Lust in the Dust Review

Lust in the Dust
In the town of Chili Verde, strong, silent gunslinger type Abel Wood (Hunter) rescues dancehall 'girl' swinger-type Rosie Velez (Divine), who is inexplicably lost in the desert. The unlikely pair, on an overheard rumour, go in search of gold, racing against time and a rival group of banditos.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1985

Running Time:

84 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Lust in the Dust

The man who brought us Death Race 2000 (a scathing satire of sports entertainment whose script was, essentially, a body count) and Cannonball (another violent pile-up disaster) invites us into his vision of the Old West. Despite the promising cast list and despite the inspired title song, Tarnished Tumbleweed, there is little to go on for this intermittently amusing spoof. Parodying the spaghetti western is perhaps made more difficult because even when that genre plays it straight, it manages to get some ‘they-can’t-be-serious’ laughs.

This is an improvement on Bartel’s early films (you can feel him beginning to untangle the excess of reference as the film lets its hair down), but not up to the black delight that was Eating Raoul.

Not enough genre jokes for parody fans, and certainly not enough darkness in the mix for those who got the taste for Raoul.
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