I love movies, not necessarily old movies though.
My affinity for film starts around the year I was born, anything released in the late sixties and beyond, beginning with what they called the “New Hollywood” which, I suppose still makes these movies old.
I could rewatch, and recite, classics from this era and later at a moment’s notice, for it is the attention to detail, the sights, the scenes, the sounds, the performances and the dialogue that make a film great and ingrain those moments into our memories forever.
I also love alcohol.
Okay, that came off sounding funny although my relationship with alcohol is as complicated as anyone who has ever taken a drink. From the moment my father first snuck me into a liquor store, I could smell the liquor-soaked wood. “How about you, Jimmy. You an oak man?” At an early age, I was alerted to the presence of people about to do something they shouldn’t yet have a damn good time while doing so.
I also work in the liquor industry and have been involved in hospitality for decades. I make cocktails for a living which means I see bottles, brands, liquors and labels come and go.
As one who studies both film and booze, quite often at the same time, I pay attention to the way bars are portrayed in films. You’d be surprised how many classic scenes take place in a barroom, with liquor bottles and actors raising a glass. While product placement is increasingly a way for films to make budget, having an improper bar setup will lead to a scene’s unbelievability for anyone paying close enough attention.
Furthermore, while watching older films, it amazes me how many liquor bottles still boast the SAME EXACT LABEL!
I first came up with this idea while rewatching Trading Places, released in 1983. There’s a scene where the butler grabs a bottle of Grand Marnier to make a flambe type of dessert. The Grand Marnier bottle, its shape, its label, and yes, its deliciousness, is the same exact bottle you’ll find on bar shelves today, over forty years later. I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
I’m probably not the only person to notice these things but I guarantee I’m among a select few, which pretty much makes me an authority on the subject.
This, my dear reader, will be the first in an ongoing series of “Booze on Film” posts that identify liquor bottles in key scenes from famous movies. I will discuss the film, some little-known trivia about it, as well the bottle, the liquor, the label and maybe even throw in a recipe or two.
Let’s begin with a film I watched (again) the other night, an absolute classic, featuring one of our favorite stars, gone long before his time. What better film to, ahem, kick off this project than a film about a bar and a man hired to save it.
Roadhouse.
Roadhouse is a brilliant film that becomes more rewatchable with every play. Roadhouse is quintessentially 80s, complete with movie star mullets, gratuitous violence and cleavage, both well-choreographed, far too rapey scenes that don’t age well, memorable one-liners, an edge despite its cheese, a classic soundtrack and a simple good guy vs bad guy plot with star power.
Everyone here knows the Roadhouse storyline and if you don’t, for goodness’ sake, stop reading this and find the movie immediately. The original though, not the regrettable Gyllenhall remake.
Patrick Swayze portrays the nice (until it’s time to not be nice) martial arts-practicing Dalton, a “cooler” hired by the owner of the Double Deuce, a honky-tonk looking to clean up its act. The bar is set in Jasper, Wyoming, which makes this probably the first film before or since to mention Jasper, never mind fictionally occur in it.
As you’d expect, Dalton regularly runs into locals trying to make his life difficult, most notably local mob boss, Brad Wesley played by Ben Gazzara, who controls everything in town including the liquor flow into the Double Deuce. Within the first hour of the film, Dalton finds his car trashed, including a Stop sign completely stuck in it, his windshield broken, his tires slashed, along with his ribs, and just about every table, chair and bottle in the Double Deuce overturned. Oh yeah, they also burned down his girlfriend’s uncle’s convenience store.
You can find countless bottles broken throughout Roadhouse but one scene, and one bottle, stands out.
We’re about 68 minutes into the film and Dalton has gotten rid of much of the Double Deuce’s riff raff. The “bad element” has been warded off (we know better) and business is finally starting to pick up. Dalton uses connections to bypass Wesley’s control and orders liquor through an alternate vendor, for what’s a bar without booze.
As the liquor supplier starts unloading multiple cases through the back door of the Double Deuce, another truck full of Wesley’s cronies pulls up once again ready to make Dalton’s life difficult, which they do, breaking cases of booze and kicking the shit out of Swayze.
One of the bullies takes a bottle of Drambuie out of the case that sits atop the others, and wouldn’t you know it, that bottle of Drambuie looks the same as it does today, nearly forty years later, brown bottle, classic style, rounded to the top, gold and red lettering on the label, unmistakable. If you look carefully, in addition to the roughnecks breaking an entire case of Drambuie, they break a few more cases of Tia Maria, a coffee liqueur like Kahlua, which begs the question, how many white Russians are the good people of Jasper drinking that the Double Deuce needs so many cases at a time? The Deuce seems like way more of a whiskey and beer bar, but considering this film stars both Gazzara and Sam Elliott, maybe they host a Lebowski Night.
Furthermore, I get that the Double Deuce is thriving thanks to Dalton’s presence, but who orders Drambuie by the case? I haven’t had a customer ask me for a Rusty Nail in months. Maybe Drambuie experienced a late 80s renaissance in Jasper, Wyoming. Who am I to doubt the savior of the Double Deuce?
Dalton is eventually rescued by his mentor, Wade Garrett, played by Elliott in a scene that features the hysterical “Mind your own business, Dad!” line after Elliott shows up to save the day. Elliott then proceeds to kick their ass.
Drambuie, an odd but memorable choice for this scene, is a scotch-based liqueur, blended with honey and spices, that has been around a lot longer than Sam Elliott. Drambuie began production in Scotland in 1910 and while they changed the bottle shape slightly to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the liqueur, the label remains the same after all these years.
The name Drambuie comes from Scottish Gaelic, which means “a drink that satisfies.” We still use the term “dram” today, as in dram shop laws, albeit more rarely. Dram, of course, refers to a drink, shot, or nip of a particular spirit, commonly neat. Drambuie can be enjoyed on the rocks but is most notably used in Rusty Nails, when combined with scotch to take an edge off the peat.
You’ll still find Drambuie, same label as always, on bar shelves, in liquor stores and in well-choreographed Roadhouse fight scenes in which the Drambuie bottles don’t survive, but fortunately, the good guys do.
Cheers!
