The most atypical River Phoenix role, the furthest from his own personality comes in this film. In Dogfight River plays a young Marine recruit who along with buddies Richard Panebianco, Anthony Clark, and Mitchell Whitfield who are on a last night's leave and are heading from their Treasure Island base for a night of fun and frolic in the San Francisco of November, 1963.
The guys are about to participate in a really mindless and sick ritual called a Dogfight. The guys seek out the ugliest woman they can find and bring her to a designated bar where they're judged. The 'winner' gets a prize of whatever monies the Marines have collected among themselves. Talk about objectifying the female body in a negative way.
Phoenix hooks up with sweet and shy Lilly Taylor who really moved me with her performance. She and her mother run a coffee shop and she's a quiet kid into folk music, her favorite being Joan Baez.
While the other three have the usual night on the town for the Armed Services, Phoenix and Taylor find they connect in ways that they never dreamed possible. As they get to know each other the audience sees a more typical River Phoenix.
I remember seeing this when it first came out. It had a limited release and was restricted to art houses. The theater I saw it in was memorable too, it was the only one I've ever been in without a concession stand, not even concession machines. I guess in this no frills theater I was lucky they had rest rooms.
Phoenix and Taylor make a very lovely couple. It's a good picture for River, but Taylor was the one who really blew me away.
