Road House: An Example Of Unintended Homoeroticism

• Directed by Rowdy Herrington
• May 19, 1989

A bouncer working at a newly renovated roadside bar protects a small Missouri town from a corrupt local businessman who rules with an iron fist. Happens all the time.

The 80s were a heck of a time in filmmaking. Just about any idea could make it to the screen. Like Road House-a movie featuring a philosopher bouncer who is the star in the tightly knit world of bouncing. A movie featuring romance above a horse barn where the villain watches. A movie with so much macho in it that it accidentally moves into homoerotic.

Road House is perhaps one of the most 80s movies I have seen in a very long time. Perhaps too 80s of a movie for the era because as I recall it wasn’t quite a success when it came out. Yet it found its place over the years to become something of a Cult Classic. It is one of those cheesy, corny, and laughably bad films that just works and works better the older it gets.

The story focuses on philosopher bouncer Dalton (Patrick Swayze) who is quite famous in the clearly tightknit bouncing community. Everybody knows him and a few characters even get playfully scolded for not knowing him. Seriously. He’s some kind of bouncing legend. That’s actually kind of funny yet in the world Rowdy Herrington and pals create it makes perfect sense. And that’s part of the charm of this movie. The absurd is logical.

The weird philosopher bouncer thing is something only Patrick Swayze could pull off. It’s unintentionally silly but that Swayze magic makes it click. In fact this whole movie would’ve fallen apart without Swayze. None of the A-List action stars of the time could have made this watchable. Stallone? Schwarzenegger? Van-Damme? Norris? As much as I love them none of them could have brought the charm and charisma that Swayze did making a bouncer with a PhD in philosophy make sense.

I cannot say enough it’s ridiculous how important and complex the world of bouncing is in this movie. It’s a whole industry with its own group of celebrities. Dalton has a very Zen philosophy about the whole thing and that is part of the reason he is so good. He is not the strongest, but he is the smartest. He is all about preventing the situation from getting worse and tells his team at the Double Deuce “I want you to be nice until it’s time to not be nice.”

Dalton is the most awesome thing to ever come along based on the characters. Nobody can kick his butt no matter how big they are. Same goes for his pal Wade (Sam Elliot) who would take the crown of most awesome if Dalton died. Women are drawn to him. And he has a clear moral code and a mysterious, and possibly dark past that he wishes to keep hidden. And everything is solved with fists and explosions and bullets.

Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara) rules over the town of Jasper with an iron fist. He shakes people down for money and uses his power and control to force everyone to buy alcohol from him while just generally terrorizing the town. The righteous Dalton runs afoul of Wesley by not only firing Wesley’s nephew but by dating Wesley’s former love interest and sexy local physician Dr. Elizabeth Clay (Kelly Lynch).

Things go from bad to worse as the interconnected bouncer world helps Dalton to circumvent everything that Wesley does to screw over the Double Deuce and in the process angers Wesley. Dalton even brings in pal Wade Garrett. The purpose of Wade is to provide motivation for Dalton to stay in town and take down Wesley once and for all. His love interest is not enough. But Sam Elliott is. But then again it is Sam Elliott.

Which brings me to something. I can’t take credit for this particular insight though once it was mentioned to me, I couldn’t help but notice it. There is a lot of unintended homoeroticism in this movie. Long stares between the men. Wade repeatedly telling Dalton he loves him and calling him ‘mijo.’ And you cannot miss when Wesley flunky Jimmy (Marshall Teague) says to Dalton while scuffling “I used to f**k guys like you in prison.” A line you could easily say in an 80s movie but not today.

The homoeroticism even extends to when Dalton is going to leave town because things are getting dangerous. His first thought is to take Wade with him. Elizabeth, whom he slept with in his barn loft while Wesley watched from across the water, is practically an afterthought. That is an actual scene!

Once Wade is killed Dalton rips out Jimmy’s throat and goes to finish the fight with Wesley. Not check on Elizabeth. He seeks revenge for Wade. This is all an unintended byproduct of the heavy machismo and testosterone that permeated movies like this during the 80s. But it feels so much more here than it does in anything else from the time.

This movie stumbles around and swings fists while engaging in leaps of logic that only could happen in the 80s. It’s big and dumb and entertaining with cheesy acting and questionable intelligence. It knew what it was and it was an action movie that’s short on logic and heavy on awesome.

I got pretty much what I wanted from Road House. I think most people who look for it will as well. It is big dumb fun. As an 80s movie it is probably one of the best. Not deep or thoughtful but enjoyable in a way that only the 80s can be. I highly recommend it!