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‘Seen today, Road House inhabits disparate ages in American cinema. Lyle Wheeler’s art direction is a case in point. The road house itself has the generic look of the classical Hollywood set, archetypally American and occupying a dateless contemporaneity, a perennial ‘now’… Whilst his actors – Fonda, Bennett, Duryea – hailed from a pre-war naturalistic school which encouraged social realism and produced by Ida Lupino, the post-war period sees screen acting take a graphic turn… By this light, Road House becomes pivotal; Gothic, wayward, yet reaching out towards natural, ‘normal’ life. Paradoxical inasmuch as its extreme elements simultaneously signal its antiquity and its modernity.’ – Senses of Cinema