It is Roadracers (Roadracers, 1994) – the most famous and best film of the Rebel Highway series and the third film by Robert Rodriguez. Before that, he shot El Mariachi, more arthouse than mainstream. There was very little left before the hit Desperado. And between these iconic films, this “frostbitten hot rod filmer” happened, as he (Rodriguez) called him in a brief synopsis of Roadracers: Making of degenerative hot rod flick, written together with Tommy Nicks, co-author of the script (in the film he is a cunning drummer of a local band). Rodriguez has always had a craving for B-movies, and then he will go even further – to the thrash grindhouse!
Definitely this is the best role of David Arquette – the main character Dude Delaney, a young greaser without a specific occupation, drives a battered Chevy Bel Air 1956 and has a good command of the guitar, inspired by the music of Link Ray.
He is confronted by Teddy (“Beverly Hills 90210” star Jason Wiles), driving around with headless friends in a red Ford Thunderbird 1959. Teddy the bad guy is also the sheriff’s son (William Sadler), and therefore behaves brazenly, defiantly, believing that he will always remain unpunished.
However, the relationship between the dad-cop and the offspring, to put it mildly, is not sugar. Dad applies to baby Teddy the whole arsenal of his police techniques from intimidation to humiliation. But this does not work with Dude.
Dude’s girlfriend (“Don’t call me Dude!”) Donna is a hot Mexican, a good girl who doesn’t really like rockabilly music (too loud) and Dude’s friends. She is very reluctant, but still listens to her boyfriend, because she also dreams of leaving this low-grade “city of Zero”, where there is not much to do. The first role in the filmography of Selma Hayek, before that she starred only in a TV show.
The stars of rock and roll, i.e. authentic rockabilly, are also present here: in the person of the cool Johnny Reno, who, having played a passage on the guitar, can immediately skillfully sound off on the sax. Once upon a time, immediately after the first viewing of the film, I rushed to search for his albums on the Web, but I only came across pieces of the Roadracers soundtrack. Damn, well, this is very strange. Man, you still need to spend more time recording, because time always works against you. Johnny Reno, you’re a gray-haired man now, and your songs are impossible to find. It’s complete bullshit, to be honest. For some reason, Reno and Rodriguez didn’t bother to release at least their own music for the film separately, okay, let’s keep quiet about the soundtrack with all the songs.
One of the local 62imperial guys from San Gabriel, CA in 1994 filmed all these cars from Roadracers, while a roller skating scene was being filmed in his city:
Chevrolet Bel Air 1956 & Buick Special 1956
There are a lot of close-ups of faces, expressive emotions without words, as duels in westerns show. We have a confrontation between two guys with complex characters. Every offense must be avenged. As a result, we have a tangle of actions that cannot be unwound back. If verbal skirmishes can be left behind, then other more serious assaults cannot be forgiven. Who is the coolest in this city? Words will be used first, then knives, but the last argument is already a gunshot, the point of no return.
Dude is faced with a choice: either to comply with the code of honor and fight with Teddy, who offended Donna, and generally spoiled his blood throughout the film, or to neglect, think about the future and go to audition for the role of guitarist with subsequent possible tours outside the bored town. Of course, emotions prevail over reason.
Meanwhile, The Rumblers with Johnny Rino change the format and become the Ramblers, a commercial pop group, where there is no trace of the wild and unbridled music that was at the beginning. So baby Donna likes them more and now she’s already making eyes at the frontman and is almost ready to accompany him on tour. But then Dude and Nixter intervene in the performance: “And the king is naked!”
Black humor is what makes the film truly unforgettable: all these scenes with setting fire to hair, worshipping sausages in dough, roller skating on a polished floor, exposing phonograms create a fun and crazy atmosphere. And all this party in the spirit of the 50s is then well diluted with bloody showdowns. Racing with the Devil, Race With The Devil is perhaps the main leitmotif of Roadracers.
Charlie Sexton – Race With The Devil
Well, now it’s time to give out gifts.:
Download scans of the Roadracers book: The Making of a Degenerate Hot Rod Flick (zip, jpg, 13 Mb)
Download or listen to the soundtrack online of OST Roadracers (1994) (mp3, 71 Mb)
I looked, I looked, I finally looked, and oh my God, it was so cool. Damn, that’s really cool! In fact, these are the same Jailbreakers, only unscrewed by 11! That’s what a talented director means!
Seriously, early Bob Rodriguez – oh****n. Do you remember the Faculty? From Dusk To Dawn? So, Roadracers is just that early Rodriguez with a healthy dose of madness and all the proprietary features included. Just like in Jailbreakers, we have a carefully constructed atmosphere of the late 50s, and just like in Jailbreakers, we have a movie from those years mentioned here. But if in Jailbreakers the movie On The Waterfront was mentioned only in one scene, then in Roadracers the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a real carpet for a good half of the film. One of the characters in the movie watched it fifteen times, and eventually we all end up in a movie theater with the rest of the movie’s characters. God, how wonderful is the moment when Dude looks warily at Donna, who has fallen asleep on his shoulder!
Rodriguez, in general, seems to be a fan of Body Snatchers – one Faculty is worth something – but in Roadracers, the performer of the main role in the Invasion personally appears on the screen.: Kevin fucking McCarthy himself! And in the post-credits scene, Kevin also utters some very poetically thoughtful phrases, ending the whole thing with the words: “Call me Miles.” – that’s how to make references to films of the 50s! Learn everything!
As in Jailbreakers, the installation here is cheap, and there are a couple of small joints in it, but in general it’s a bomb and everything is done an order of magnitude better than in Jailbreakers. Especially in those moments when the installation is done to the rhythm of the background music. Plus, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see modern cars in the background. On the other hand, I must admit that Roadracers dragged me in worse than Jailbreakers, so I still didn’t look into the background so carefully.
For a movie called Roadracers, this very road racing is probably not enough here, but to hell with it! Do you understand how impressed I am when I say that? And the final shots under the red light reminded me of Carmageddon, discouraging the last desire to criticize the film – who knows, maybe the game developers also watched Roadracers?
What else… An acting game! Just yesterday, I wrote what a log this Dakota Johnson of yours is from 50 Shades of My Ass – so, in contrast, I’m ready to bring the scene from the rollerdrome women’s bathroom from the Roadracers movie. Small, barely noticeable facial movements that nevertheless reflect specific, understandable, human emotions – that’s how you should play, Miss Johnson! Damn, the nineties TV series demonstrates acting better in places than many feature films of our time! What have we come to? Are we going to draw smiles and facial wrinkles on computers, or what?
Pfft, I wanted to write something else… Oh, yeah! Special thanks to Bob for the scenes where Dude greases his hair – just think, I’ve watched so many films about greasers, and it’s only now, if I’m not mistaken, that I finally saw the scene where the protagonist greases his hair. It would seem that grease is an integral part of culture…
Until the end, Robert used grease as a tool for the plot – no matter how bad that scene was, I still rather approve of this approach. Because, again, an integral part of the culture of the briolinists is the grease, actually.
In short, thank you so much for opening this movie to me, Alexander. And special thanks for the soundtrack, it’s really hard to find.
Thank you so much for the great article, and oh my God THE BOOK!!! I learned about it from you, great respect to you. To all the fans of the racers, join our small community about Roadracers (https://vk.com/roadracersrodriguez )
Of his works, he is especially famous