Tough Guys

Tough Guys
1986 movie poster
Directed by	Jeff Kanew
Written by	James Cruikshank James Orr
Produced by	Joe Wizan
Starring	Burt Lancaster Kirk Douglas Charles Durning Dana Carvey Eli Wallach
Cinematography	King Baggot
Music by	James Newton Howard
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release dates	October 3, 1986
Running time	104 min.
Country	USA
Language	English

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. As a result, the uncoupled locomotive derails and plows into the Mexican dirt.

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

• Tough Guys at IMDb
• Movie stills