My Mother Told Me Never To Do This (Movie Only) (The Hitcher [1986] (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	The Hitcher [1986] (DVD)
Date:	21/12/07 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Outstanding male leads and a great story

Disadvantages: Gruesome at times so may put some people off

One of the great things about the Christmas break is that the tv schedules are choc full of decent movies providing a great chance to re-visit old favorites and hopefully encounter new movie experiences. "The Hitcher" is a horror classic released in 1986, directed by Robert Harmon, written by Eric Red and starring Rutger Hauer and C.Thomas Howell which was eventually re-made in 2007. With it being shown on digital channels right now, I gleefully sat through it again the other night.

Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) is driving on the open highway, transporting a car to San Diego. Suffering with fatigue from the journey and having narrowly avoided a collision with another vehicle, he decides to give a hitcher a ride. Opening the door, Halsey utters "My mother told me never to do this" as John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) takes a seat. Expecting a conversation, the driver struggles to engage his less than forthcoming guest and as they approach a car stranded on the wayside, Ryder pushes Halsey's leg forcing him to speed past. Curious as to why Ryder was so keen to drive on, the limited conversation suddenly shifts and the hitcher confesses that he has cut the arms, legs and head off the driver of the stranded vehicle and he plans to do the same to Halsey. With a switchblade knife, psychotic stare and a taunting manner, Ryder terrorises the driver until suddenly realizing that the passenger door is still slightly ajar given away by a light on the dash board, Halsey pushes his unwelcome guest out of the car and onto the deserted highway. As he drives away, a rush of euphoria comes over the escapee only to be chillingly crushed a few hours later when a car occupied by a couple with a young girl in the back overtakes and a teddy bear staring out of the rear window is moved to one side to reveal the grinning face of the hitcher staring back. Eventually catching up with the family station wagon, Halsey finds the family brutally butchered with the hitcher nowhere to be seen. As he drives off, Halsey comes to realise that he is not the only driver on the road and a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues with the psychopathic killer following his every move.

"The Hitcher" could almost be an extension of Steven Spielberg's early road chase thriller "Duel" released in 1971. With the majority of the movie taken up by the events on a desert highway, the tension ebbs and flows with a strong element of voyeurism with the knowledge that the villain is always watching. There's certainly a need to suspend belief at times with Hauer's omnipresence defying normal logic but the drama sweeps the viewer along just fast enough to escape the inevitable challenge to the over-the-top aspects of the story. The hitcher's talent for destruction knows no bounds it seems as he wipes out entire police stations, numerous cop cars and even downs helicopters. On the whole, the cops featured are made to look slow, an example being the cliché of the victim calling for help only to be arrested by the dim-witted country cops and this becomes a recurring theme throughout the story until the watershed scene at the motel towards the end.

The two male leads are impressive in their roles. C.Thomas Howell is put through an emotional mangle with the hitcher taunting him throughout and as the killer's motives become clearer, the plot falls into place. The catalyst for the story is triggered in the sequence where Ryder is holding Halsey hostage in the car. Forcing his victim to say "I want to die", Halsey challenges his captor as to why he's doing this. Replying that he wants to be stopped, it becomes apparent that whilst Ryder delights in his acts of abhorrence, he craves an end to his existence even though he's not sure how this will happen. Rutger Hauer is one of my favourite actors and in "The Hitcher", the role of John Ryder was to become one of the defining in his distinguished career. The personality of a serial killer is often complex as portrayed on screen and Hauer rides the gamut of emotion in a totally credible and terrifying way. Usually understated, brooding and intense, the director emphasises sudden shifts in his emotion with close up shots of his face, concentrating on his pupil's enlarging and a slight smile belying madness.

Most of the movie's key scenes involve some form of stand-off between the two leads. There's the set piece in a garage where Hauer's truck bursts through the doors, knocking Halsey over into a pool of petrol. As the hitcher pulls up, a slow motion shot of him lighting a match is contrasted with Halsey scrambling away and as the match hit's the ground, Halsey just escapes the subsequent fire storm, driving off into the dusty distance. There's also the scene in the diner where Halsey tries to shoot his pursuer under the table and the most notorious scene where Halsey enters the cabin of a truck with Ryder at the wheel. With his female friend adopted from an earlier truck stop tied between the axles of the truck and Ryder pressing down on the clutch, he taunts Halsey to shoot him by putting a gun to his own forehead. Unable to pull the trigger, Halsey screams in agony as Ryder puts his foot down on the truck's accelerator.

With a run time of 97 minutes and an 18 certificate, "The Hitcher" is a remarkable movie with an intense, frightening performance from Hauer. What marks the film as unusual is the psychological struggle between the two main characters and the ongoing battle between the killer's desire for carnage and his latent need for redemption. The script carefully plots the developments as the story progresses and even with the vast array of spectacular stunts (of which Hauer did many of the driving ones himself) that punctuate the running time, the movie does give license to ponder in its quieter moments and it's that unusual element of ambiguity that takes "The Hitcher" onto a higher plain than other horror flicks of that time. With an atmospheric synthesizer sounding musical score by Mark Isham that enhances a feeling of dread that permeates the movie, fabulous sets shot in California and Nevada and a star turn from Jennifer Jason Leigh as the unfortunate Nash, "The Hitcher" is a horror classic that stands the test of time. I've not seen the re-make and I'm not sure I want to when the original was so close to perfection.

Thanks for reading

Mara

DVD available at Amazon from: £3.98

Summary: Overview of movie