page_title: Dudes (film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Dudes (film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: "Gorn" Rock at Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce, California
context_page_description: Dudes is a 1987 American independent film directed by Penelope Spheeris, written by Randall Jahnson, and starring Jon Cryer, Catherine Mary Stewart, Daniel Roebuck, and Lee Ving. A Western revenge story in a contemporary setting, its plot concerns three punk rockers from New York City who attempt to make their way to California. When one of them is murdered by a vicious gang leader, the other two, played by Cryer and Roebuck, find themselves fish out of water as they pursue the murderer from Arizona to Montana, assisted by a tow truck driver played by Stewart.
  Continuing Spheeris' theme of highlighting the punk subculture as in her prior films The Decline of Western Civilization and Suburbia, Dudes features several rock musicians in various roles, including Fear singer Lee Ving as the gang leader, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea as the murdered punk, and John Densmore of the Doors, Axxel G. Reese of the Gears, and punk artist and promoter "Mad" Marc Rude in minor roles, as well as punk rock band the Vandals performing in the opening scene. Spheeris had previously worked with Ving in The Decline of Western Civilization, and with Flea and the Vandals in Suburbia.
context_section_description: Principal photography for Dudes began on August 14, 1986. The early scenes set in Queens were filmed in Hollywood, with establishing shots of the New York skyline and other buildings edited in to create the illusion of being in New York City. The opening scene, a punk rock show with the Vandals performing their song "Urban Struggle" (with its opening lyric "I want to be a cowboy"), was the first to be filmed. Cryer and Roebuck both had musical theatre backgrounds and were not very familiar with punk rock, and neither had been in a mosh pit before. Cryer later remarked that he found it to be rough, but fun and less violent than he had expected. Roebuck, however, recalled that he and Cryer were being trounced by the extras, who were actual punks, and that first assistant director Guy Louthan's plea to the crowd to "not hurt the real actors" only caused them to be targeted more. Stunt doubles were used for some of the action, and the one standing in for Roebuck punched one of the punks squarely in the face. Flea, who had been to many punk rock shows, had no problem filming the scene: "That was very controlled in comparison to, like, a Black Flag show at the Starwood where people are getting sent out to ambulances all the time, and getting their heads really stomped in for having the wrong hair and shit...so I felt comfortable and fun in that environment", he recalled 30 years later. A scene in which Grant, Biscuit, and Milo nearly fall off of a fire escape was shot in downtown Los Angeles with the actors at ground level, then edited together with shots of stuntmen dangling from a higher level. A scene in which Grant flirts with a woman played by Pamela Gidley and gets into a brawl with her boyfriend was filmed at popular punk hangout the Atomic Cafe.
  Production then moved east, outside of Los Angeles. The redneck attack and Milo's murder, set in Arizona, were filmed in Agua Dulce, California at the Vasquez Rocks. The rodeo scene, set in the fictional town of Peckerville, Wyoming, was filmed in Clarkdale, AZ
  . Some of the desert scenes were filmed in the Four Corners region, including Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border; filming in this region was delayed by inclement weather including dust storms and rain. Filming in Arizona lasted four weeks, with additional location filming taking place in New Mexico and Utah. For one of the driving scenes, Spheeris suggested that Cryer, Roebuck, and Flea sing "Hava Nagila" while headbanging to show that their characters were enjoying their road trip; this inspired a scene in Spheeris' later hit comedy Wayne's World (1992) in which the main characters sing along to "Bohemian Rhapsody" while driving and launch into headbanging.
  Catherine Mary Stewart joined the crew midway through filming to perform her scenes, including the jailbreak scene set in the fictional town of Crossfire, Montana, which was filmed in Cottonwood, Arizona. She had a lifelong passion for horses and was an experienced rider, so enjoyed filming the horseback riding segments, but suffered a broken ulna when she stopped her horse abruptly to avoid hitting a parked vehicle and was thrown into the vehicle herself. This occurred toward the end of filming her scenes, so it did not significantly impact the shooting schedule.
  While filming the climactic showdown between Grant and Missoula, Ving heard that there was asbestos in the building being used and refused to re-enter it, so the sequence had to be rewritten and edited to show less of his character. Spheeris liked Flea's performance so much that he was asked to return to filming so that his character could appear in the final scene, which had not been in the original script.
caption: The gang attack scene was filmed at the Vasquez Rocks.
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