Retro Film Review: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

(source: tmdb.org)

Quentin Tarantino is probably one of the most influential filmmakers in recent memory, but the true scope of his impact on the Seventh Art in modern world is yet to be seen. The difficulty in assessing Tarantino lies in fact that he nearly instantly earned God-like status with Pulp Fiction only to utterly disappoint his disciples after few years of not delivering material worthy of that masterpiece. Some of the frustrations of former Tarantino's disciples could be seen in the way one of my fellow reviewers described From Dusk Till Dawn, 1996 action horror film written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez. For him this film was another Heaven's Gate - complete disappointment that was about to bury the career of a great film maker immediately after great masterpiece.

The plot begins with two criminals - escaped convict Seth Gekko (played by George Clooney) and his disturbed brother Richie (played by Quentin Tarantino) - trying to cross the border with Mexico and leaving corpses and trail of destruction in the process. They kidnap lapsed preacher Jacob (played by Harvey Keitel), his daughter Kate (played by Juliette Lewis) and son Scott (played by Ernest Liu) in order to use their motor home for passing through checkpoints. Once in Mexico, all of them head to Titty Twister, sleazy strip bar in the middle of nowhere, where Gekko brothers are supposed to wait for their Mexican associates. But it turns out that Titty Twister is something more than strip bar - it is actually a front for vampires' den and the criminals and their captives suddenly must join forces in order to survive.

From Dusk Till Dawn is a film obviously light years below the level of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, so it is quite understandable why many Tarantino's fans felt betrayed. Their disappointment was even greater because Tarantino paired with another of Hollywood's great new hopes - Robert Rodriguez, independent film maker who had brought a lot of attention to himself with stylish action films roughly in the same time as Tarantino with his masterpieces. However, this pairing is, in most likelihood, film's main problem, because two men prefer two different styles of film making. Tarantino gives emphasis on character exposition and dialogue while Rodriguez loves pure action. The result is a film that, in some ways, looks like a bad compromise between two – many characters seem underused, the action goes too fast and From Dusk Till Dawn switches its genre credentials - from action thriller to schlock horror - too quickly.

However, even with those structural faults, From Dusk Till Dawn stands as a very good piece of exploitation cinema, some kind of ode to 1970s and B-movies from that period. Fans of 1970s cinema, at least those who don't mind high bodycount and graphic gore on big screen, would probably appreciate Tarantino's references to various B-movie classics (Carpenter's Assault on Precint 13 being most recognisable). This film is "exploitation" in more than one sense of the word – for Tarantino, who makes more than decent acting job in the role of quiet but sinister psychopath, this project was opportunity to fulfil some of his own intimate fantasies, which is most evident in the memorable scene featuring Selma Hayek in the role of stripper Santanico Pandemonium. The acting in general leaves much to be desired, but since none of the characters was particularly complex, this is not such flaw. Rodriguez at director has a lot of fun with a material, but he could have done somewhat better job in the last half of the film. However, from the distance of some six years or so (and after two straight-to-video sequels) we might say that the fate was much generous to From Dusk Till Dawn than my colleague had anticipated.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on January 20th 2003)