Dogfight

media release: USA | 1991 | DCP | 92 min.

Director: Nancy Savoca

Cast: Lili Taylor, River Phoenix, Richard Panebianco

San Francisco, 1963. About to be shipped off to Vietnam, Eddie Birdlace (Phoenix) participates in a cruel game with his fellow marines: whoever brings the “ugliest date” to a party on their final night of liberty wins. Birdlace settles on Rose (Taylor), a sensitive aspiring poet and folk singer, and while their time together begins unpleasantly, the evening eventually leads to a genuine and tender connection between the young couple. In director Nancy Savoca’s first movie for a major studio, “The jolt is in the intricate expressivity Savoca brings to the story, with a repertoire of precise and painterly images that highlight performances of assertive yet graceful physicality” (Richard Brody, The New Yorker).