Here are Stella and Carrie Ann, the waitstaff at the Double Deuce, watching Dalton, Jack, Hank, and Younger, the bouncers at the Double Deuce, whip the shit out of Ketchum and his pals, would-be assassins at the Double Deuce. They leer and cheer from the sidelines like extras shown in slo-mo during a Rocky movie when someone’s getting absolutely beaten senseless, only they’re not in slo-mo, they’re in glorious real time. Representative dialogue: “GO ON GO KICK HIS AAASSSSSS!” When the dust settles and the last man goes down you can hear Carrie Ann’s distinctive white-soul rasp: “ALLLRIGHT! YEAH!” She sounds as satisfied as Matthew McConaughey lighting a spliff after having sex for two hours.
And why shouldn’t she? Carrie Ann, we’ve seen, was the victim of sexual harassment we can safely assume was constant until Dalton showed up and announced “It’s going to change.” Stella was almost certainly in the same boat. For untold years, these two women had to take drink orders from men who would convert those drinks into that many more ass-pinches and face-punches. We’ve watched both women resort to using beer bottles as weapons to try and stem the tide of violence in their own favor.
The Double Deuce was an absolute hellhole, a Missouri Mos Eisley Cantina, the Inn at the Crossroads during Lannister rule, Rick’s if Bogey was playing his character from In a Lonely Place and Peter Lorre was the child killer from M and Claude Rains was the Invisible Man. It was a hideous, soul-destroying place to work. It’s a miracle these women made it out emotionally intact.
But it ain’t like that anymore, and I can’t imagine Carrie Ann and Stella are nuts about anyone who’d like to restore that particular status quo ante. They recognize Ketchum and his church potluck pals for what they are. You see in their faces and hear in their voices the hunger of people who are finally getting to see their oppressors get theirs. I’d like to see these faces and hear these voices much, much more often.
Tags: carrie ann, fight scenes, road house, staff, stella, the double deuce