I wasn’t expecting a promotional email regarding a slew of new releases on Blu-ray to give me a nostaglic kick in the pants, but that’s exactly what happened. Kino Lorber is releasing forgotten 80s movie Tough Guys on disc (for the first time, evidently) and that tidbit really took me back.
Never heard of Tough Guys? That’s fine. It was a 1986 vehicle for aging superstars Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and truth be told, I’ve never seen it myself. Well, not really, but we’ll get to that.
1986: Quite a year. I finished elementary and was probably feeling good about my place in the world as pretty much all grown up. That meant spending time at the mall, as was the style in those days.
In my hometown of Amarillo, Texas, that might have meant Westgate Mall, on the (yes) west end of town. That was The New Mall, all fancy with its Dillards and Mervyn’s. But no, I spent more time at The Old Mall, Western Plaza. Really a perfect name for a shopping center in far reaches of rural Texas.
Western Plaza is now dead. And buried. And gone, replaced by hotels, big-box stores, and chain restaurants. But back in 1986, it was still a thriving enterprise. Montgomery Ward was there, as well as something called Service Merchandise, which had a good toy section, so I thought it was a big deal even though I’ve never heard of it since.
It also had a movie theatre. A two-screen number, of which Amarillo had several–Miss you Plitt and the Fox Twin!–that stayed open until 1991. So is that where I came upon Tough Guys? Nope. Red herring.
One fateful Saturday, I was at the mall with a friend, and we were asked to take part in what I now realize was a focus group. Some marketing guy had set up a small screening room where he’d show a clip of the movie and then ask questions about how we liked it. It was a fight scene that took place on a train, if memory serves after all these decades.
I honestly didn’t have good feedback for the guy: not sure why he picked a couple of 12-year-olds when we definitely weren’t the target demographic. Maybe his numbers were down. Maybe he was asking himself, “How did I end up in Amarillo, Texas, of all the wind-blown places in the world?” I’m afraid there was no good answer to that one.
So, from that day to this, Tough Guys has been completely out of my mind. Maybe I’ll get a copy and give it a watch. That would square some sort of circle. Regardless, I’ve got my memories of Western Plaza–too, too many memories–that I can always go back to. It might be dead, but it certainly lives on.
