Cult status of certain films can be explained with them being made by people with too much time on their hands and later watched by people with too much time on their hands. An interesting example can be found in Straight to Hell, 1987 action comedy directed by Alex Cox.
The plot starts in the city where three gangsters – Norwood (played by Sy Richardson), Willy (played by Dick Rude) and Simms (played by Joe Strummer) – are forced to escape the wrath of their boss Amos Dade (played by Jim Jarmusch). They rob the bank and together with Norwood’s pregnant girlfriend Velma (played by Courtney Love) leave the city. On the way their car breaks down and they are forced to bury the money and seek temporary shelter in small desert town. Although it seems peaceful at first, the town is actually inhabited by various bizarre characters, including hordes of coffee-addicted gunmen in employment of town’s unofficial leader Frank McMahon (played by Biff Yeagher). McMahons are at first friendly towards four strangers, but everything changes when one member of their family gets killed, which starts series of misunderstanding and shoot outs that would culminate in bloodbath.
British director Alex Cox originally didn’t intend to make the film. He originally wanted to make a concert film detailing the tour of various British punk bands and musicians in Nicaragua. The tour, which was supposed to support left-wing Sandinista government, was ultimately cancelled, but Cox was left with a budget and large gathering of musicians with nothing to do. He quickly decided to employ both in a live action film he imagined as some sort of homage to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. The script was co-written by Dick Rude and three days and film itself was shot for under million dollars in four weeks on the locations in Spanish province of Almeria, the same locations used by Leone and other makers of spaghetti westerns.
Film was made quickly, without much consideration and opportunity to polish the script. This shows in rather basic plot that soon degenerates into series of increasingly pointless, violent and repetitive incidents. There are some attempts of humour, but they are usually quite lame and ineffective. Straight to Hell works best when it directly makes references to Leone’s work and one example is character of George, local store owner (played by Miguel Sandoval), who talks exactly like Clint Eastwood but whose macho image isn’t exactly followed by deadly abilities. The cast is interesting, not much because of talent displayed, but because of its variety. Apart from few professional actors, most of the roles are played by musicians, most notably by Clash frontman Joe Strummer, and who is accompanied by Elvis Costello and members of Pogues. Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones and director Jim Jarmusch also appear in cameo roles. Film features good and memorable opening theme, but the rest of music isn’t quite memorable. Premiere of the film was disastrous and Straight to Hell, together with political controversies related to Cox’s next film Walker, ended his career in Hollywood. Cox later worked mostly in independent cinema and became highly respected film historian and commentator. In 2010 he made new version of the film with few minutes of extra footage and scenes with digitally inserted blood splatter under title Straight to Hell Returns.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9698-straight-to-hell Critic: AA
