Philosophy of Roadhouse
The other night I found myself in the mood for a comfort movie, one where you can turn your brain off and enjoy. One of those movies for me is the 1989 film, Roadhouse. After recently studying philosophical insights into masculinity, I came to realize that Dalton, played by Patrick Swayze, is the personification of Man-Perfected. When you look past the fighting scenes and the obligatory cheesy 80s movie lines (although they are classic), I came to realize that it is simply the portrayal of the archetypal hero’s journey.
Cleansing of the Temple
Dalton’s profession is what he would refer to as a “Cooler” rather than a “Bouncer.” For a high dollar, popular but struggling bars bring him in to quell violence, drugs, and lude behavior that’s costing bar owners money.
One might assume that Dalton’s job would be fit for a towering-hulking man who uses violence and intimidation to force others to bend to his will. This is not the case. Dalton is small in stature, often getting told “I thought you’d be bigger” by people who heard of his legend but never met him personally, including getting told, “You know, I heard you had balls big enough to cum in a dump truck, but you don’t look like much to me.” The irony is that while Dalton is small in stature, he is a giant in spirit. Rather than aggression, it is self-control and his understanding of philosophical principles that guide him…….as well as a remarkable roundhouse kick. Dalton’s title of “Cooler” as opposed to “Bouncer” indicates his self-control that seeks to bring order to chaos rather than piling chaos onto chaos through violence and anger.
When he is brought into “Double Deuce,” a bar equal to that of the Cantina in Star Wars if it were set in rural Missouri, he meets with the staff to discuss the new mode of operation and means to quell the violence. Instead of teaching the resident bouncers how to better fight, he simply tells them, “Be nice.” Saying, “If somebody gets in your face and calls you a cocksucker, I want you to be nice. Ask him to walk. Be nice. If he won’t walk, walk him. But be nice. If you can’t walk him, one of the others will help you, and you’ll both be nice. I want you to remember that it’s a job. It’s nothing personal.” To this, a flabbergasted bouncer says, “Being called a cocksucker isn’t personal?” Dalton then retorts, “No. It’s two nouns combined to elicit a prescribed response,” indicating his achieved mastery over his emotions as a Higher Man.
Dalton adheres to the stoic philosophy of self-control as means achieve the desired end goal of peace.
Tartarus
Early on, we’re introduced to the antagonist Brad Wesley who wields his power and influence to tyrannize over the town’s business owners and residents. Dalton, an antidote to Wesley’s chaos, is immediately identified as a viable threat to the antagonist’s power and control. As petty tyrants often do, Wesley fights from the shadows, sending his goons to the Double Deuce night after night to sow seeds of chaos.
Shadow
Throughout the film, Dalton’s clothing attire is used to describe the present state in which he is in. During the daytime when he is off-duty, he’s often wearing white. When he is shirtless, he is vulnerable. Following a night spent with a newfound love, he’s in red. And when he is “Cooling” at night, he is wearing black. The wardrobe is used to represent the multi-dimensional element of the character, one that echoes the Taoist principle of the yin and the yang and perhaps the Jungian “Shadow.”
The black shirt is Dalton’s talisman, a tool or instrument used to defeat evil. Other examples of a talisman you might think of could include King Arthur’s sword Excalibur or Harry Potter’s phoenix-feathered wand. Rather than possessing an actual weapon, the black attire is a symbol of the dark part of his psyche that he is prepared to tap into as a last resort if absolutely warranted, using chaotic violence as means of restoring order.
This idea is philosophic in nature. The idea that while we should be peaceful, we should also explore the dark aspects of ourselves and once we gain an understanding of what drives and feeds the inherent evil within all of us, we can learn to control our dark side and use that energy for good to return an environment to a peaceful state, whether a physical environment or the one that resides within us. To put it another way, the dark half of our psyche is like that of a gun. A gun, although threatening in nature, can be used for good such as in the case of U.S. soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy to defeat the tyrannical Nazis, or it can be used to senselessly murder others and commit suicide. Our shadow, like a gun, is a tool that can be explored and harnessed to be used as an agent of good in the service of others, or we can let it consume and control us so that we harm others and ourselves through depression, anxiety, and self-harming behavior.
Übermensch
Brad Wesley, in his lustful pursuit of maintaining power over others, eventually forces Dalton to tap into his shadow strength and become lethal. Understanding, as Dalton puts it, “Nobody ever wins a fight,” he is no longer able to be passive and must fight in order to achieve peace for the town and his love interest, which he succeeds in doing. Irony exists between the protagonist Dalton and the antagonist Wesley that they are both powerful and dangerous men however it is the hero who is ultimately more powerful and dangerous. While Wesley is a powerful tyrant, he is only fueled and consumed by one-half of himself, the chaos within his shadow. Dalton, on the other hand, has explored and come to understand both dimensions of his psyche, integrating and controlling the inherent evil within so that he can pull from two sources of strength rather than one, making him a better functioning whole.
The moral of the story and Dalton’s character is perhaps “Meek strength” and “Meek masculinity.” The term “Meek” does not translate to “weak” in this context, but rather, “Strength under control.” This is not necessarily a physical strength, but an inner strength of spirit used as means to bring order to chaos so that peace may prevail both in an external environment and perhaps more significantly, within The Self.