Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there are a number of vicious killings in this film, frequently by gunshot, and there's even a hint that a whole family with children has been massacred -- although viewers don't see it happen. In fact, a lot of the very worst gore (and, given the opportunities, it could have been much worse) is left off-screen and to viewers' jangled imagination. That said, a scene in which a character is chained to an 18-wheeler truck, ready to be torn apart when the vehicle moves, is infamous.
Families can talk about the cruel game the script plays, hinting at some kind of willing give-and-take in the hunter-prey relationship between psychopathic killer John Ryder and frightened, innocent young Jim - the only character who seems able to combat him. In that sense, this R-rated movie parallels the strange, almost father-son relationship in what is typically considered a wholesome family classic -- Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island -- in which another murderous John (Silver) is the mentor and benefactor (yet the deadly enemy) of a boy named Jim (Hawkins). Those names can't be just coincidental. Ask teens what they think of the two stories, and the parallels. If nothing else, you'll get them reading Treasure Island with fresh eyes. If you've seen the 2007 remake, you can also compare the two films. Which one is more effective? Why?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
"My mom told me never to do this," says California-bound Illinois youth Jim Halsy (C. Thomas Howell) at the beginning of THE HITCHER, as he picks up a rain-drenched, bedraggled stranger calling himself John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) on a lonely cross-country road. And, indeed, the rest of the movie is like a worst-case scenario of what happens if you don't listen to your mom.
Moms in general may also tell their kids never to watch The Hitcher, thanks to its vicious, motivation-free violence. In fairness, though, this elemental thriller isn't as bad as other exploitation movies trading on rampant sex and brutality, and some aspects are actually interesting to discuss with older kids.
Almost at once, Ryder announces himself as a maniac who has just cut up the last motorist who gave him a ride; now he's going to do the same to Jim. Why? No stated reason. After Jim summons the courage to eject Ryder from his car, he suddenly finds himself encountering the mad hitchhiker again on the road. Ryder is apparently ambushing and killing other drivers, taking their vehicles and tracking Jim.
Horrifyingly, Ryder manages to frame Jim for the murder spree, and soon the long Texas highways are crisscrossed by gun-toting, menacing lawmen ready to take Jim -- dead or alive. The only person who believes in Jim's innocence is Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a waitress at the diner where he finds a phone to call the police for help. Soon she and Jim are both fugitives from the police -- with Ryder still on their tail.
The Hitcher gives viewers just the scantiest background information about its characters and relies on minimal dialogue; it doesn't even use background music to set the mood for most of the mayhem. The result is that your imagination fills in a lot of details, and the script turns out to be a lot more cunning than the many teen-oriented 1980s slasher-horror formula flicks that preceded this one.
How can Ryder be in so many places at once, outwit so many cops, and always keep Jim where he wants him? Yes, like the outlandishly resourceful killer in the Saw movies, Ryder is a terribly far-fetched creation, and if Jim had acted sensibly and stayed put, he could have saved himself (and who knows how many bystanders?). But these very "flaws" have led some critics to propose that there's actually a sneaky movie trick being played, like in Fight Club and that neither Ryder nor Jim (who loses his wallet and ID) are what or whom they seem to be.
Even if you take the plot literally, The Hitcher maintains a disturbing theme (one that critic Roger Ebert, who hated the movie, called "diseased"): that the terrorized, guiltless Jim, in the course of his relationship with Ryder, learns bloodlust, too. Parents can relate that to the innumerable villains who have told heroes things like "We're very much the same, you and I," in their respective comic books.
In a weird postscript to the movie, scriptwriter Eric Red -- whose other films seemed to dwell on violence committed with motor vehicles -- was behind the wheel of an SUV that crashed into a bar in Los Angeles in 2000, killing two people. Maybe watching The Hitcher won't do you as much harm as writing it will. ...
This cult film was remade in 2007, and there was a weak 2003 direct-to-video sequel The Hitcher: I've Been Waiting... in which the adult Jim (still played by Howell) has become a twitchy policeman and, with his girlfriend, goes up against another killer hitchhiker (or maybe the same one reincarnated). Better than all these is Duel, about an ordinary family man who's relentlessly pursued by the unseen driver of a mean-looking diesel truck on the roads of the desert southwest. This PG-rated 1971 TV movie made a young Steven Spielberg's reputation as a master director.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual Content |
 |
|||
ViolenceBloody shootings at close range. A dog is seen chewing on a dead body. A man is hit/thrown from a car. Vehicles crash, and a gas station blows up, almost taking one character with it. In a notorious outrage, a person is chained to a huge truck and torn in half -- although viewers don't see the actual atrocity take place, just the awful suggestion. Closeup of a severed finger. |
 |
|||
LanguageSome uses of "f--k" and "s--t" (but actually pretty mild under the circumstances). |
 |
|||
Message |
|
|||
Social BehaviorWhile the nominal hero of the piece, Jim Halsey, constantly strives to prove he's innocent and tells everyone "I'm no killer," there's a suggestion of a weird mentor-disciple relationship evolving between boyishly innocent Jim and the psychopathic John Ryder. By the end, it's not clear whether Jim has turned killer or not. Most of the police officer authority figures shown are shortsighted brutes, ready to shoot down innocent people. |
 |
|||
CommercialismNone, unless you're good at spotting vehicle makes. |
 |
|||
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoNothing much stronger than beer or coffee. |
|
|||
