OCTOBER 13, 2014 5:16PM

Road Crush

Rate: 5 Flag

THE HITCHER

Released: 1986
Director: Robert Harmon
Writer: Eric Red
Notable Cast: Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Plot: Young dude (Howell) solo on the road is delivering his vehicle from Chicago to San Diego. He makes the unfortunate mistake of picking up a deranged killer (Hauer) whose obsession with  him leads to all kinds of gory mayhem.  A woman is incidentally involved.  Pass the french fries!
Commentary: A 1980's classic with improbable action and gore (french fries!), The Hitcher is a great thriller of its kind with a lot more going on underneath than you might suspect. 
I suspect though can't confirm that this subtext is why Howell's role was changed in the 2007 remake (haven't seen it). More on that in the "What We're Afraid Of" section.  
It has one of those picaresque 'Tangerine Dream-y' 1980s soundtracks that are lovely and hypnotic.
What We're Afraid Of: It was the 1980's and this film is about Gay panic.  

 Hauer is the monstrous gay male predator who is victimizing our handsome young All-American boy, who is forced to man up, thump his chest and kill the gay man stalking him.  It's not his life that's being threatened, it's his manhood.
Others have suspected a mutual homoerotic S&M relationship element to this dynamic.  Could be. 
Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is but a beard, or conversely, a Woman in the Refrigerator, a vehicle to further place Howell's character's heterosexuality under attack and to motivate his hero's journey. 
There's been a lot of writing on The Hitcher and gay panic.  And here's an interesting interpretation from the blog This Island Rod by Roderick Heath - that Hauer's character represents the futility of staying in the closet:

Intimations of anticipated violation take on other dimensions as Ryder keeps the knife pressed in Jim’s crotch as they’re pulled over by a road worker, who takes the gesture for a queer rendezvous. Like another mid-‘80s horror movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, the seemingly inhuman killer provokes voluble metaphors for gay panic, as the threat of homoerotic violence lends a note of queasy knowing to Jim’s near-psychic link to Ryder and his actions during their absurdist chase. Ryder seems to embody an entrapping fact of identity that cannot be escaped, and certainly coming along when Jim is vulnerable and in the act of escaping his familiar life. Jim’s refusal to submit, that is, to complete Ryder’s dictated statement, “I want to die”, makes him the top, and Ryder, who seems to be devoutly wishing a consummation, nominates Jim not as victim but as nemesis, the one who must finally grow big enough balls to take him out, whatever the potential cost, as he provokes Jim at several points to kill him. 

Author tags:

eric red, robert harmon, roderick heath, this island rod, economic anxiety, monsters in america, gothic, music, fiction, horror fiction, monster movies, horror films, horror movies, terror, horror, salon, open salon, chillerpop, halloween, samhain, all souls day, all saints day, all hallow’s eve, chillerpop, 31 days of halloween, 1980's, the hitcher, rutger hauer, c. thomas howell, gay panic, homoerotic, sadomasochistic, gay/lesbian, jennifer jason leigh

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Comments

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Hauer was born to play these kinds of roles! I always find it interesting that the horror genre finds so little purchase among the critics, and especially the elite critics, yet, despite being dismissed as trash, the films are attuned to the cultural moment. Thanks for this, ChillerPop.

Jerry DeNuccio

October 13, 2014 05:51 PM

San Diego. That is where I am. Horror movies abound here and people don't even know they are in one. lol

zanelle

October 13, 2014 06:42 PM

I watched the video comp ... yeah, not very subtle on the gay panic thing. And once again we have an oh-so-true-to-life gay predator and the homespun'n'all innocent straight guy predatee (rolls eyes). And YES! to "'Tangerine Dream-y' 1980s soundtracks."

VariousArtists

October 13, 2014 07:30 PM

I don't know what I was doing in the 80's, but I wasn't catching these movies. Truthfully, I avoid horror movies because they scare me. Love these reviews, though.

/r.

onislandtime

October 13, 2014 10:01 PM

Thanks Jerry! Yep, they may be bad, trashy and lowbrow but as you say, they're attuned.

Zanelle - I can think of no more beautiful place to escape the clutches of a Halloween monster.

VA - according to some research I've done, I guess the homoerotic subtext came at the suggestion of Rutger Hauer. If anything it makes the film more interesting, if laughable.

OIT - I appreciate you reading, especially when you don't care for the genre. Thanks!

ChillerPop