The Death of Dick Long is a 2019 American black comedy–drama film directed and produced by Daniel Scheinert. The film stars Michael Abbott Jr., Virginia Newcomb, Andre Hyland, Sarah Baker, Jess Weixler, Roy Wood Jr., and Sunita Mani. The story follows two men who try to cover-up the outlandish cause of their friend's death.
The Death of Dick Long premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2019. The film was released by A24 on September 27, 2019, to positive reviews.
Contents
Plot
Friends Dick, Zeke, and Earl are spending time together late at night. When Dick sustains severe, unexplained injuries, Zeke and Earl drop his limp body in a hospital parking lot. Earl returns home and tells his girlfriend, Lake, that he has to leave town for a family emergency, but instead heads to his warehouse job. Zeke sneaks into bed, fooling his wife, Lydia, into thinking he has been asleep. When he agrees to drive their daughter Cynthia to school, he accidentally retrieves Dick's wallet, which he took from him while he was unconscious. Zeke puts the driver's license on the counter. In the garage, he covers the blood-soaked back seat of his car with a blanket before Cynthia can see it.
An Emergency Room doctor named Richter calls the police to report Dick has died of severe rectal hemorrhaging. When Zeke and Cynthia stop at a gas station, Cynthia tells Officer Dudley about Dick's wallet. Zeke notices the back of Cynthia's dress has blood on it, and he distracts the police officer while giving her the wallet. They return home and Earl comes over to scrub the blood from the car. Earl takes Cynthia to school in his truck and speaks to Dick's widow Jane, who still knows nothing about the previous night's events. Earl and Zeke dump the car in a river to hide the evidence.
Sheriff Spenser enlists Dudley to help her with the murder. When Zeke tells Lydia their car was stolen the night before, she calls the police. Dudley and Spenser arrive and briefly question her. They're interrupted when Richter calls the police and tells them horse semen was in Dick's rectum. Cynthia overhears Zeke and Lydia about the drive to school. Lydia confronts Zeke and he admits that Dick is dead, confessing the three of them had been participating in zoophilic acts for years. Dick died having sex with Dick and Jane's horse Comet. Lydia demands Zeke leave the house.
Jane discovers Zeke drunk in the stable on her property. She takes him home to find Dudley waiting to question him. Lydia and Zeke frantically tell their stories until Zeke runs from the kitchen. Dudley chases him and Lydia tells Jane to stay so she can tell her how Dick died. Zeke frees Comet and begs him to run away as Dudley arrests him.
A day later Dudley and Spenser visit the site of the ditched car. Dudley is shocked when the sheriff mentions Zeke has been released. She explains the charges would ruin the lives of Lydia, Cynthia and Jane. Lydia intercepts Zeke at Cynthia's school and banishes him from their lives. Zeke arrives at Earl and Lake's motel room that night. Zeke asks Earl what he will do next. Earl states he'll come up with something, and plays "How You Remind Me" on his guitar.
Cast
Michael Abbott Jr. as Ezekiel "Zeke" Olsen, a friend of Dick Long
Virginia Newcomb as Lydia Olsen, Zeke's wife
Andre Hyland as Earl Wyeth, Dick and Zeke's friend
Sarah Baker as Officer Dudley, a relatively inexperienced police officer
Jess Weixler as Jane Long, a schoolteacher and Dick's wife
Roy Wood Jr. as Dr. Richter, the physician who discovers Dick
Sunita Mani as Lake Travis, Earl's friend
Poppy Cunningham as Cynthia Olsen, Lydia and Zeke's daughter
Janelle Cochrane as Sheriff Spenser, Officer Dudley's superior and mentor
Eugene Henry Jr as Ted, a store clerk
Daniel Scheinert as Dick Long
Inspiring events
As the death of the titular character is due to internal injuries sustained from intercourse with a horse the film evokes a parallel to the real-life death of Kenneth Pinyan, an engineer who worked for Boeing and resided in Gig Harbor, Washington. Those events were widely reported by The Seattle Times as the Enumclaw horse sex case.
Release
The Death of Dick Long premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2019. It was theatrically released by A24 in the United States on September 27, 2019. The film was theatrically released in Japan in the Summer of 2020 under the alternate title How Did Dick Long Die?
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "The Death of Dick Long mixes dark humor with provocative ideas to produce a sharp blend that's admittedly uneven but uniquely satisfying." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Writing for The A.V. Club, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky gave the film a B−, favorably comparing it to the absurdity and grotesqueness of Swiss Army Man, saying the tone "falls somewhere between irony and sincere fondness".