Word: ryders
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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From the opening music with its subliminally mixed in strains from Psycho, the audience realizes its mistake in opening the door to this film. Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) just as quickly realizes his error in picking up hitchhiker John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) as he tools through the middle of the Southwestern desert. Contrary to what you might think, Ryder doesn't kill Halsey. He's got other plans. He frames Halsey for the murders that he commits along the road, forcing him to accept the dirty job of serving as Ryder's personal execution squad...
POOR RUTGER HAUER. A sinister delight in Blade Runner, he is trapped by poor screenwriting and character development. Hauer seems to regard his role as the methodically killing John Ryder as an irreparable joke, and therefore he plays the joke for all it's worth. When asked where he is from, Ryder quips "Disneyland," with a mocking half smile. Ryder is funny, but completely unthreatening...
...course, with the blubbering C. Thomas Howell playing opposite him, it's hard to think of Ryder doing anything but laughing. Drawn into the maniacal web of Ryder's killings, Howell's standard emotional response is a wimpy moan, which gives way with unrealistic suddenness to the steely eyes of a newborn killer. Howell could get away with simpering seriousness in ET, but he's made it into the big time and is supposed to be capable of mature acting. Ryder should have terminated Halsey when he had the chance...
...Ryder says he would like to have programs at Billerica for the small number of prisoners who have advanced past the GED, but he says that "most of the people who could fall into that category pass quickly through the system anyway and become classified for education or work release." Ryder says that when given a choice, most prisoners have to work because of money...
...those who get out, 60 percent end up back in jail, according to Ryder. But a Billerica study this past summer determined that only about 30 percent of those who got their GED's end up back at Billerica...