In From Dusk Till Dawn, Michael Parks plays Texas Ranger Earl McGraw, an ill-fated lawman who meets his demise at the hands of the Gecko brothers - Earl and his son Edgar would eventually pop up in Grindhouseand Kill Bill. Tarantino began introducing links between his movies in the mid-nineties, and From Dusk Till Dawn played a large role in establishing the connective tissue that binds the Tarantinoverse.
Despite the gore, violence, and naked fiends, the feature didn’t dive so far down the grindhouse cinema rabbit hole that it wasn’t accessible to mainstream audiences. Tarantino and Rodriguez made sure that their film hit all the beats grindhouse cinema fans could want (there’s a scene where a teenager begs to die while pubic-hair toting vampire-beasts eat him alive). From Dusk Till Dawn‘s budget could have produced several dozen of the films it was channeling, and the production put every penny of it to use.
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Sure, the hardcore cinephile could find ways to get their low-budget exploit movies fix, but even they lost out on the communal experience derived from sitting in a dark room with 200 enthusiastic, like-minded movie fans.įrom Dusk Till Dawn took the best elements of sordid, exploitative grindhouse films, and packaged them for an audience starved for a genre movie fix - as well as a younger audience that didn’t know what they were missing. Facing the wrath of churches, politicians, and freaked-out soccer moms, small indie-cinemas had to shut down. At the time, the public viewed arcades and grindhouse theatres as seedy places inhabited by burnouts and criminals. When From Dusk Till Dawn made its debut in the mid-nineties, multiplexes, cable TV, and video-store franchises had virtually wiped grindhouse cinema off the map. Grindhouse cinema is one of Tarantino’s central creative influences, and From Dusk Till Dawn is his attempt to share his love of the genre with a new generation of cinephiles. We can define Tarantino’s career by his numerous crusades to preserve and pay homage to the cinema of his youth. Instead, the duo created a trashy, low-budget genre flick featuring Tarantino’s trademark snappy dialogue, over-the-top violence….and vampires. While Hollywood expected the young director to get right to work on his next masterpiece, he and Rodriguez had other intentions. Critics and audiences crowned Pulp Fictionan instant classic the film injected 90’s cinema with a shot of adrenaline akin to the big-ass needle Vincent slams into Mia’s heart during Pulp‘s infamous overdose scene. The film features a script by Tarantino, who at the time of production was still riding high on Pulp Fiction‘s colossal wave of success. Released on January 19, 1996, From Dusk Till Dawn is a cinematic tag-team between Tarantino and his frequent collaborator, director Robert Rodriguez. 25 years ago this month, while still a director on the rise, Tarantino made a similar decision. Instead, he opted to create a small-scale, intentionally divisive social commentary. With enough clout, career accolades, and financial flexibility to do as he pleased, Tarantino decided not to chase commercial success. While superstar directors often work with a high degree of autonomy, back-to-back films grossing a combined $700 million and universal critical praise translated to Tarantino receiving creative carte blanche. In the context of Tarantino’s career, it makes perfect sense that The Hateful Eight, his most polarizing film, would follow Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, his two highest-grossing films. If Tarantino retired today, pulpy crime thrillers, dusty westerns, and blood stained revenge fantasies would define his legacy. Think about this: Tarantino continues to rack up critical acclaim - Oscars, Golden Globes, and BAFTA awards and nominations - for making genre pictures.
What’s more amazing is that the auteur director has left an indelible mark on Hollywood while staying true to his artistic vision. In addition to sporting an encyclopedic knowledge of all things cinema, he is one of the most talented and respected filmmakers of his generation. There is a strong possibility that Quentin Tarantino has forgotten more about movies than most film buffs will ever know.
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