Road Games [Blu-Ray Release] (1981)

REVIEW BY: ROBERT CHANDLER

What a gem. Richard Franklin's 1981 ROAD GAMES, given a fantastic limited edition boxed release on blu-ray by Powerhouse/Indicator.

Stacy Kean plays a truck driver ("just because I drive a truck, doesn't make me a truck driver"), who gets framed by a stalk-and-slash killer as he drives across Australia, delivering meat, from Melbourne to Perth. The killer is slaughtering hitch-hikers and gives Quaid's character's name - written on the side of his truck - when he checks into a motel with his ride, whom he murders with a guitar-string garotte.

Later, Keach picks up a hitch-hiker played by Jamie Lee Curtis, an heiress on the run from her family. He is concerned for her welfare - hiking alone in the outback - and they form a bond on the road, while tracking down the killer themselves. The interplay between Keach and Curtis makes the film special; these two American outsiders, travelling across the empty landscape. 

ROAD GAMES is regarded as part of the Ozploitation genre, though it suffered at the box-office because it wasn't as bloody as its fans wanted - or its marketeers promised.

It isn't that kind of film. In terms of tone, it owes as much to IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT as it does to HALLOWE'EN or DUEL. The film has literate and witty dialogue, written by Everett de Roche and Franklin, with a plot that essentially riffs on Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW. Keach quotes John Donne and Chaucer, and is very funny, whether talking to himself or his companion, the scene-stealing Boswell (a bush dog masquerading as a Dingo), or commenting on the other drivers he passes.  It's more talk-and-slash than stalk-and-slash.

Actually, the relationship between Keach and Boswell is one of the chief pleasures of the film. (It evokes Don Johnson and Blood in A BOY AND HIS DOG). They are a team, although Keach ought to pay more heed to Boswell, who often seems to know more about what's going on than his master. 

Keach is brilliant, giving a measured performance as the poetry-reading driver. He carries the film beautifully, whether talking to himself, his dog, or his rides. Or challenging a man he assumes to be the killer in a roadside toilet... Keach never plays it with too machismo; instead we feel his fear as he approaches the booth, a car's fan prop in his hand as a weapon, his dog by his side. 

Watching the film last night had me wanting to do a Keach marathon. A re-watch of FAT CITY is next.

The Indicator release includes interviews with the key cast shot by Mark Hartley for his seminal film on Ozploitation, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD. Jamie Lee is revealing, funny and frank.