MovieChat Forums > U Turn (1997) Discussion > Movies this film seems to reference and/...

Movies this film seems to reference and/or darkly parody/satirize?


Hi folks, as decent as a movie as it is, and watchable although not among Stone's very best, did anyone get a sense that it was basically in its own way a dark parody of and therefore was also referencing several other movies, some of which you could find some pretty obvious similarities to.

The plot of its male loner who gets stranded in a somewhat unfamiliar part of town inhabited by criminals and crazy individuals recalls a mixture of John Dahl's "Red Rock West" (1993) and David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" (1990) and there are references and similarities to that of several other Lynch films too, notably "Blue Velvet" (1986) and same year's release "Lost Highway" (1997) (even the title is somewhat similar). Even to his acclaimed TV series "Twin Peaks" and its great movie prequel "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" (1992) there are some parallels and similarities.

Stone even borrows from some of his own work with some of the editing and fade to black techniques used in his "Natural Born Killers" (1994).

The finger cutting scenes seem to reference perhaps the likes of the Wachowski Brothers great modern noir thriller "Bound" (1996) and the tennis playing scenes with dark atmosphere oddly enough bring to mind the likes of "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) minus the supernatural.

Plus you can also sense inspiration and influence from the likes of the Coen Brothers especially "Fargo" (1996) and "Blood Simple" (1984) and even the great black comedy thriller feature debut of British director Danny Boyle entitled "Shallow Grave" (1994).

There's possibly a few others in it as well. Although one scene somewhat predates the black comedy and crime that we also later saw in British flicks like "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998) and was quite well done.

So yes, decent film and worth seeing. But did anyone else think that it referenced those works rather more than just lightly and was in some ways a dark parody of most of the aforementioned movies?

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The movie classic I was very much reminded of was of course when at the end Lopez is crawling towards the badly wounded Penn down on the rock plateau - 1947's western blockbuster DUEL IN THE SUN, where the likewise latina Jennifer Jones crawls towards the badly wounded Gregory Peck, only to die with him (albeit a little more romantic, in a way) but that's one of the most intense and heartbreaking movie moments there are, believe me.

The story, the incredible music, the setting - of course Mr. Stone knows his movie history!

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