ROUTE 9
US, 1998, 95 minutes, Colour.
Kyle Mac Lachlan, Peter Coyote, Wade Andrew Williams, Amy Locane, Roma Maffia.
Directed by David Mackay.
Route 9 is a variation on the simple plan story: two men find easy money, steal it, make stupid decisions, fail to realise that investigators would have clues and evidence, fall out amongst themselves and cause death and destruction.
The film opens with a shootout, a drug deal in which an undercover agent is injured. The two police first on the scene think he is a criminal and kill him. However, he was wearing a tape which is found by the forensic examiner of the body, who uses it for blackmail of the police. One of the policemen is involved in an affair with the sheriff's wife. The various complications ensue.
While this is a generally routine story, the strong cast, especially Kyle Mac Lachlan as the policeman having the affair but who has some sense of conscience, and Peter Coyote as the brutal sheriff. Wade Andrew Williams is introduced in this film and is an effective, callous villain. Roma Maffia leads the DEA investigation.
Filmed on location in Nevada, it is quite an exciting if ordinary thriller.
1. The popularity of this kind of story: easy money, complications, detection, destruction?
2. Route 9 in Nevada, the isolation of the town, the people, the Nevada desert, Reno? The contrast with the sophistication of California? The chases on Route 9? Musical score?
3. The initial confrontation, the drug runners, the money dealers, the stances and postures, the shootouts? Earl and Booth arriving on the scene, their discovery, the money, their decisions, their behaviour, killing the agent, the destruction of the car?
4. The situation in the town: Dwayne as sheriff, slow, methodical? His love for Sally but his brutality towards her? Showing her off in the station? Booth and his relationship with her? His hopes for a better life? Earl, his debts, borrowing money, his relationship with his mother (giving her the television)? The other members of the staff? Jesse and his being the doctor in the town? Working with the police?
5. The arrival of Ellen Marks and the beginnings of the investigation, the reaction of Dwayne, of Earl and Booth? The issue of the tape and their playing it? The irony of Jesse taking it, blackmailing Earl and Booth, the copies, the demands of the money, his blackmailing them, the visit to Reno and gambling, further demands, their tying him up, injecting him with the potassium (his suggestion) and his death?
6. Booth and the promise to Sally, buying her the lingerie (and using the marked money)? His giving her the gift, the plans? The digging up of the money, finding that Earl had taken some? The mixture of conscience and loyalty? The reaction to Jesse, his not wanting him dead? His collaboration in the investigation? The final confrontation with Dwayne, the shootout, his grief at Sally's death, confronting Earl, his being killed? The irony of his hiding the money and leaving the note?
7. Earl, his personality, greed, the clash in the bar, the truck, spending big, the television? The menthol cigarettes to Ellen Marks and finding the butt in Jesse's house? His ruthlessness, pressurising Booth? His being found out, confronting Booth, pretending not to shoot him, killing him? The irony of the note, Ellen Marks killing him?
8. Dwayne, his relationship with Sally, paranoid, brutal, the confrontation and his death?
9. The DEA investigators, Ellen Marks and her thoroughness, Wallis and his detection, the clues, putting the pieces together, Earl pushing Wallis over the cliff? The final solution to the case?
