Breakdown: Anatomy Of An Action Movie!

ANATOMY OF AN ACTION MOVIE
PREMISE
While taking a cross-country road-trip to relocate, married couple Jeff and Amy Taylor (Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan) experience car trouble, and end up stranded in the middle of the desert. In an effort to reach a payphone, Amy accepts a ride from a seemingly friendly trucker named Red (JT Walsh)…but when Jeff runs into the trucker again later, he claims to have never have seen her. Jeff then begins to suspect that Amy has been kidnapped, and that he may be in the middle of a sinister criminal plot.

TICKING CLOCK
Can Jeff track down Amy before the trail goes cold and he loses her forever?
Thoughts on the premise and its execution
What’s the film about? What’s it trying to say? What’s it exploring about our collective fears?
What is it saying about society, and about America?
Other influences e.g. DUEL, DELIVERANCE, THE HITCHER

THE HERO
Kurt Russell as Jeff Taylor
The Everyman Action Hero
Yuppie In Peril crossover

THE VILLAIN
JT Walsh as Warren ‘Red’ Barr
Thoughts on character and performance – his biggest, and greatest screen role?

SIDEBAR on JT Walsh
JT Walsh made manifest AMERICA’S ID
Symbolized the moral rot at the heart of American life
Always play characters who were amoral, avaricious, self-serving, ruthless and ultimately cowardly when their power was revealed to be illusory
My affinity with him due to Glengarry connection
Follow his IMDB filmography on a path to movie gold
Some incredible facts about his personal life – disparity between who he was and the villainous characters he so expertly portrayed for decades
Born in San Francisco but grew up in West Germany where his father was stationed, he spoke fluent German
Led a life of social activism, was an AmericaCorps VISTA volunteer, protested the Vietnam war
Had a bunch of other jobs before becoming an actor: a barman, an encylopedia salesman, a high school teacher, a gym equipment salesman and a reporter
Kurt Russell said JT Walsh might be his favorite American actor – he described him as
“flawless” and that there was “nothing phony about him, nothing fake”
Jack Nicholson dedicated his (As Good As It Gets) Oscar to him
Favorite JT Walsh performance? (Red Rock West, Nixon, Outbreak, Dark Skies)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._T._W...

THE LADY
Kathleen Quinlan as Amy Taylor
Great actress, great performance, great career (APOLLO 13 arguable highlight)
Particularly like the ease of their early scenes together, unlike many of the other DHOAB films we’ve discussed, they clearly have a good marriage and relationship at the start of the film, and are not emotionally estranged (as in Die Hard, The River Wild etc)

ACTION
Solid, muscular, practically shot action
Largely realistic
Becomes a little more grand, wild and somewhat outlandish towards the end, but it still works really well