Watching "JFK" director Oliver Stone's movie "U-Turn" is like gawking at a gory accident. You know that you shouldn't stare, but the attraction of the mayhem is just too hypnotic. Everything that takes place in "U-Turn" qualifies as both gory and accidental. None of these grisly characters is remotely sympathetic. They bare their rotten-to-the-core, maggot-infested souls at every turn. Never do they fail to betray a trust. Not even the designated hero, played by Sean Penn, possesses any redeeming qualities. Disgusting and repellent as "U-Turn" appears, Stone casts a cinematic spell over this sow's ear and transforms it into a silk purse. Sprawling amid scenic, sun-drenched Arizona, "U-Turn" resembles visually a modern-day spaghetti western with its parched terrain, its grainy images, and its eccentric Ennio Morricone soundtrack. Morricone, you may recall, scored something like 60 Italian oaters. Anyway, his operatic music bristles with the kind of thorny twangs that accent character and underscore atmosphere.
Scenarist John Ridley adapted his novel about murder and incest entitled "Stray Dogs." This saga is as recklessly amoral as they come. You'll probably recognize the other movie genre with which it collides. The 1940s film noir genre featured doomed characters wallowing helplessly in a bottomless quicksand of tragedy. Guided by motives and instincts less than charitable, these characters displayed no qualms about selling out. Movies such as "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Detour" (1945), and "Out of the Past" (1947) and more recent efforts like "Red Rock West" (1993) epitomize film noir. More so than even these movies, "U-Turn" festers like an unsightly pustule and let its loathsome elements disperse in all their unsavory glamor on the big screen. No, "U-Turn" doesn't celebrate the human spirit; it destroys it. It's a movie where everything goes as wrong as it can go.
Things have been going wrong for Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn) long before we see him cruising though the steamy desolation of Arizona in a 1964 red convertible Mustang. He plans to pay off his debt there to a nasty Russian loan shark. This $30-thousand debt has already cost him the last two fingers of his left hand. Bobby used to be a tennis coach, so you can see what irreversible damage this ritual mutilation has had on him. Somewhere in the desert near Globe, Arizona, Bobby's Mustang overheats. His radiator hose blows so he wheels into Darrell's garage. One look at Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton of "Sling Blade"), a grimy, motor-oil encrusted redneck mechanic who exposes his navel for all to see, and Bobby fears the worst. Since our protagonist cannot afford to take his car elsewhere, he leaves it in Darrell's greasy hands. One thing you can say about "U-Turn" is that it loosens a motley crew of characters. You would never eat dinner with any of these scum bags. You don't feel much sympathy for them either because they are all such pathetic wretches.
Bobby runs into the beguilingly seductive Grace (Jennifer Lopez of "Anaconda") on her way to hang drapes. He convinces her to let him lug her load. Later, at her palatial ranch house, Bobby makes a pass, and Grace reciprocates. Bursting in on them comes Grace's squinty-eyed husband Jake (Nick Nolte of "North Dallas Forty"). He drops Bobby with a knuckle-sandwich to the nose. Afterward, when Jake and Bobby get to acting like pals, Jake tries to persuade Bobby to kill Grace. Jake has a $50-thousand insurance plan on her. Bobby refuses. He is only waiting for Darrell to fix his ride and then he is out of there.
Each scene in "U-Turn" is a visual tour-de-force. Some of the images are particularly haunting. Grace tells Bobby about a fortune in cash that Jake has stashed in a floor safe. Stone shows us a high-angle shot of a naked Nolte sitting on the floor with a raven perched on his shoulder as he counts his loot. The scene on a mountain where Bobby nearly pushes Grace to her death has a breathless, high-wire quality. Stone knits the exposition (stuff you need to know about the characters and the plot) seamlessly into the action. During a shower, Bobby relives the painful memory of having his fingers clipped off in a storm.
The performances are magnetic. Sean Penn has never been more expressive as a jinxed gambler who swears his luck is indestructible. Nolte is incredibly lecherous as Jake. Gaunt, with fuzzy whiskers that match his cropped thatch of hair, Nolte appears straight out of chemotherapy. Lopez exudes a warm, sensuous sexuality that has the wail of the sirens calling in it. Powers Boothe plays a suspicious, hard-bitten sheriff who doesn't like what he sees going on between Bobby and Grace.
Oliver Stone said he wanted to produce a movie with no political agenda. "I wanted to make a film that would be judged on its merits as a movie and not be debated because of whatever political or social 'message' someone might want to read into it or impose on it." As off-beat and amoral as "U-Turn" emerges, perhaps the controversial director should have given more thought to his intentions. "U-Turn" seems as much of an indictment of contemporary American society as "Platoon" was about Vietnam. "U-Turn," however, is played more for sarcasm than tragedy.
Scenarist John Ridley adapted his novel about murder and incest entitled "Stray Dogs." This saga is as recklessly amoral as they come. You'll probably recognize the other movie genre with which it collides. The 1940s film noir genre featured doomed characters wallowing helplessly in a bottomless quicksand of tragedy. Guided by motives and instincts less than charitable, these characters displayed no qualms about selling out. Movies such as "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Detour" (1945), and "Out of the Past" (1947) and more recent efforts like "Red Rock West" (1993) epitomize film noir. More so than even these movies, "U-Turn" festers like an unsightly pustule and let its loathsome elements disperse in all their unsavory glamor on the big screen. No, "U-Turn" doesn't celebrate the human spirit; it destroys it. It's a movie where everything goes as wrong as it can go.
Things have been going wrong for Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn) long before we see him cruising though the steamy desolation of Arizona in a 1964 red convertible Mustang. He plans to pay off his debt there to a nasty Russian loan shark. This $30-thousand debt has already cost him the last two fingers of his left hand. Bobby used to be a tennis coach, so you can see what irreversible damage this ritual mutilation has had on him. Somewhere in the desert near Globe, Arizona, Bobby's Mustang overheats. His radiator hose blows so he wheels into Darrell's garage. One look at Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton of "Sling Blade"), a grimy, motor-oil encrusted redneck mechanic who exposes his navel for all to see, and Bobby fears the worst. Since our protagonist cannot afford to take his car elsewhere, he leaves it in Darrell's greasy hands. One thing you can say about "U-Turn" is that it loosens a motley crew of characters. You would never eat dinner with any of these scum bags. You don't feel much sympathy for them either because they are all such pathetic wretches.
Bobby runs into the beguilingly seductive Grace (Jennifer Lopez of "Anaconda") on her way to hang drapes. He convinces her to let him lug her load. Later, at her palatial ranch house, Bobby makes a pass, and Grace reciprocates. Bursting in on them comes Grace's squinty-eyed husband Jake (Nick Nolte of "North Dallas Forty"). He drops Bobby with a knuckle-sandwich to the nose. Afterward, when Jake and Bobby get to acting like pals, Jake tries to persuade Bobby to kill Grace. Jake has a $50-thousand insurance plan on her. Bobby refuses. He is only waiting for Darrell to fix his ride and then he is out of there.
Each scene in "U-Turn" is a visual tour-de-force. Some of the images are particularly haunting. Grace tells Bobby about a fortune in cash that Jake has stashed in a floor safe. Stone shows us a high-angle shot of a naked Nolte sitting on the floor with a raven perched on his shoulder as he counts his loot. The scene on a mountain where Bobby nearly pushes Grace to her death has a breathless, high-wire quality. Stone knits the exposition (stuff you need to know about the characters and the plot) seamlessly into the action. During a shower, Bobby relives the painful memory of having his fingers clipped off in a storm.
The performances are magnetic. Sean Penn has never been more expressive as a jinxed gambler who swears his luck is indestructible. Nolte is incredibly lecherous as Jake. Gaunt, with fuzzy whiskers that match his cropped thatch of hair, Nolte appears straight out of chemotherapy. Lopez exudes a warm, sensuous sexuality that has the wail of the sirens calling in it. Powers Boothe plays a suspicious, hard-bitten sheriff who doesn't like what he sees going on between Bobby and Grace.
Oliver Stone said he wanted to produce a movie with no political agenda. "I wanted to make a film that would be judged on its merits as a movie and not be debated because of whatever political or social 'message' someone might want to read into it or impose on it." As off-beat and amoral as "U-Turn" emerges, perhaps the controversial director should have given more thought to his intentions. "U-Turn" seems as much of an indictment of contemporary American society as "Platoon" was about Vietnam. "U-Turn," however, is played more for sarcasm than tragedy.