buckaroo

Buckaroo had been the favourite to win but finished 9th, with Knight's Choice - a 90-1 outsider - storming home to take the lead in the final seconds.

Then came his small-town pastor who imposes a ban on dancing in 1984’s “Footloose,” the same year that “Buckaroo Banzai” hit theaters.

Days before I sat down for my conversation with John Lithgow, and purely by coincidence, I watched “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” for the first time in decades.

This salt playa, spreading across 40 square miles of the Great Basin Desert, perfectly level and white, has served as a stage for land-speed records and a backdrop for memorable scenes in numerous films, including "Buckaroo Banzai" and "Pirates of the Caribbean."

But if money were no object, I’d insist on a term of my own: Lithgow must paint while in character, preferably Dr. Emilio Lizardo of “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.”