FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

US, 1996, 108 minutes, Colour.
Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Ernest Liu, Michael Parks, John Hawkes, Salma Hayek, Fred Williamson, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Tom Savini, Marc Lawrence, Kelly Preston, John Saxon.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez.

From Dusk till Dawn was very popular on its first release in the mid-1990s. Quentin Tarantino had made Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction by this time and was to go on to his most successful career. Robert Rodriguez had made El Mariachi and Desperado. He was soon making a range of genre films with violence, ranging from the Spy Kids series to Once Upon a Time in Mexico to Sin City to the Machete films, the latter including quite a number of character actors from this film. Tarantino and Rodriguez have gained a cult status in the action and horror movies.

In retrospect, the film has more in than might have first been thought, the use of the bank robbers escaping conventions, the pastor with faith-doubts and his children used as hostages… However, in its time, their arrival at the bar for bikies and truckies in Mexico and the subsequent revelation of the vampires was more than over-the-top. It’s still is.

But, also in retrospect, the film is now a valuable in taking its place amongst Tarantino’s screenplays. It is typical Tarantino, very verbal, witty verbal in a deadpan way, with plenty of movie references, and the influence of the Grindhouse movies and B videos that he saw while working in the video shop. He is given a weird role, psychopathic, sexually aberrant, prone to violence, mentally unstable, killing people at whim, and becoming a vampire.

And, again in retrospect, the film is worth seeing for the career of George Clooney. Up to this time he had made B-budget films, several of them horror films like The Return of the Killer Tomatoes, and appeared in a great deal of television, including ER. After this film he made One Fine Day, Batman and Robin and was soon to move to Out of Sight and The Thin Red Line, consolidating his career as a star.

The strength of the film comes in the presence of Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis. A great number of character actors from the past have some moments in the film including Michael Parks, Danny Trejo, Tom Savini, Cheech Marin, Marc Lawrence, John Saxon, Fred Williamson as well as Kelly Preston and John Hawkes.

But, to the halfway mark, the film is a violent look at escaping robbers and their psychopathic behavior as well as taking a family hostage. With the arrival of the bar, their violence and scenes of drunkenness, mayhem and sexual performance, especially from Selma Hayek. Correct summer then they’ll turn into vampires and there is free for all massacre.

1. The cult status of this film? For Tarantino, for Rodriguez, for Clooney? Deserving or not?

2. How seriously should the film be taken, tongue-in-cheek approach to robbery genre, bars and the middle of nowhere, vampire confrontations? The blend of these themes?

3. Texas settings, motels, the desert, the Mexican border, the down-and-out areas of Mexico?

4. The bar, interiors, sleaze, the girls serving the drinks, the bar manager, the range of clientele, the dances, sexy dances and stripping?

5. The characters of Seth and Rick? Clooney and Tarantino, screen images of the time? later films? Brothers, background, their memories? Seth looking after Rick? Robberies, Seth in jail, getting out? Killings of the Rangers, police, the public? The initial scene in the shop, the attendant trying to act normally, Rick and his mania, the visit of the ranger, casual talk, being shot, the attendant and his trying to defend the shop, its going up in flames? The hostage from the bank, the motel, Rick putting her on the bed, killing her, and alleging she wanted to escape? Seth and his exasperation?

6. TV coverage, the parody style of the on screen personality, statistics and captions on screen? The ingenuous approach of the personality, her looks, her not being involved at all, a lighthearted tone?

7. The motel, the introduction to Jacob, his past as a minister, death of his wife in the car accident, loss of faith, travelling with his children, the bonds between them, his wanting to sleep in a motel bed, Kate wanting a pool? Scott and his Chinese background? Encountering Seth and Rick, in the motel room, the guns, taken hostage, the threats? In the van, Rick and his looking at Kate, her provoking him? Jacob and telling his story to Seth? Getting them through the border, the suspicious official, Kate in the toilet covering for them, Jacob and persuading Scott not to reveal the truth?

8. Seth, promising to set them free after getting them across the border? Arriving at the bar, its sleaziness, the crowds, the clientele, the manager, the dances, the provocative dance featuring Salma Hayek?

9. The confrontation with the bouncer, Seth attacking, Rick kicking? The bar man and his refusal, Jacob saying he drove the truck? The welcome? The drinking, Seth compelling the family to drink? The dance?

10. The odd characters, transformation into vampires, the attack on Rick, his being vampyrised, Seth having to impale him? transformation of many of the clientele? The survival of the black man, of the sex machine with his gun in his crotch? Seth and the family surviving?

11. The scenes of mayhem, the bats outside, getting into the bar, Jacob being bitten, the taking refuge in the locked room? Jakob and getting his children to swear that they would kill him when he turned, their reluctance, swearing? His using his rifle and the plank to form a cross? Warding off the vampires, the black man being bitten, the sex machine being bitten, Scott being bitten?

12. Seth and Kate, warding off the vampires, the gun holes in the wall, the sun coming in, destroying the vampires?

13. Carlos turning up at the end, Seth’s argument, his giving Kate money, driving off?

14. The final scene revealing the back of the bar as a Mayan temple?