Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Wings Hauser, Clarence Williams
DVD Info
Release:
Sep 16, 2003
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Stereo Surround - English
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Reviews
Neither thrilling nor horrific, the camera, plotting, dialogue and atmosphere are uniformly unconvincing: a conservatoire of false notes.
Ponderous and absurd, like the novel. As a stand-in for Mailer, O'Neal is limp.
The overkill is strangely compelling and Mailer's disregard for taste and convention ensure his film is a massive but spectacular and unmissable folly.
Not the high point of the Mailer career, but it's a small, entertaining part of it.
Hard to classify; at times you laugh raucously at what's up on the screen; at others you stare dumbly, in stunned amazement.
Norman Mailer's best film, adapted from his worst novel, shows a surprising amount of cinematic savvy and style.
What is strange is that Tough Guys Don't Dance leaves me with such vivid memories of its times and places, its feelings and weathers, and yet leaves me so completely indifferent to its plot. Watching the film, I laughed a good deal.


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