Red Rock West (1993)
Directed by John Dahl
When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialize in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Mike takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money, and runs. During his getaway, things go wrong, and soon get worse when he runs into the real hitman, Lyle.
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What critics compared Red Rock West to
Controversial director Oliver Stone is back and supposedly returning to his roots with a smallish, lower-budget, darkly comic rural melodrama (which combines elements of "Red Rock West," "Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and a number of other film noir thrillers).
The film's obvious predecessors are Blood Simple, The Hot Spot and Red Rock West.
Using the already pitch-dark modern noir style of Red Rock West as a starting point, Stone pushes his story of murder, veiled motives, and sexual double-cross into realms of surreal excess that make John Dahl look like Ron Howard by comparison.
It feels as if it’s filtered through a lens that blends early 90s neo-noir features like Red Rock West with a gritty exploitation vibe from grind-house 70s films.
Their inventiveness in thinking up one outrageous yet plausible plot development after another also recalls John Dahl's "Red Rock West."
With a palette reminiscent of the loved-but-forgotten neo-noir Westerns of the 90s such as Red Rock West and Kill me Again, he paints the story of a resourceful everyman who becomes an avenger who finds himself out of his depth.
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L.A. Confidential has the same kind of freshness as Carl Franklin's underrated Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) and John Dahl's noirs Red Rock West and The Last Seduction.
It's like Carl Franklin's "One False Move".