.
It's a big dumb movie, and I loved it.
