Dear Philip Leacock,
you made a good film alright. Here, have a beer. Or how about an orange soda? Or a grape soda? You deserve it.
Dying Room Only starts off with beautiful shots of a deserted road in Arizona. It preceded Long Weekend, the Australian film by five years. Like the Long Weekend, the TV film has a squabbling and seemingly miserable middle class couple driving across the desert in a car as protagonists. Clois Leachman does the irritating and nagging wife really well. She nails the role and the mood of the couple in the first few minutes itself.
The couple stops for drinks and food at a roadside café and after this the film wears its genre credentials on its sleeve. The roadside café with the bright red sign reading "Beer" is a nice set piece. The happenings inside the café with the hostile locals are very tense and entertaining. The proceedings do have a play like quality. Ned Beatty is great as one of the hostile locals. This man played so many diverse roles in the 70s.
The ending and the plot resolutions were a bit of a disappointment. The revelations at the end does call into question the behavior of the locals at the beginning of the film.
There were quite a few films with the rural folk vs urban values in the 70s. While it is not as good as Deliverance or Wake in Fright, Dying Room Only is pretty tense and intriguing for the most part.
The background score reminded me of Morricone's noisy and jarring music for Ecce Homo (1968).
The final scene was very interesting. Duel, which came out a couple of years before Dying Room Only had a similar scene at the beginning of the film.
I hope to check out more films by you, Philip Leacock.
Best Regards, Pimpin.
you made a good film alright. Here, have a beer. Or how about an orange soda? Or a grape soda? You deserve it.
Dying Room Only starts off with beautiful shots of a deserted road in Arizona. It preceded Long Weekend, the Australian film by five years. Like the Long Weekend, the TV film has a squabbling and seemingly miserable middle class couple driving across the desert in a car as protagonists. Clois Leachman does the irritating and nagging wife really well. She nails the role and the mood of the couple in the first few minutes itself.
The couple stops for drinks and food at a roadside café and after this the film wears its genre credentials on its sleeve. The roadside café with the bright red sign reading "Beer" is a nice set piece. The happenings inside the café with the hostile locals are very tense and entertaining. The proceedings do have a play like quality. Ned Beatty is great as one of the hostile locals. This man played so many diverse roles in the 70s.
The ending and the plot resolutions were a bit of a disappointment. The revelations at the end does call into question the behavior of the locals at the beginning of the film.
There were quite a few films with the rural folk vs urban values in the 70s. While it is not as good as Deliverance or Wake in Fright, Dying Room Only is pretty tense and intriguing for the most part.
The background score reminded me of Morricone's noisy and jarring music for Ecce Homo (1968).
The final scene was very interesting. Duel, which came out a couple of years before Dying Room Only had a similar scene at the beginning of the film.
I hope to check out more films by you, Philip Leacock.
Best Regards, Pimpin.