The Hitcher

Director: Robert Harmon Robert Harmon

Overview

This routine slasher film is greatly enhanced by the ethereal quality of its evocative cinematography and a haunting score that foretells pending doom. Otherwise, the pendulum swings between car crashes and slasher killings all the way through until the predictable end. Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) stops to pick up serial murderer John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) on a long haul through Texas while driving a Cadillac to its destination. Before he gets the car back up to 65 again, Jim realizes he has a wacko for a passenger and throws him out. Revenge is in store as the crazed Ryder starts killing off anyone Jim meets along his way. Desperate for help, Jim's flight from the killer becomes a flight from the police as well, since they think he is responsible for the trail of deaths that follow in his wake.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/16/2013
UPC:	0883316778586
Original Release:	1986
Rating:	R
Source:	Hbo Archives
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:38:00
Sales rank:	2,150

Special Features

Closed Caption; Including Cast and Crew Bios

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

C. Thomas Howell	Jim Halsey
Rutger Hauer	John Ryder
Jennifer Jason Leigh	Nash
Jeffrey DeMunn	Capt. Esteridge
John Jackson	Sgt. Starr
Billy Green Bush	Trooper Donner
Jack Thibeau	Trooper Prestone
Armin Shimerman	Interrogation Sergeant
Jon Van Ness	Trooper Hapscomb
Henry Darrow	Trooper Hancock
Tony Epper	Trooper Conners
Tom Spratley	Proprietor
Jophery Brown	Stunt Sheriff #2
Janet Brady	Stunt Nash
Colin Campbell	Construction Man
Mark Isham	Composer

Technical Credits

Eric Red

David Bombyk	Producer
Edward S. Feldman	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Robert Harmon	Director
Charles R. Meeker	Executive Producer,Producer
Kip Ohman	Producer
Eric Red	Screenwriter
Warren Hamilton	Sound Editor

Editorial Reviews

Rutger Hauer's flair for villainy is well established, as is Jennifer Jason Leigh's chameleon-like ability to inhabit any sort of role, especially one with a trashy and/or melancholy tinge. The most surprising performance in this highly effective thriller, then, belongs to C. Thomas Howell, who grows convincingly unhinged over the course of 98 minutes of highway terror. Battered and bruised, with his puppy-dog good looks obscured by roadside grime, Howell provides a believable everyman stand-in for the audience. Stalked by a madman, stranded in the back roads of Texas, and on the run from misguided small-town police, Howell's clean-cut Chicago boy suffers through every city dweller's road trip nightmare. Eric Red's screenplay is most effective in its early scenes, which utilize psychological terror rather than the action-film-style car chases that characterize the climax. Director Robert Harmon paces the film admirably, providing frequent stops for breath even as the overall level of tension steadily rises. However, it is cinematographer John Seale, who would go on to great acclaim on such films as The English Patient, whose desolate Texas backdrop provides The Hitcher with much of its resonance. Jonathan Mostow's surprise hit Breakdown would mine the same territory with even more outré violence a decade later, but The Hitcher's climactic atrocities left an indelible pop-culture impression on audiences who caught the film on cable and video throughout the '80s and beyond.