Movie review: ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’

FloridaGator80

Whew! Today it is going to be rough … since I’m doing a review of “From Dusk Till Dawn.” It’s got blood, lots of blood; it has gore, lots of gore and no, that’s not the same thing; it has violence, lots of violence; and it has vampires, lots and lots of vampires. Toss in an aggressive, violent criminal and his psycho rapist brother as your main characters and … well, whew! Not much else you can say in one word or even a few more to describe the emotional roller coaster ride watching “From Dusk Till Dawn.” It is truly one that even the somewhat faint-of-heart shouldn’t watch. “From Dusk Till Dawn” is film directed by Robert Rodriguez, but Quentin Tarantino’s influence is both obvious and direct – he wrote the screenplay and is a co-star with George Clooney.

‘From Dusk Till Dawn’
(1996; 108 minutes; rated R; directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring George Clooney, Harvey Keitel and Quentin Tarantino)

YOU’LL WATCH MOST OF THIS ONE THROUGH YOUR FINGERS

(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia and the updating of links on July 14, 2020.)

As I watched it, I thought that “From Dusk Till Dawn” is two movies – one your basic Quentin Tarantino crime tale and the other a vampire story. A very bloody and gory vampire story and a very violent crime story. Of course, the two come together to make the full story of “From Dusk Till Dawn,” but I’d rather see them as separate films – and then not watch the vampire edition at all.

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While Robert Rodriguez is the director on this one, it is pretty much a Quentin Tarantino film whenever the characters speak. Tarantino wrote the screenplay – and so you get terrific dialogue – and co-stars with George Clooney. It’s briefly a bit “Pulp Fiction” at first but then it loses the Tarantino cachet of the idea and words and the work of the actors, but ultimately degenerates into the bloody mayhem it takes to survive an attack by a mass of vampires.

Along the way you get neat supporting work from Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis and Cheech Marin, but all the good dialogue and interaction splutters out once the vampire action starts flying (no pun intended). You also don’t get much out of an actor who you’d like to see much more from.

In “From Dusk Till Dawn,” the story starts with brothers “Seth Gecko” and “Richard ‘Richie’ Gecko.” They’re on the lam from an amazingly violent bank robbery. They’re holding two girls hostage at an isolated convenience/liquor store in Texas. A Texas Ranger comes in and, you guessed it, violence ensues – but only after some great dialogue.

Next, the brothers kidnap a family after one rapes and murders another hostage. Finally, the brothers and their most recent kidnap victims head to Mexico, where the brothers look to hook up with a crime connection and use the family to get across the border.

Again and of course, the bar where they’re supposed to rendezvous has the expected sleazy clientele – but with a twist: The whole bunch of them are vampires and the lead stripper shows her fangs when she is exposed to the blood of one of the brothers (he has been shot in the hand and repaired the hole with duct tape) and, of course and of course, mayhem ensues.

The surviving group is whittled down one-by-one until only two walk out of the bar after putting a savage beat-down on the vampires.

Whew!

Here’s a look at the primary cast and how their characters interact:

  • A two-time Oscar winner (not for this one) Clooney plays “Seth Gecko” and has this character down cold. He’s brutal, but not mindless like his brother. Clooney knows exactly how to play the alpha of alpha dogs in this one. He uses great physical acting from glances, expressions and body to give as solid a performance as he’s had in his career. It’s too bad that it’s in such a sleazy, gore-filled film. Clooney has been in the “Ocean’s Eleven” remake and franchise (click here for my review of it | click here for my review of “Thirteen”). He won his Oscars for acting in “Syriana” and for best picture with “Argo” and has been nominated for three other acting Oscars and two more for direction and writing in “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
  • A two-time Oscar winner and two-time nominee, Tarantino plays brother “Richard Gecko” and is mildly outstanding here. He has his usual manic voice and easily conveys the insanity of his character. Tarantino’s particularly impressive in his reaction to criticism in the scene where Clooney discovers he’s raped and murdered a hostage. Frankly, it’s almost too bad that Rodriguez was involved in the project, since I believe Tarantino could have made an entire crime film with the same characters (sans vampires) that would have been exponentially better than “From Dusk Till Dawn.” Tarantino won two Oscars (both for writing with “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained”) and has been nominated for two more (directing “Inglourious Basterds” and “Pulp Fiction”).
  • An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Harvey Keitel plays “Jacob Fuller,” a pastor in the midst of a crisis of faith, is traveling with his family and gets kidnapped by Clooney and Tarantino. Keitel, a Tarantino favorite from “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction,” does his usual excellent job here and you couldn’t get a better effort from an actor. Keitel was nominated for “Bugsy” and I liked him best in 1973’s “Mean Streets” from Martin Scorsese with Robert DeNiro. He is a prolific actor, with 155+ credits since the first in 1966.
  • The most underrated actor here is Oscar nominee (not for this one, sadly) John Hawkes, who plays doomed character “Pete Bottoms.” As the liquor store clerk, he verbally spars unsuccessfully for his life with the brothers and holds his own with Clooney in his time on screen. I doubt he was better in his nominated role in “Winter’s Bone.” Hawkes was also in “Lincoln” and “American Gangster.”
  • Juliet Lewis plays “Kate Fuller” and Ernest Liu plays “Scott Fuller.” They play Keitel’s kids here and, no surprise, Oscar nominee (not for this one) Lewis has the meatier role, but she doesn’t really do much with it. Neither actor manages to elevate their character and certainly don’t come close to making their work here memorable. Lewis was in “Natural Born Killers” and was nominated for “Cape Fear.” I liked her as Chevy Chase’s daughter in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (click here for my review) and I liked her even better as “Iron Maven” in the roller derby film “Whip It” (click here for my review). Liu had only seven credits in a short career that ended in 2005.
  • Another piece of underrated work here is by Cheech Marin, who has three characters in a border guard, the bar barker “Chet” (I’m uncomfortable tying his last name for this blog) and the crime boss “Carlos.” Marin is smooth in each and manages to be both himself and the character in each – which couldn’t have been an easy job. Marin was in the so-so golf flick “Tin Cup” (click here for my review) as well as being the sidekick to Don Johnson in TV’s “Nash Bridges.”
  • The only somewhat waste of talent here is Oscar nominee (not for this one) Salma Hayek as stripper “Santanico Pandemonium.” She doesn’t do much with the little that is given her to work with. I don’t understand why an actor with her resume would do this role. Ah, well. Hayek was simply terrific in Rodriguez’s absolutely terrific “Desperado” the year before “From Dusk Till Dawn” and was nominated for an Oscar for “Frida.” Just as in this film, Hayek didn’t have much to work with (although with much more screen time) in “After the Sunset” with Pierce Brosnan (click here for my review). Actually, she was equally as good in Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” as any of her other work (click here for my review).
  • A trio of second-tier, but really good, actors round out the bar action: Danny Trejo as “Razor Charlie,” Tom Savini as “Sex Machine” and former football star Fred Williamson as “Frost.” All three give the same solid performance and provide the quality kind of work that headliners wished they had in every film. I’m not going to run down their respective resumes, but you’ll recognize Trejo, who’s been in a candy bar advertisement being CGI’d into the “Brady Bunch” family.
  • Finally, Michael Parks plays “Texas Ranger Earl McGraw,” who is a character who crosses over from Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” film (I write it as a singular although it was a pair). McGraw’s work talking with Hawkes is top-notch and certainly the best scene of his career. He’s also been in Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” as well as TV including “Murder, She Wrote.” Parks died at 77 in 2017.

Lost in the story are John Saxon and Kelly Preston. I’m not sure why either signed on for such small roles, but blink and you’ll miss them. Actually, if they weren’t here at all, you wouldn’t miss them …

  • A Golden Globe winner and nominee (not for this one), Saxon plays “FBI Agent Stanley Chase” and was in the seminal martial arts film “Enter the Dragon” with Bruce Lee. Oh, by the way, I liked Saxon in a western: “Joe Kidd” with Clint Eastwood (click here for my review). He won for movie “The Happy Feeling” as “Most Promising Newcomer – Male” in 1958 and nine years later was nominated for the film “The Appaloosa.”
  • Preston is television reporter “Kelly Hogue.” She’s better known as the wife of superstar John Travolta, and is best-remembered form her work on “Jerry Maguire.” I liked her better in “Twins” (click here for my review) and the little-remembered but very good “SpaceCamp” (click here for my review). Sadly, Preston died at 57 in July 2020 after a battle with breast cancer.

So, you have in “From Dusk Till Dawn” a film that has sensational highs, but the gore detracts from it and keeps it from getting that nod as “sensational.” Although not a huge hit in theaters, it has since become something of a cult classic.

“From Dusk Till Dawn” was the No. 61 film of the year in 1996 and reeled in $25.8 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film of the year was “Independence Day” with $306.1 million. Films from that year I’ve reviewed include:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Multiple sources say the “Gecko” brothers were inspired by the “Frog” brothers from the classic vampire flick “The Lost Boys” (click here for my review).
  • Preston’s birth name was Kelly Kamalelehua Smith and she was a native of Honolulu. She was also in “Christine” (click here for my review), the movie about a homicidal car from a Stephen King story. At the time of her death, she was married to Travolta for 28 years and had once been engaged to Charlie Sheen.
  • Keitel’s first acting credit is for being a “German soldier” in an episode of “Hogan’s Heroes” in 1966.
  • Director Robert Rodriguez has an uncredited role as a member of the bar band.
  • There is a ton of Tarantino-esque homage moments, incidents and props – including “Big Kahuna” burgers (remember them from “Pulp Fiction?”).
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Salma Hayek has a real fear of snakes and had always refused to be near them. Naturally when she read the script, she knew her phobia would prevent her from taking the part. Robert Rodriguez conned her into thinking that Madonna was ready to nab the part instead so Hayek spent two months with therapists to overcome her fear.”
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The name of the movie is taken from the signs found on drive-ins. These signs indicate the length of the shows, which ran “from dusk till dawn”. The movie is full of references to midnight movies and films which were often intended for teenagers to watch late at night from their cars.”
  • Click here for IMDb.com’s extensive trivia page about “From Dusk Till Dawn.”

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