From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn stars Quentin Tarantino as an actor. That’s interesting because in a movie that starts out with two bank robbers trying to reach Mexico while threatening and killing massive numbers of people and throwing out lines of memorable dialogue almost as often as they throw off lead rounds of death, you’d think Tarantino must be directing. At least, you would until the vampires show up.

This is a very interesting movie because it has two very distinct parts. The first part, as I described above, is a very Tarantino like exploitation flick that sees two bank robbers trying to reach Mexico with a family who they’ve kidnapped. The second part takes place after they’ve reached Mexico and are in a biker bar, waiting for a Mexican drug lord to take them to a safe-house. As it turns out, the biker bar (called the Titty Twister) is actually run by vampires who lure in bikers and truckers and then kill them. Shockingly, the two parts actually manage to fit together fairly well without killing the suspension of disbelief.
This is done through a very masterful transition. From about when the characters arrive at the biker bar until the strippers start ripping people’s throats out is a part where the plot starts getting a bit less serious. For example, a guy named Sex Machine shows off his honest to goodness crotch gun. This part of the film is the only part that I would say is genuine exploitation film material. Tarantino and Rodriquez both have a long history of paying tribute to the classic exploitation films and this flick is no exception. From the transition period on, the entire movie takes place in a strip club. There are large amounts of female anatomy on display, and the sequence ends with a downright erotic dancing scene from one of the strip club’s dancers.
Then they turn into vampires and start killing everybody. After this point there’s no turning back. The entire movie from that point on is a classic horror gore fest, with people’s limbs getting ripped off and vampires getting staked through the heart. You might say that the plot gets very silly. I’d say that the plot gets really awesome.
The first half of the movie sets up the characters, letting you get to know them well and emphasizing the important parts of their personality. The second half knocks ‘em down by seeing how long they can survive in a nightmare scenario. This isn’t Citizen Kane. This is a B movie, and it’s one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen in a long time.
It stars George Clooney in what I believe is one of his first performances, as the older brother of the two bank robbers. He does a great job and you can tell that he’s having a lot of fun with the role. A mentioned above, Tarantino plays the younger, slightly more psychopathic brother, and creates a character who’s very disturbing, although whether that’s through genius acting or poor acting I may never know. Also on the acting front, Sex Machine is awesome.
It’s a great movie. It’s not thought provoking or something that you’re going to have to try very hard to understand. It’s a straight up B movie and it’s a dang good one. It’s a lot of fun and while it may not quite be a classic, it misses the movie nerd bible by less than an inch. Go see this movie.
Alex Thor