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Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 2

audience

46

liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 624

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Movie Info

Norman Mailer wrote and directed this demented film noir, which takes place in a Provincetown of perpetual twilight. Most of the tale, based on his best-selling novel, is told in flashback as Dougy Madden (Lawrence Tierney) pays a visit to his son Tim (Ryan O'Neal). Dougy, a tough ex-bartender, is ravaged by cancer and decides to see Tim one last time in order. But Tim is suffering both from writer's block and from the effects of too many years of drink, drugs, and sex. His sexy wife Patty

R, 1 hr. 50 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Sep 16, 2003

Media Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (19) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (11) | DVD (1)

Not the high point of the Mailer career, but it's a small, entertaining part of it.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hard to classify; at times you laugh raucously at what's up on the screen; at others you stare dumbly, in stunned amazement.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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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.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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Norman Mailer's best film, adapted from his worst novel, shows a surprising amount of cinematic savvy and style.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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Embarrassingly idiotic high camp modern noir set on Cape Cod.

October 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Neither thrilling nor horrific, the camera, plotting, dialogue and atmosphere are uniformly unconvincing: a conservatoire of false notes.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

A juicy cult classic.

November 7, 2005 Comment
ColeSmithey.com

Strange and self-indulgent, but oddly entertaining.

October 15, 2005 Comment
Fantastica Daily

Ponderous and absurd, like the novel. As a stand-in for Mailer, O'Neal is limp.

June 29, 2004 Comment

The overkill is strangely compelling and Mailer's disregard for taste and convention ensure his film is a massive but spectacular and unmissable folly.

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

It's a mystery, and not an overly compelling one.

November 4, 2002 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
Oz
eFilmCritic.com
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Audience Reviews for Tough Guys Don't Dance

This movie is just the best thing I've seen in the last 10 years... It wasn't a success in 1987 but OH MAN OH GOD watch this and note all the dialogue!!! It's just so.... PECULIAR...!!

March 19, 2011

Having been utterly gripped by the novel, line by line, scene by scene, I've watched the DVD of the film twice in succession in one evening, liking it better the second time at every point. If I weren't too tired, I'd watch it a third time. I grew up in Provincetown, I knew Norman personally (though briefly), and this

December 3, 2010

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