Drunk on Foolish Pleasures: TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE

by JB

“Oh, man! Oh, God! Oh, man! Oh, God! Oh, man! Oh, God!
The perfect film for Junesploitation’s “Thriller Day.”

Drunk on Foolish Pleasures: Tough Guys Don't Dance

Now that it has been pointed out to me that the original 1972 Poseidon Adventure is actually pretty great, my favorite “bad” movie will forever be novelist/he-man Norman Mailer's 1987 crime dramedy Tough Guys Don't Dance. This movie is incredibly entertaining to watch, and is as appropriate a movie as there will ever be for a column titled “Drunk on Foolish Pleasures” since most, if not all, of this film’s characters are drunk for the entire length of the movie. The screenwriter, director, and most of the actors may have been drunk on the set during filming, too. It certainly seems that way.

Just ask Norman Mailer. In his considered worldview, drinking makes you a man… so does fighting… and so does not being gay. Tough Guys Don’t Dance is the work of a man who has had one too many testosterone injections directly to his groin. This movie’s screenwriter seems to be every boy who ever bullied me in high school; its director seems to be a sociopath. Both men are Norman Mailer.