The B movie fest continues for me as I take a look at one of Dennis Hopper's early leading roles in Night Tide, a movie about a sailor falling in love with a beautiful but mysterious young woman who's past may come back to haunt him. That's a pretty goofy description, I know, but it's an accurate one. It's not a bad
film, per se, just filled with a lot of unnecessary dialogue and a few cheesy moments. The structure of the thing is very good, and makes up for most of its shortcomings. I find the film fascinating as it feels very homoerotic at times, which I'm not exactly sure how much is picked up on by other people. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it's there if you look for it. The mystery aspect works pretty well and feels genuine, throwing you for a nice loop at the end - although I realized what was going on in the story early on. It's not a perfect movie, but certainly deserves the cult following that it has.
December 27, 2011
