Some reasons to reconsider "Road House"

1) Rules in a knife fight?

This is not an episode of "Kung Fu," ready-made for an aphorism and an anecdote. Life in this dystopian Missouri is rough. Swayze as Dalton refuses to oversimplify, even for an audience of bouncers who seem to be collectively showing the effects of repeated closed head injuries.

When he takes over at the Double Deuce, Dalton teases by offering the staff "three simple rules." It's not until later that we learn that he has a degree in philosophy at NYU or see him reading Jim Harrison. But in that now-famous scene, it's Dalton's playful embrace of ambiguity that lingers.

His three simple rules really sound like six rules -- or maybe no rules at all. That unanswered question -- what are the rules to which we should all agree to abide in civil society? -- resonates for the remainder of the film. Especially in the scene where Jimmy (Marshall Teague) has his throat ripped out.

Dalton: "All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. EXPECT the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it's absolutely necessary. And three, be nice. ...Until it's time not to be nice."

Now, how many rules is that? I defy you to answer.

2) There's something weird about Kevin Tighe. Just weird. The way he's always leering or about to leer. He makes me uncomfortable. It's an incipient leer.

3) The director's name is Rowdy.

4) Dalton's conflicted sexuality may be the smoldering ember at the core of this story, more explosive than the literal conflagrations that engulf an auto parts store, a barn and a Mercedes E Class sedan and cause each to blow up in succession.

Consider first the relationship betwen Wade Garret (Sam Elliott) and Dalton. The affection clearly goes beyond the aging "cooler" and his favored protege. But this was 1989 and we only get hints of the dynamic at work.

Dalton seems to believe that in the twilight of Reagan-era America, the best that he can hope for is to remain rootless, literally a renegade roaming from town to town. Along the way, he has steeled himself against insult. At one point, he notes that a familiar epithet related to oral sex is just "two nouns put together to elicit a proscribed response." (Only, I think Swayze says "solicit." Well, there are no mistakes...)

When Dalton announces with resignation to Garret that the town strong-man Wesley (Ben Gazzara) has "won," he may be saying that the oppressive norms of the community have trumped his own claim to happiness.

Interestingly, Dalton's nemesis Wesley understands that the way to drive him to mad desperation is to kill Garret. Dalton's rage recalls Achilles after the death of Patroclus -- if Achilles had downed the final Trojan warrior with a polar bear.

Wesley and Jimmy, meanwhile, boil with rage at their own dimly understood sense of longing. When Jimmy tells Dalton that he engaged with intercourse in prison with men like him, Dalton responds by punching a hole in his throat.

In the final confrontation, Wesley confesses that he had thought it would be "fun to fight" Dalton. Depends, I suppose, on the definition of both words. Wesley ends up spread-eagled on a coffee table as a posse of local men unload on him.

All the men swear they saw nothing when the deed is done. Even Tinker, who staggers up from under the polar bear.

5) Forget all that. Consider the insidious politics of this movie.

"Road House" can be read as a commentary on how the great middle of America was about to drift to the political right -- all the while clinging to the rhetoric of rugged individualism through the last two decades.

This movie was released in the summer of 1989. Soviet communism was falling, the Berlin wall was coming down and protesters were standing up in Tianamen. Everywhere the political momentum was for freedom. History, remember, was ending.

But what is "Road House" in that context? What were Americans left to ponder with their popcorn in that momentous time? A morality play about the dangers of unchecked liberty, like "Leviathan." It's an odd message.

But, then again, nobody wants to party at a "slaughterhouse" where they "sweep up the eyeballs" in the morning, Frank Tilghman (Tighe) reminds us.

Dalton may seem unconventional with his tai chi, his Armani shirts and his imported sports sedan, but he is really dedicated to making the world safe for suburban capitalism.

Exuberant displays of individualism (e.g. table dancing by drunken women) make him profoundly uncomfortable.

What's the result? The Double Deuce begins to look more and more like Applebee's as it becomes more successful. Sure the nice people have a place where everyone knows their name, but you can't help feeling the "scene" has lost something vital too. Like everything extreme in America, the Double Deuce is absorbed by the center.

The puritanical Dalton is also an early proponent of the "broken windows" school of policing just being taken up in New York City. He tolerates no violations of his rules, even seemingly petty ones, like sex in the break room.

In this respect, it's sad and a little touching to hear Wesley claim credit for bringing J.C. Penney to town. Although his back is to the camera, we can imagine Dalton sneering.

Big box retail? Wait until this town gets its first Starbucks with Red, the auto parts purveyor, working as a barrista for the benefits.

Remember, Dalton exhorts his employees, it's only business.

5.5) There's a monster truck action sequence.

5.75) It would be really great if it could be dubbed into Russian and then had English subtitles supplied by a machine translator added back.

6) Mad fashion.

The men have mullets. They wear pleated pants without a sense of irony. The women have hair teased into improbable crests. The early Double Deuce regulars torture themselves with body-hugging tube tops and wild geometric skirts.

The doctor (Kelly Lynch) wears cotton and flats so we know she's a good girl. Ironically, she's the only character apart from Dalton we see fully nude -- as if to underscore my point: Who really dressed like this?

And equally haunting, why does Dalton's landlord Emmet (Sunshine Parker) believe that anyone would be fooled by that crazy prosthetic beard? Who is he really hiding from?

Tantalyzing, but in the end "Road House" reminds us that we will never have all the answers.