Coffee, gunfire, and the last known expression of the original punk scene before it all went…
Straight to Hell arrived on Home Video today in 1987, after a limited June theatrical release.
Alex Cox followed Sid & Nancy by dragging Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, Dennis Hopper, Courtney Love and The Pogues to Spain, then pointed them at a leftover spaghetti western set, and told them to act… natural.
And while it strips cowboy tropes for parts, it manages to build something that’s practically unrecognizable as a genre entry. To call the movie chaotic and incoherant is to assume coherance and structure would have helped make this movie make a lick of sense. This is punk rock cinema, so sod your rules.
The plot arrives halfway through and leaves early. Like your mom. Basically, bank robbers hide out in a Mexican town populated entirely by coffee-addicted psychopaths, much violence happens, and much coffee gets spilled – in fact the violence is mostly slapstick because actual violence would require caring about plot consequences.
This is the sort of movie David Lynch would have called weird, and Tarantino wishes he made.
Straight to Hell happened because everyone had three weeks between tour dates and Cox had the keys to a pre-standing set. The musicians play criminals playing cowboys. The actors play archetypes playing themselves. Grace Jones is there to remind us that she’s indeed a godess from another dimension who can manifest herself on screen at will.
And it’s got a soundtrack that can drink you under the table. The whole production runs on weekend rage bender energy: it’s all about momentum, delusion, and the absolute refusal to admit anyone should stop.
This is a great way to kill 90 minutes, but don’t worry, those 90 minutes have it coming.
The movie belongs on the shelf somewhere between Forbidden Zone (1980) and Oblivion (1994). -Pop