Road House, starring Patrick Swayze, Sam Elliott and Kelly Lynch, has the fight scenes that stand out above the others I’ve seen.
In Road House Dalton (Patrick Swayze) is the new bouncer brought in to save the nightclub from going out of business.
Patrick Swayze was a legend. There aren’t many actors of his caliber. He’s famous for amazing roles in movies like Point Break, Ghost and Dirty Dancing. Sadly, he died of pancreatic cancer at 57 years old.
In 1989, when Road House was released, Swayze was in his prime and he was not just a good actor but a very agile, athletic one who was very adept at fight scenes.
Road House may not have been critically acclaimed as one of the great movies Swayze made, but it has lots of fans who swear it’s an amazing movie
and you’re not going to convince them otherwise.
I don’t think Road House is a great movie
but it does have great fight scenes and for that, most of the credit goes to Terry Funk.
Morgan, played by former NWA Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk, tells Dalton: You don’t look like much to me.
Funk won the NWA Heavyweight Title from Jack Brisco in Miami Beach on December 10, 1975 and held it until he lost to Harley Race in Toronto on February 6, 1977.
Sylvester Stallone fans will recognize Funk from his appearances in films such as Paradise Alley and Over The Top. Stallone liked to hire Funk for his movies because Funk was so good at choreographing fights and because he was a legitimately tough guy who added a touch of believability to the movies.
Funk choreographed the big street fight scene right near the end of Rocky V. Funk didn’t choreograph boxing matches; he choreographed brawls.
If he were to say to you: “We’re going outside”, you’d know you were in for one hell of a fight!
It was Terry Funk’s job to choreograph the brawls in Road House to make Patrick Swayze look like a tough guy and he did a wonderful job of it.