Patrick Swayze died today. We have seen him die before. So, it shouldn't be so hard for us to bear. In Point Break he headed out to meet the gigantic surf. In Ghost, he tries to fight off some thief and gets shot? Been awhile on that one. In Red Dawn, he gets aced, but he led the revolt very well.
He was a pretty fun actor. In the Outsiders he made a convincing big brother greaser bad-A. In Roadhouse, he made a convincing bouncer martial arts bad-A. And, of course, Dirty Dancing, he was an immoral dance instructor bad-A.
I suppose he is more like the everyman bad-A in his movies. He had the great mullet. Can't argue with a mullet.
I think I like him best in Roadhouse. It is such a cheesy movie. Totally formulaic, but he has this general appeal when he comes to town. He is friends with the blind guy musician dude. He scores the hot nurse. He meditates while doing his martial arts thing. And, to top it all off, his mentor is Sam Elliot, the biggest bad-A of them all. But most of all, we trust him to take care of things.
He walks into a corrupt town to fix it. That is some serious opposition. Well, really, he was just going for the job. But he gets pulled in to sticking up for the little guy. I liked it when he was training the other bartenders how to keep their cool and battle the drunkards. As one who hardly ever goes to bars, I think this is a very realistic portrayal of a classic Texas roadhouse.
I am sure many people do not like the movie Roadhouse for precisely the same reasons that I like it. Oh well. Opinions vary.
