MOVIES - July 1, 1987

Why have your film premiered in Hollywood or Westwood when you can get a drive-in in Burbank? It was a notably post-modern crowd Monday night that parked its BMWs, Rollses, and Porsches (and even a few vintage American cars) at the Pickwick Drive-in in Burbank for the premiere of director Alex Cox’s “Straight to Hell.” Cavorting around the aisles before the screening proper were such notables as Dennis Hopper, Emilio Estevez (both of whom were camped out with friends in a 1960s-era Ford Falcon), Buck Henry, Rae Dawn Chong, Teri Garr, Shelley Duvall and Ed Harris. Self-realization guru Timothy Leary was also there, munching on a hot dog and taking in the Sergio Leone-meets-the-Road Warrior milieu. And seemingly in keeping with not only the film’s ethos but also that of our age, a novel way to meet that boy or that girl was sampled: shoot them in the back of the head with a water gun.