From Dusk til Dawn

 Last night I watched this movie for the second time, this time with friends. My first viewing was on streaming because I saw Quentin Tarantino was starring as an actor and I was curious.

It is directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Tarantino. And I think it an excellent example of their intersection and creative vision. It is a hot, sweaty, sticky film. In the way that you can almost feel the dry heat in the screen and the blissfulness of shade and air conditioning. It also stars young George Clooney, Danny Trejo, and Salma Hayek. And Clooney carries the emotional center of the movie, as a charming, but tested ex-convict trying to make his escape across the border to Mexico. He was aided in his escape by his younger brother (played by Tarantino), who is unsettling and unstable. Together, they robbed a bank, took a hostage and headed south. But Clooney's character is having to watch out for his brother's tendency to react violently and draw attention to their current location.

The movie starts as a desperate and tense ongoing squabble between the two brothers as they strive to achieve their objective of starting a new life in Mexico, paid by a 30% cut of their bank heist to a crime boss across the border. They improvise and hijack an RV owned by widower preacher who lost his faith along with his wife's life. He was running away from his church with his two kids along for the ride while he processes his grief.

The brothers use the family and their vehicle as a cover to make it across the border to Mexico. They have one last hurdle to clear before they start their new life, and make it to a rendezvous point in the middle of nowhere. A massive biker/truck stop bar "open from dusk til dawn" with cheap booze and women. The crime boss will meet them by morning.

Something happens within that bar, that shifts the mood to hostile and transforms the scope and drama of the movie. And it is so unexpected, that the rest of the film tests the audience's expectations for how it can unfold and what new elements can be introduced and made to fit.

One of the great delights of the movie is Tom Savini, who is primarily known as a make up artist in his career. But in a movie with George Clooney and Danny Trejo looking as young and fresh as I have ever seen them, Savini somehow manages to be more casually interesting and captivating as a character. And the absolute patience to allow his character to show through action rather than words, make his delivery that much more effective.

It is a grimy and gritty film, and the performances pay off the setting to great effect. It is a movie where Rodriguez and Tarantino demonstrate the storyteller's ability to frame a tale that is unique to their voice and style to carry.

 

Gross calculation

144 added

Zero sum survival