a vague disclaimer is nobody's friend

[freckles_and_doubt]

In a strange sort of parallax, my mission as a purveyor of obscure topics in cultural studies to the ususpecting undergraduatry has caused me to watch more, weirder and worse vampire movies than a dispassionate observer might, in fact, believe possible for one of my so-called academic pretensions. Most recently, the byways of this odd quest have led me, finally, to view From Dusk Till Dawn - or, more accurately, to flog my reluctant self into sitting through it over two evenings, with a break in the middle to forestall the involuntary onset of the foetal position. Various illuminations have been vouchsafed to me during the course of this experience.

1. That was a god-awful movie. Whatever anyone might say, and notwithstanding its bizarre cult status and celebration by goths, violence fiends and a sizeable chunk of my friends, it was a load of bollocks.
2. Part of its incredible suckage is the direct result of Quentin Tarantino, a jumped-up little self-important git who, in addition to his reliance on violence, hysteria, grime, warped sex and the word "fuck" in place of actual intelligence and scripting ability, is in possession of absolutely no personal charm whatsoever, and should be bludgeoned to death before he's allowed to act.
3. That being said, the casting of said QT as an adenoidal and adolescent sex nut had a certain sort of horrible logic that may, once I have succeeded in uncurling myself from said foetal position, vaguely appeal to me.
4. In addition to the casting of QT, the only vaguely and possibly acceptable elements in the movie as a whole were the basic premise (the combination of serial killers and a strip joint is an obvious but interesting play on the sex/violence premise of the vampire myth) and the final shot of the weird zigguratty structure underlying the strip joint. (I may allow a small side bet on Juliette Lewis, and on George Clooney's interesting arm tattoo).
5. Making violence explicit, gungy and deliberately excessive is neither funny nor cool. (No, I didn't like Pulp Fiction, either).
6. I would rather be forced to re-sit through a medley of selected lowlights from all the horrible vampire movies I have recently watched than watch this one again. While bad, at least none of them were shot through with the huge, mind-numbingly egotistical conviction of their own cleverness.

Right. Having got that off my chest, I feel better now. I'm sure a good slug of rum will unwrap my stomach, which is in knots from sheer irritation, enough to actually let me sleep. That, and all the painkillers for the pounding headache.

I think I shall have to foreswear pop culture and all its works for a while. As another indicator, the effect of re-reading my entire Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser collection in strict chronological order has been to send me screaming into the arms of Henry James, who in happier times I don't actually like at all. To be strictly fair, though, this may simply be the effect of seeing Jane Campion's film of Portrait of a Lady, which I utterly adored. It's had the same effect as the LotR films, in defining for ever my mental sense of certain of the roles in the novel - I will always see Isabel Archer as Nicole Kidman, and Caspar Goodwood (who has always been my favourite character in the book) as Viggo Mortensen. Beautifully made movie, and stunning adaptation. Bugger pop culture, anyway.

Comments

[pinkthulhu.livejournal.com]

They actually produced a Dusk Til Dawn 2 and 3, which both went straight to video. Number 2 starred Robert Patrick and was apparently godawful, while Number 3 was set a century in the past, and descended to the schlock horror staples of mindless gore and soft-focus porn.

Hope Robert Rodriguez's upcoming Sin City is slightly better then. :)

dissenting opinion

[(Anonymous)]

I must admit, I rather liked the movie. I'm not saying it's something I watch again and again, but it truly did amuse me.

Then again, it could just be Salma Hayek as a stripper that does it for me. (Reinforcing my belief that she has it in her contract somewhere that she has to be mostly naked at least once in every one of her movies. Dogma, anyone? Mmmmm.)

Sigh. I've turned into a dirty old woman.

Cheers, Rhieinwen

[pinkthulhu.livejournal.com]

On a slightly related cinema note, the movie "Stander" about the SA bank robber during the 80s has just come out in the UK - am curious to see it. :)

Re: dissenting opinion

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Salma Hayek is, admittedly, always pretty cool, and I have to say that someone with the name Santanico Pandemonium can't be all wrong. She chooses some of the weirdest movies, though. Did you see her in Chain of Fools, that thing with Elijah Wood? Odd and curiously pointless little film.

I don't know why I couldn't be amused by the cheesiness of Dusk Till Dawn, but it simply really, really annoyed me. Sigh.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Actually, generally I enjoy Rodriguez, despite his trademark violence - see aforementioned low fondness for The Faculty, and I loved Once Upon A Time In Mexico, and not just because of Johnny Depp. He's generally a highly stylish director - I must see Spy Kids, if only for the hell of it. I don't know what happened in Dusk Till Dawn, I blame Tarantino. (Good lord! a quick IMDB check reveals that Rodriguez's birthday is two days before mine. Too weird. This means he shares it, if I remember correctly, with James Webb.)

I'm looking forward to Sin City, if only because it's apparently such a perfect comic-book adaptation; the screenshots I've seen have been stupendous. Have you seen the frame-by-frame comparisons at this (http://www.filmrot.com/images/sincity-comparisons/sincity.html) site?

Re: dissenting opinion

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

And, p.s., Salma Hayek has a scene where she takes all her clothes off in Chain of Fools, too, so I'm with you on the theory about her contract clause. She must have done it after The Faculty, in which she does not, tragically, take off her clothes.

Hellsing and a Dissenting Opinion

[(Anonymous)]

I enjoyed FDTD in a B-grade kinda way. However, I went into it completely unaware that it was a vampire movie and I've heard from a few people that it works best (or least worst) like that.

On a vampire-related note we watched the anime Hellsing last night and it was awesome. It's kinda like Pisces/Delta Green for Vampires. Wikipedia has a detailed description (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellsing) which I don't really recommend if you're planning to watch the series. I did a less spoiler filled write up to organise my thoughts on it (http://hodgestar.za.net/hstar/ReViews/Hellsing).

H*

not knowing it's a vampire film

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with the "not knowing it's a vampire film" thing. The first person who mentioned FDTD to me, when it came out on circuit, said something like "have you seen it yet? no? well, I'm not going to say another word, just go and see it". So I was quite in the dark until another friend blithely and unthinkingly wittered on about the vampires, thereby spoiling it, I think. When you start watching it, there seems enough plot there to get a film started without there being any vampires.

I remember startlingly little about the film. George Clooney has a tattoo?

wolverine_nun

Re: not knowing it's a vampire film

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

The fact that I knew it was a vampire film was actually the only thing that kept me watching. I found the serial-killer stuff unbearably tense and horrible to watch, mostly because of Quentin Tarantino's character. The vampires were a momentary relief, before they simply became tacky and gratuitous.

George Cloony has this amazing black, tendrilly flame-thingy all up his left arm. You can see tendrils of it at his neckline, but you only see the whole thing in the last few shots.

Vampire movies

[rumint.livejournal.com]

I must say FDtD is not something I'd go out of my way to see again, since it seemed so tacky without the cool factor that cult movies need. The whole thing just seemed confused, like 2 screenplays got staped together by accident - half road movie, half vampire soft pron.

Speaking of vamp movies, have you seen the Ultra-violet mini-series - would make an interesting comparison between it and x-files, for UK/US conspiracy styles.

Thanks to your anon commentator for the Hellsing recommendation - can you send me the email addr for H* (I'm currently starting to plan a new DG campaign, to use all my Pisces material, and the excellent new Secrets of Japan - chaosium's biggest supplement since Mountains of Madness. Working title of campaign "Big (C) in Japan".)