As one of the most fascinating actors working today, Nicolas Cage has been in so many great hidden gems that incredible movies like Red Rock West can fly completely under the radar. With an outstanding 98% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, although not a lot of people saw this heart-racing post-Western thriller, it received universal acclaim from those in the know. While many will point to Cage’s Oscar-winning turn in Leaving Las Vegas or classic action movies like Face/Off as the pinnacle of his career, I think this underseen release from writer and director John Dahl was the actor’s best work.
The career of Nicolas Cage is unmatched in Hollywood, as he’s been able to seamlessly traverse the fine line between mainstream success and artistic integrity. As a performer who gives his all even in films of questionable quality, Cage elevates every movie he’s in and can often overcome a bad script or poor direction. While everyone will have a different answer for what the very best Nicolas Cage movie is, those who haven’t seen it should prepare to experience something special when they check out Red Rock West.
The Neo-Noir Stylings Of Red Rock West Captured Everything Incredible About Nicolas Cage
The Genre-Bending Appeal Of Red Rock West Was A Sight To Behold
Red Rock West starred Cage as a penniless drifter named Michael Williams who arrives in a rural Wyoming town and is mistaken for a hitman named ‘Lyle, from Dallas.’ When a local barman offers him a stack of cash to kill his wife, Michael plays along and takes the money under the understanding that he would get “half now, half later.” Rather than complete the job, Michael instead opts to warn the endangered woman and split town, but instead of making a clean break, he only ends up further entrenched in this murderous conspiracy.
With an engaging narrative that hooks viewers right from the beginning, Cage’s characterization of Michael was of a down-on-his-luck man of noble morality who finds himself in over his head. Red Rock West manages to get the very best out of Cage as he’s in his element playing an anti-hero in a story that combines action, noir, and Western movie stylings all in one. With sharp dialogue, a smart script, and incredibly high stakes, once Cage discovers the barman who gave him the cash was also the local sheriff, things kick into hyperdrive and never let up for a minute.
Dennis Hopper Gave A Chilling Performance As The Villainous Hitman Lyle
Red Rock West Also Stands As One Of Hopper’s Most Underrated Roles
From the moment Cage made the split-second decision to pretend he was Lyle, from Dallas, we knew it was only a matter of time before the real hitman showed up. When this finally does occur, he’s more terrifying than we could have ever imagined, as Dennis Hopper embraced his wildman persona to give one of his most chilling performances. As a sharp and calculating villain, it doesn’t take long for Lyle to discover what was really going on and put Michael in further danger.
Lyle was everything that Michael pretended to be, and Hopper makes the over-the-top, sinister calculations his character feels eerily plausible.
As a volatile and unpredictable antagonist, once Hopper shows up as Lyle, the story of Red Rock West shifts from an almost comedic series of misunderstandings to a starkly dramatic tale of murder, money, and menacing chaos. Lyle was everything that Michael pretended to be, and Hopper makes the over-the-top, sinister calculations his character feels eerily plausible. Hopper took the Western movie archetype of the wild outlaw to its absolute extreme, and from the moment he appeared on screen, he pushed Red Rock West into much darker, more dangerous territory.
The Unique Sense Of Humor And Post-Western Aesthetic Of Red Rock West Recalls The Work Of David Lynch
Both Cage And Hopper Had Already Starred In David Lynch Movies
As two extremely interesting actors who never phone it in, the common thread connecting Nicolas Cage and Dennis Hopper outside of Red Rock West was director David Lynch. In another villainous role, Hopper played the unhinged psychopath Frank Booth in Blue Velvet, while Cage was the lead of Lynch’s highly underrated 1990 black comedy Wild at Heart. It feels like both actors took the lessons they learned from the surreal styling of Lynch and imbued the post-Western aesthetic of Red Rock West with a lot of his signature style.
Featuring a normal man encountering the dark hidden underbelly of small-town America, in a lot of ways, Red Rock West mimicked the work of Lynch, in particular, Twin Peaks. While the town of Red Rock looks ordinary to begin with, the longer that Michael found himself there, the more the deception, double-crossing, and disguised violence of the community bubbled to the surface. With much of the plot relying on chance encounters and coincidental occurrences, the logic of Red Rock West played out like a bad dream, just like in most Lynch films.
Lara Flynn Boyle, who portrayed Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks, also appeared in Red Rock West as Ann McCord / Suzanne Brown.
The offbeat characters, philosophical dialogue, and even the fashion sense feel like they were transported straight out of a David Lynch film. With no clear heroes, the way everyone lies, cheats, and manipulates their way through increasingly absurd situations very much aligns with Lynch’s consistent themes of corrupted innocence, moral confusion, and hidden darkness of seemingly polite society. Although Lynch’s films were totally unique, Red Rock West was one of the best examples of a Lynchian atmosphere being captured without the late director’s involvement.
Red Rock West Didn’t Deserve To Flop At The Box Office
It Grossed Less Than A Third Of Its Budget
Even though Red Rock West received widespread critical acclaim and has an almost perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie did not connect with viewers back in 1993 and was a flop at the box office. With a budget of $8 million, Box Office Mojo figures reveal that it only grossed $2.5 million, and the movie was quickly forgotten by mainstream audiences. However, Red Rock West remains a hidden treasure that’s ripe for rediscovery and stands as a perfect example of Cage’s status as the most versatile and unconventional movie star of his generation.
While Cage has had his fair share of box office disappointments throughout his long and prolific career, the failure of Red Rock West feels particularly egregious, as everything about the film was firing on all cylinders. Despite having a smart script, outstanding performances, and an engrossing sense of style, it seems that sometimes truly great movies can just slip under the radar, and releases that deserve to become all-time classics just fester in obscurity. Cage has been in plenty of hidden gems over the years, but Red Rock West tops them all and stands as arguably his best movie.
Source: Box Office Mojo
