FROM DUSK TILL DAWN
A film review by Zach Douglas
Copyright 1996 Zach Douglas
This is my early draft as I couldn't locate names and spellings for all involved parties! Forgive me if I've made a grammatical error or two also. I'm a busy man! Send me corrections if you find mistakes please. Also, I haven't given away anything that isn't given away in interviews or on t.v. but read at your own risk.
Dusk Till Dawn
A Review by Zach D. (zachd@hub.ofthe.net)
First off, let's consult Webster's College Dictionary
Gen-re (zhan're) n. 1. a class or category or artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like.
Splice (splis) v. 4. to join or unite.
be-wil-der (bi wil d'upside down e'r) v.t. 1. to confuse or puzzle completely.
Ok, lets not kid anyone. We all know Dusk Till Dawn is being hyped because of Quentin Tarantino's involvement. He's done a re-write here, some less than good acting there, even a sandbox project for grownup directors gone terribly wrong - but here is what he does best: Write scripts. We ALSO know or should know by now that his new movie is about killing vampires. More things we know are that Harvey Keitel, Julliete Lewis, and George Clooney are in the film. Oh yeah, we also knew that hot-shot Robert Rodriguez is not only the director but the 'Camera Operator' as the credits say. OK, you think you're set up pretty well. You are expecting the worst. Maybe your expecting the best. I'll just say that no matter what you expect, you will in no way be prepared for this film! OK quick synopsis if you haven't heard. Notorious criminals Seth and Richie Gecko are armed, dangerous, and on the loose after a jail break and bank robbery. While fleeing to Mexico they take a family hostage. Keitel is the ex-minister/dad, disgruntled with the Lord for the loss of his wife and heading to Mexico with daughter (Lewis) and Chinese son (?). So, the band swings on down to the rendevous point where they proceed to KILL VAMPIRES. AND MORE VAMPIRES. AND MORE AND MORE. Mr. Blue: "How many vampires is that?" Mr. White: "A LOT"
Now, I don't recall ever having watched a movie with this sort of genre splicing in my life. This movie is 50% road/heist film and 50% Splatter/Horror. I've seen movies that hovered on the fringe of it (most recently, Dead Presidents) but never, never, never have I seen something like this. For that alone, I admire Tarantino much like Todd admires Butthead when he says, "You're TWISTED MAN!". (p.s. that's a compliment; Also, mentioning of Beavis, Butthead, or Todd in any followup posts or mail is punishable by death) But, I guess we must dig to the heart of the matter and ask the bigger question: Does it Work? CAN it work? Yes and No. It works as 50% of a heist film, and it definitely works as 50% of a splatter film. But I'm not sure if those parts put together are as fulfilling as 100% of either genre. The first half of the film is pretty tight. Reminiscent of The Getaway (No dummy, the one with Steve McQueen, not that Baldwin freak) and Natural Born Killers if they had featured two brothers instead of lovers. First off we notice that Clooney can play the tough guy! This guy smokes. Tarantino also shows that he was really meant to play a psychopath all this time also! I rather enjoyed his performance, and the two make quite a team. We also catch a good look at what NBK would have looked like in it's original form (Die Oliver Die). There's violence, tension, and humor, but it's all as black as the outfits the Gecko Brothers are wearing. The dialogue is Tarantino gone Texas, and fairly accurate. The characters even throw in a few movie references to get their point across. But, before you get your panties in a wad by saying that QT's a one trick dialogue spewing pony, it's really not that similar to his last writing jobs. OK, so maybe it is, but different at the same time; Just don't let me hear that 'one trick pony' line because I hate it. Rodriguez does his usual magic with the camera, and he does the desert road justice. There is one disturbing scene I won't mention which is rather well done, but quite bewildering and I'll leave it up to you to figure THAT one out. The second half of the movie finds the unlikely gang making it to the rendevous point (an insanely wild titty-bar, pardon my French) where they are greeted by Cheech Marin and a load of Vampires. They have a couple of bruisers lend a hand for a while - a Black Vietnam Vet and a Large Mexican Fellow. From here the movie takes on the likeness of one of the greatest splatter flicks ever made, Dead Alive. As in Dead Alive, the ex-minister must gain strength to fight the evil ("I kick ass, for the Lord! - from D.A. not Dusk, but Keitel gives a similar, more sedate monologue). Also, the point is not really to escape, but to KILL every last Mexican turned undead evil minion from the whorey nether regions. They go at the task with great vigor, and the camera work may leave your head spinning at times! Drawback here as that any attempt to recapture anything from the first half of the movie is lost. Acting or dialogue is no longer important, and so you've lost sight of the creative effort. It's just too much of a shock to the film-goers well trained mind! For me it was a pleasent shock, but I can imagine many will be repulsed by the total abandoment of basic film structure Having said all that, I'd say that if they had a genre for this genre, it would be at or near the top. But since they don't, this film will probably be forgotten only to live on as a best renter in the cult classics section of the video store 15 years from now. I liked it personally, and will probably see it again just to relive the bizarre experience (note, still nothing has topped the experience of sitting through Tetsuo's Ironman!). I won't put it on my top shelf with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, but I will always marvel at the fact that Tarantino actually got away with getting this film made, and doing it as grandly as he did with the help of Robert "water into wine" Rodriguez. I see it as another visually strong effort from Rodriguez and another page in Tarantino's bizzarre film resume. One that, when he is finished writing, will indeed be more bizarre than anything that the good Doctor Seuss could come up with.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews