Tough Guys (1986 film)

Infobox Film
name = Tough Guys


image size =
caption = 1986 movie poster
director = Jeff Kanew
producer = Joe Wizan
writer = James Cruikshank
James Orr
starring = Burt Lancaster
Kirk Douglas
Charles Durning
Dana Carvey
Eli Wallach
music = James Newton Howard
cinematography = King Baggot
editing =
distributor = Touchstone Pictures
released = October 3, 1986
runtime = 104 min.
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:50559
imdb_id = 0092105

"Tough Guys" is a 1986 comedy starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach and Dana Carvey. The movie was directed by Jeff Kanew, who also directed Revenge of the Nerds. Lancaster and Douglas made several films together over the decades, including "I Walk Alone" (1948), "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1957), "The Devil's Disciple" (1959), and "Seven Days in May" (1964), which fixed the notion of the pair as something of a team in the public's imagination. Douglas was always second-billed under Lancaster in these films but, with the exception of "I Walk Alone", in which Douglas played a villain, their roles were more or less the same size. "Tough Guys" was their final collaboration.

Plot

Harry Doyle (Lancaster) and Archie Long (Douglas) are two gangsters released from a 30-year compulsory prison visit, ready to collect their Social Security.

Upon release, they are briefed on how their lives will be once they're released. Harry, at age 73, is committed to a retirement community, despite his desire to go to work (mandatory retirement age was 70 at the time of this movie, and this law has since changed); while Archie, still allowed to work, takes a job at an ice cream parlor. They're also instructed that they're not to have further contact with each other. It also turns out to be the first of many conditions of their parole that they ultimately violate.

Both are in for a shock at how much the world has changed from 1956 to 1986. Clothing, sexual lifestyles (they walk into their favorite bar only to find out that it's now a gay club), lack of respect by the younger generation, and the advance of technology.

How could they get into trouble at their age? Let's count the ways; A parole officer (Carvey) who is a famous criminal groupie, and a hit man (Eli Wallach) who can barely see, but who still has an outstanding contract on them. Plus, does anyone still rob trains? At the end, Harry and Archie hijack the Gold Cost Flyer, a train on its last run being pulled by famed locomotive Southern Pacific 4449, and run it full throttle to the Mexican border. But to their surprise, the tracks end a few feet from the border. Nevertheless, Harry and Archie drive the 4449 through a fusilade of bullets from US border police and crash the fence. Burying the engine partially in the soil of Mexico a few feet across the border. Surviving without a scratch

Trivia

*Kenny Rogers sings the songs opening theme, "They Don't Make Them Like They Used To"
*Red Hot Chili Peppers play themselves in the movie.
*The locomotive Southern Pacific 4449 was also used to pull the American Freedom Train exhibit during the Bicentennial, now based in Portland, Oregon.
* A portion of the Eagle Mountain Railroad was used in the filming of the movie. During the filming of the exterior shots of Southern Pacific 4449 the train was stored nightly at the Eagle Mountain rail yards. The local school children from Eagle Mountain School took a field trip in early 1986 to see and tour the train on the location of the shoot along the Eagle Mountain Railroad south of Interstate 10.
*Adolph Caesar, who was nominated for best actor in a supporting role from both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes for his role as Sergeant Waters in A Soldier's Story, was signed on to play "Leon Little" in the film, but died during filming from a heart attack and Eli Wallach took over his role.

External links

*imdb title|id=0092105|title=Tough Guys
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/film.php?filmid=203 Movie stills]