Klavan On The Culture

September 15th, 2009 9:24 am

Patrick Swayze: Dude

Not too many years ago, my wife and kids were out of town for a week so I, of course, instantaneously de-evolved into a primitive state, three days’ growth, moth-eaten t-shirt, visible body odor, the whole deal. And one night, I threw together a sandwich of, I don’t know, live grubs and buffalo dung or something, and wandered into the television room to see what was on. And there was Road House, the kick-ass action flick starring Patrick Swayze. And I figured, yeah, I’d watch fifteen minutes of that while I scarfed my food. Predictably, I couldn’t turn it off and watched the whole thing.

Okay, so then a day passes, Great Fire crosses sky, Big Dark sinks over valley, I toss together a sandwich of dinosaur tongue and grass or whatever. Wander into the television room to see what’s on – and hey, what do you know, there’s Road House, the kick-ass action flick starring Patrick Swayze! And I figure I’ll watch fifteen minutes of that while I eat… and, of course, I couldn’t turn it off again and watched the whole damn thing again!

Patrick Swayze wasn’t a great actor and he wasn’t a great movie star, but he was something even rarer in today’s stable of Hollywood actors. He was a dude! And he made good dude films. Road House, Point Break, Red Dawn, Black Dog. Even when he made chick flicks like Ghost and Dirty Dancing, they were more or less dude friendly because they had a dude in them – as opposed to those so-called romantic comedies where some hapless wimp always has to apologize for being male in the end so he can live sheepishly ever after with the girl of his dreams.

Swayze was just a B-movie guy, I guess, but he was still a much cooler presence than most of today’s top-line stars. Plus, in Road House, he uttered the line, “Pain don’t hurt,” an immortal piece of movie dialogue if ever there was one.

Anyway, I rarely watch any movie more than once, but I’ll watch Road House and Point Break any old time. Swayze died of cancer yesterday at 57 and I was sorry to hear it. I hope and trust he’s in dude heaven.

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42 Comments

1. Jeff Atkinson:

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

Sep 15, 2009 - 9:43 am 2. Gene Lewis:

“Pain don’t hurt”
Right up there with “Take your sh-t and get out”.

Sep 15, 2009 - 9:49 am 3. Pajamas Media » Patrick Swayze Was My Kind of Dude:

[...] Read the rest of the story here. [...]

Sep 15, 2009 - 10:05 am 4. M. Report:

The Dude was a Dancer
to the music of time and chance
who ate what was set before him
without complaint; Hale, and Farewell.

Sep 15, 2009 - 11:01 am 5. AJ:

This article is spot on. Road House never gets old. To me on same level as Die Hard.

Sep 15, 2009 - 11:04 am 6. Jim Rockford:

I thought he was very good in the TV mini-series North and South.

Sep 15, 2009 - 11:09 am 7. CaliforniaDave:

The fact that Swayze stayed married to the same woman for thirty-three years (I remember seeing them dance together on SNL long ago) says something about the kind of man he was. Actually, it says a great deal.

Sep 15, 2009 - 12:08 pm 8. Andrew:

Road House is so awesome. I love when the karate guy tells Dalton that he used to “f*ck guys like you in prison!”

Sep 15, 2009 - 12:30 pm 9. Sara:

“Ghost” is a “chick flick?” Who knew? It has, without a doubt (IMHO, of course) the all time best soft porn sex scene ever in the pottery wheel scene.

But that aside, Patrick Swayze was my favorite movie star (I didn’t say actor). Two of my top 5 fav movies were Swayze cool in “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost.” But then 3 of those same 5 have Whoopi Goldberg in them (“Ghost,” “The Color Purple” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”) and I don’t like Whoopi at all. And #6 is “Shawshank Redemption” with that despicable person, good actor Tim Robbins in it, so my love of Patrick Swayze is 100% entirely due to how damn sexy Johnny Castle is and not anything to do with his acting skill. He was not just a dude, he was a dude who oozed sexual and sensual appeal and he was every “good bad boy” every gal secretly fantasizes about.

The “chick” opinion.

Sep 15, 2009 - 12:37 pm 10. Joel Raupe:

The man deserves a Viking Funeral, no doubt. And I can see myself and Klavan on the Shoreline, along with Kirk Douglas, firing off the flaming arrows to speed him to Valhalla. Afterward, mass quantities of Roe and Rut. Too bad my wife just returned home. But… what am I saying! She creamed the potatoes more over PS than I could ever hope to do. Being literate, she actually knew ahead of time when (God help me, “Dirty Dancing” was coming on, a Moon a head of time!

For me, though I liked Road House well enough, and could sit through it as often as I have many a Coen Brothers work, it’s just been too long since I’ve seen Next of Kin.

How does the line go? “You ain’t seen pain yet… but it’s comin’

My kind of Dude, too, with respect for forgive-a-lot Dudes like the Big Labowski, I miss PS already, though I will now need to get Mamma to look at that Box to tell me when Next of Kin comes on. May his family enjoy great royalties from the best compliment any could pay his memory, over the next month or two. Buy DVD of your PS flick, wear it out and buy two more.

Sep 15, 2009 - 12:58 pm 11. Pernell:

Good actor and all, but as a pilot myself I could never look past the lens I saw him through due to the plane he crashed into a sub-division, then hiding booze he had in the plane and asking on-lookers to lie. Then also getting “lost” for 9 hours right after the crash (no blood or pesky breath tests) was a little funny.
No Gary Cooper, that’s for sure.

Sep 15, 2009 - 1:53 pm 12. dynomitejim:

I agree with californiadave. Married for 35 years is a great accomplishment

Sep 15, 2009 - 2:31 pm 13. rabba rabba:

ok, klavan, leaving out the message to “8. andrew” can i ask “9. sara” why she thinks tim robbins is despicable?

Sep 15, 2009 - 2:46 pm 14. jw:

Secure as a “dude”, Swayze had no problem making fun of his macho image in a funny British flick w/ Maggie Smith…can’t remember the name…but remember he had the courage to strip to a bikini brief, exposing an overly tan bod & get rejected…just for fun.

Sep 15, 2009 - 3:29 pm 15. joef:

Good words, Andrew. You make me appreciate him even more, and that’s a good thing.

Sep 15, 2009 - 3:56 pm 16. DSO TX:

In these times where we do not have many role models, I think we can safely say that Patrick Swayze was a good role model. I will miss him and I praise him for his brave fight against the disease that finally won the battle.

Sep 15, 2009 - 4:32 pm 17. MochaLite:

Thanks for this praise of Patrick Swayze – a wonderful presence on the screen. I still love Dirty Dancing, for all its story weaknesses, and the theme song, written and performed by PS, is a fine one. Rest in peace, Patrick@

Sep 15, 2009 - 5:17 pm 18. Jaynie59:

My condolences to his wife of 34 years.

Think about it. Here was a guy who was “The Sexiest Man Alive” and made millions of dollars. He must have had temptations of all kinds thrown at his feet.

Lisa is a very lucky woman to have been loved by such a man for so long. He died too young, and that kind of loss must be painful beyond belief. My heart aches for her.

Sep 15, 2009 - 5:25 pm 19. Grantman:

And here I was thinking I was the only guy who watched Road House multiple times….

Glad to be in such great company. He’ll be missed.

Oh, and 35 years to the same woman? THAT is to be emulated. Would that the rest of Hollywood would look at him and try to live up to that. There’s a role model for far too many slackers and low-lifes.

Sep 15, 2009 - 5:29 pm 20. bigdaddy:

How did that Road House line go:?: “I haven’t seen you since we were at that sh*&hole in Dayton” I spit my beer out every time I hear it.

Sep 15, 2009 - 6:27 pm 21. John the Libertarian:

Point Break was his manifesto.

Sep 15, 2009 - 6:48 pm 22. debt relief:

RIP Patrick!

Sep 15, 2009 - 7:45 pm 23. George Semel:

It’s to bad, but such is life. He was a pilot. And since I fly for a living, I take note of others in the spot light that fly. He had a problem some years back with his airplane and handle it well, didn’t break the airplane or hurt himself or others. Put the airplane on a road. Roads are great runways when you need one and out west they are long and straight. He may have not been the greatest actor, but like the road he was force to land on, he was as straight as that road, just a good guy, and in the movies these days Men like Patrick Swayze are few and far between.

Sep 15, 2009 - 7:58 pm 24. James Bakunas:

The Swayze family befriended my first cousin on the set of the North & South. After wrap, they asked if he could come out to LA for a few weeks. At the time, my adolescent cousin was welcomed into the Swayze home. We still occassionally talk about this and smile. My God bless the Swayze family.

Sep 15, 2009 - 9:39 pm 25. Southside Mark:

Sandwiched in between “Road House” and “Ghost” is the underrated “Next of Kin”. The set up — Patrick Swayze as a Chicago hillbilly cop — is even dumber than RH but the action still kicks it. Liam Nelson and Bill Pullman combine with Swayze to make three of the unlikeliest brothers in cinema history. Alas, the film ground to a halt every minute Helen Hunt was on screen but it’s still worth checking out.

Sep 15, 2009 - 9:44 pm 26. Sara:

That was a humorous and sweet send off, Andrew. You have a rare and precious commody in modern comedy – class.

Sep 15, 2009 - 11:08 pm 27. alex:

I will never forget at a benefit for Sammy Davis Jr, Patrick Swayze comes out and tap dances AFTER Gregory Hines just performs a great tap dance tribute. Needless to say Patrick performed incredibly well and paid Homage to someone that he obviously looked up too.

The Man had sand.

Sep 16, 2009 - 5:22 am 28. David W. Lincoln:

I see that Jim Rockford, in response #6, said first what I was thinking. I also liked how Swayze was in North &
South, Book 2.

Sep 16, 2009 - 8:32 am 29. DavidN:

I’ll second SoutSideMark’s comment about Next of Kin. Frankly I didn’t even mind Helen Hunt in the picture. The premise–Italian mobsters who get in a bit over their heads when the cross the wrong hillbilly family–was amusing, and Swayze was about pitch-perfect as the hillbilly-turned-cop who’s trying to keep the whole situation from exploding. Neeson’s good too, and there’s a good sprinkling of character actors in it also: Andreas Katsulas, who plays the mob patriarch, Ben Stiller (not playing for laughs), Bill Paxton, and Adam Baldwin (*not* a Baldwin brother!). Overall a good picture. My favorite line: Katsulas says to Swayze’s cop “I don’t want any trouble,” and Swayze replies something to the effect of “Oh, you ain’t seen trouble *yet*…But it’s comin’…”

Sep 16, 2009 - 8:51 am 30. Paul -Indiana:

A few minutes ago, on Fox News website, there was a report that Mr. Swayze has not died after all. Does anyone know for sure?

Sep 16, 2009 - 11:02 am 31. DavidN:

There were rumors of Swayze being dead back in May of this year…what you ran across may be a relic of that.

Sep 16, 2009 - 2:08 pm 32. Sage:

You’re nuts. He was a HUGE star. In 1990, the Swayze cover story of People Magazine sold more copies than any other issue that year. Don’t ask me how I know. I just do.

Sep 16, 2009 - 5:08 pm 33. Patrick Swayze, 1952 - 2009:

[...] Ranked Re: Patrick Swayze, 1952 – 2009 FROM: Klavan On The Culture Patrick Swayze: Dude September 15th, 2009 9:24 am Patrick Swayze: Dude Not too many years ago, my wife and kids were [...]

Sep 16, 2009 - 7:20 pm 34. Paul -Indiana:

#31. Thanks.

Sep 17, 2009 - 4:16 am 35. LennyB:

An often overlooked movie quote… from Point Break (which is highly underrated for what it is), uttered by Bode (Patrick Swayze character) en route to the bank heist in which Johnny Utah is conscripted to serve in order to protect his love interest whom Bode has shrewdly kidnapped to serve as leverage:

“It’s basic dog psychology, if you scare them and get them peeing down their leg, they submit. But if you project weakness, that promotes violence, and that’s how people get hurt. Peace, through superior firepower.”

Bode clearly does not desire to hurt anyone. His warped but nevertheless unyielding bohemian moral code is inconsistent with willful violence (unlike the foil of the Anthony Kiedis character and his crew). And so it is ironic that the scriptwriters seek to counter this philosophy — which I believe is oversimplified but fundamentally sound — by seeing to it that violence is not avoided. Interestingly, it is not because of Bode, but rather because of the actions of the bank customer/cop who ignores the balance of power in the bank and acts stupidly to prevent the heist. I would have expected the scriptwriters to more directly challenge the underlying theory by having Bode initiate the violence. But perhaps their indictment was less direct, in that such an oversimplified theory does not account for human nature’s edict that man does not always act rationally.

Nevertheless, it says something about Mr. Swayze’s talents that I believe the actor believed the character’s theory, even though he may well not have. Who is to say? Critics can pan that movie all they like, I still enjoy watching it and contemplating the subcutaneous philosophical wrinkles. That doesn’t happen when the acting is not three dimensional, and Keanu’s was certainly not. Patrick Swayze made that movie worth watching, and that is the principal reason it is still constantly on TV, though nobody will admit they like it.

Sep 17, 2009 - 5:56 pm 36. chrisa798:

The IMDB quote is wrong — in the movie, projecting weakness draws aggression, it doesn’t promote violence. And peace through superior firepower is spoken by one of Bodhi’s disciples.

I’m an educated man and I LOVE Point Break, mostly for Bodhi and for John C. McGinley as the FBI supervisor.

Sep 18, 2009 - 10:54 am 37. Still Whit:

What’s wrong with you people? Hello? Swayze in, “To Wong Fu with Love.” Brilliant. He played a classey, tough-as-nails, conservative drag queen. Doesn’t get any better than this. His character showed a bunch of uncoth teens how to dress and act like gentlemen and he showed a group of women how to hold their heads up high, defend themselves, and how to throw a red and white picnic. Hello. And what about all those “Outsider” movies. I really enjoyed those too.

Sep 18, 2009 - 11:45 am 38. jayjay64:

Yes, Patrick was a recovering alcoholic. No, he was not drunk while flying. You pilots will immediately understand why he may have appeared to be intoxicated. He put the plane down on the road because he was losing pressure.
From the NTSB report:
According to the police report, witnesses said that Swayze appeared to be extremely intoxicated and asked for help to remove evidence (including an open bottle of wine and a 30-pack of beer) from the crash site.[Prescott Valley PD report] He made himself unavailable to police for several hours. It was later determined that the alcohol in question was not in the cabin but stored in external storage compartments inaccessible in flight and that the probable cause of the accident was Swayze’s physical impairment due to the cumulative effects of carbon monoxide from engine exhaust by-products, carbon monoxide from heavy tobacco use, and the loss of an undetermined amount of cabin pressurization. Citation:http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001212X21252&key=1

Sep 18, 2009 - 3:29 pm 39. LennyB:

Thanks for the correction 36. Didn’t sound quite right, but to employ a hopefully correct IMDB quote, “I believe virtually everything I read”. Point Break is classic, and an excellent remedy if you’re used to watching Hollywood directors who struggle to display the requisite liberal sensibilities to be respected by critics. Oddly, Swayze makes the movie for me, but Gary Busey is not too far behind. But top notch all around.

Sep 18, 2009 - 6:07 pm 40. raba raba:

#38. jayjay64

the incident sounds like ted kennedy at chapiquidquic, except that luckily no one was killed or injured.

Sep 21, 2009 - 10:37 am 41. raba raba:

8. sara

sorry, but i just couldn’t help asking you about your belief that the pottery wheel part is the best soft core porn scene ever. is that from a christian conservative prospective?

Sep 21, 2009 - 12:09 pm 42. Susanne:

sorry, Patrick was not a B movie actor. that is totally uniformed. Patrick starred in two of the absolutely most-watched, most-loved films of all time, DD and Ghost, and sold more videos of his movies that anyone-check the facts. He has a STAR on the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME, HELLO!!!!…something “B” movie actors don’t have! Sexiest man alive, which had a a lot to do with his warm, outgoing personality in addition to his looks and sex appeal. He starred in the Outsiders and have you ever seen Road House? Awesome. Take your negative comments elsewhere, Patrick was and is one of the most beloved movie stars by both women and men there ever was. Plus other media—Multi talented by any definition. And what a fighter.
RIP Patrick.

Oct 30, 2009 - 5:05 pm