Review: From Dusk Till Dawn

Cross posted at Epinions



Call me crazy but I had to be convinced that George Clooney was hot. What was I thinking, right? Alas, it’s true, for a long time I didn’t believe the hype. Why did I change my mind? Well, I watched Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s insane action flick From Dusk Till Dawn. I was convinced in about five minutes.

Before Sin City, before Pulp Fiction, there were a couple of kids on the brink of making it big. Making it Huge in point of fact. Fresh off of their successes with El Mariachi (Rodriguez) and Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino), the two were wandering around that little place known as Hollywood. Friends from working together previously on the film Four Rooms, Tarantino showed Rodriguez his script for From Dusk and Rodriguez wanted to start production the very next day. They didn’t start quite that quickly, but in 1996 Rodriguez did get his wish. The collaboration was history in the making. Now both of those kung fu loving buddies are huge and their names are synonymous with indie cinema (whether or not they’re actually indie is a debate for another day).

From Dusk Till Dawn isn’t meant to be taken seriously. It’s an adrenalin shot. There’s action, explosions, blood, gore, monsters, and murder. After a purposefully slow opening conversation between a Texas Ranger and a liquor store clerk, the bullets start flying and the pace never again slows. This movie is the epitome of a Tarantino or Rodriguez picture. It’s not about art or drama or having any kind of socially redeeming value. It’s about creating fast moving, witty, violent entertainment. It’s all about having fun.

George Clooney is the anti-hero of the film. He plays the murdering bastard Seth Gecko. Along with his brother Ritchie (played by none other than Lord Quentin himself), Seth is making a run for the Mexican border after a daring escape from the law and bank heist. Seth and Ritchie know that they won’t be able to make it past the lawmen on their own so they grab the disillusioned preacher Jacob (Harvey Keitel) and Jacob’s two children Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu). The five make it into Mexico riding in Jacob’s RV and head to one very hellish club. They are only one night away from freedom but they soon find that making it through that night is going to be harder than they imagined. It’s not just any bar that they’ve walked into; it’s an ancient vampire feeding ground. Needless to say, things get very, very bloody.

The structure of the film is an interesting one. It’s almost like watching two different movies spliced together. The first is a crime flick while the second is a horror/action combo. We don’t even see a vampire until incredibly late in the film. It’s a formula that really, really shouldn’t work. It does though. While the first half of the film tries to play it fairly straight, it’s still pretty over the top and ridiculous. The actors are all putting in their fair share of cheese and the campiness bleeds right into the plausibility of a vampire encounter in some trashy Mexican trucker bar. I buy it.

I really can’t stress enough how silly this movie is. It’s okay though. It doesn’t pretend to be anything that it isn’t. And it has a lot of things going for it. Harvey Keitel for one thing. The man is great. Even when the situation is just completely ludicrous, Keitel plays it straight and his performance is first-rate throughout. Juliette Lewis is also wonderful. She doesn’t play her character nearly as seriously as Keitel’s Jacob but she is one hardcore chick. In the second half of the film there are also a few exciting cameos. The incredibly beautiful Salma Hayak makes an appearance as the lusciously dangerous vampiress Satanico Pandemonium (that’s a name for you). We get Cheech Marin not once, not twice, but THREE times. But my personal favorite appearance: Tom Savini as the trucker known only as “Sex Machine.” Man, does that boy have some weapons on him.

On the flip side, it also has Tarantino in one of the larger roles. He may be able to write, he might even be able to director, but he cannot act. He’s just lucky that in a film filled with ridiculous things, Ritchie is supposed to be the most ridiculous.

The star of the show is Mr. ER himself, George Clooney. Which is no accident. Rodriguez does it on purpose. He frames Clooney so that he’s always above us, always speaking too us, we are forced under his spell. It’s almost violent the way he’s thrust upon the audience. Not that I’m complaining. When he looks down the barrel of that gun, the shiver running down my spine has absolutely nothing to do with fear. Rodriguez gave Clooney the chance to prove that he could be a big time star. Clooney proves it with power. And the neck tattoo certainly doesn’t hurt…

While I wouldn’t call this movie brilliant, it’s not terrible either. It’s pop entertainment. It’s meant to shock, it’s meant to make you laugh, and it’s meant to make you think “Man, that was Mother F***ing Bad A**”. It’s about as far from highbrow as you can get.

Now for the DVD. For the price, it’s definitely a worthwhile purchase. I picked it up at Sam’s Club for $8 and change. It’s a Dimension film and it was released as a Dimension DVD. The Collector’s Series edition that they have at Sam’s is a two-disc set filled with juicy features. Rodriguez loves to give it to his fans. Bonus materials include: Feature commentary with Rodriguez and Tarantino, Outtakes, Deleted Scenes, Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots, a couple of featurettes, Music Videos, Cast & Crew bios, and the feature length documentary Full-Tilt Boogie (neat!) about the From Dusk Till Dawn.