Thirst On Screen 6

The Drinks: Beer on the road and something else at the end (SPOILER! If you don’t know, watch the film)

The Story: It’s 1971 at a fraternity house on the University of Texas campus, Austin. Gardner (Kevin Costner) and friends are throwing a graduation party. The five friends call themselves The Groovers – buddies on a mission.

At the party, Groover Waggener (Sam Robards) announces that he is calling off his wedding, as he has been drafted into the Army. Gardner also produces his draft papers. It looks like The Groovers will be split up - the heady college days are over. It’s time for one last blast – a farewell fandango – Gardner announces they are heading out – somewhere – in Hicks’ car.

Hicks - ‘What about your car?’

Gardner – ‘You’re drinking it…..’

Hicks –  ‘You sold your car to throw a party…..but you didn’t even graduate!’

There are some great early scenes of beer antics on the journey out in the Caddy – and the boys are on the brew throughout the film, with supplies carried in a polystyrene cooler.

At a morning rest stop at the roadside in the desert, Gardner says:

‘Drafted, graduated, disengaged, guess you all know what this means dontcha………we gotta dig up Dom’.

Whatever or whoever Dom is, he is buried by a rock somewhere on the Texas/Mexico border, 400 miles away. A final odyssey for The Groovers.

On the journey to dig up Dom, the boys run out of gas in the middle of nowhere and try to hook the car up to the back of a freight train with some fence wire. They meet some girls and shoot fireworks at each other in a cemetery. In an iconic scene, Hicks goes skydiving at a school in the middle of nowhere run by a spaced out hippy.

They find Dom, and Gardner toasts the Groovers:

‘Here’s to us by God, to us. And that. And privileges of youth. Here’s to us, and what we were…..and what we’ll be.’

I could tell you what Dom is – if you didn’t figure it out right away, but that would take the fun awway! If you have figured it out, watch the film anyway. It could be the coolest movie you’ve ever seen. And never has a man looked cooler than Kevin Costner in a dusty tux, wearing sunglasses with one arm missing.

Thirstmag: What the hell is Dom? We only figured out later from the movie. Don’t fast forward, this film is a classic, we suggest you watch the whole thing.