Red Rock West is a neo-noir film directed by John Dahl. The film, written by Dahl and his brother Rick, was shot in Montana and Willcox, Arizona. The film was well received at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival, but deemed a cable and direct-to-video product by Columbia Tri-Star, which owned the North American rights. When Bill Banning, the owner of a San Francisco movie theater and a huge fan of the film, arranged for a theatrical release, the film gained a "buzz" and toured U.S. as an art-house hit. Nicolas Cage plays Michael Williams, a drifter living out of his car after being... discharged from the Marine Corps. After a job on an oilfield falls through due to his unwillingness to conceal a war injury on his job application, he wanders into rural Red Rock, Wyoming, looking for other work. A local bar owner named Wayne mistakes him for a hit man, "Lyle from Dallas," whom Wayne has hired to kill his wife. Wayne offers him a stack of cash--"half now, half later"--but Michael doesn't correct him and takes the money. Michael then visits Wayne's wife, Suzanne and attempts to warn her that her life is in danger—instead of killing her.
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| Release date: | May 1994 |
| Directed by: | John Dahl |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 98 Minutes |
| Producer: | Steve Golin, Sigurjón Sighvatsson |
| Editor: | Scott Chestnut |
| Music by: | William Olvis |
| Cinematography: | Marc Reshovsky |
| Screenplay by: | John Dahl, Rick Dahl |
| Estimated budget: | $8,000,000 |
| Genre: | Thriller |