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Year: 1994 Rating: ****1/2
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Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS had a lot of tension within a limited interior space while, around the same time, another about-to-break indie filmmaker Robert Rodriguez made a mostly exterior, hyperactive exploitation flick titled MARIACHI...
So in their collaboration FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, written by post PULP FICTION Oscar-winner Tarantino and directed by Rodriguez, there are particular scenes of long, drawn-out dialogue (Michael Parks's opinionated rural sheriff is a standout) that erupts in the kind of frolicking action fare that Tarantino would only subtly wield as a result of his characters' back-to-the-wall predicaments...
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| George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
So the fast-moving director pepped up the cerebral auteur's terrorizing yarn, where the action's caught in a genre-bending whirlwind... and finally providing Tarantino an acting performance that's not a glorified cameo, but completely secondary as George Clooney's twisted bank-robbing partner/little brother...
As there could have been an entirely separate film about The Gecko Brothers, Richie and Seth, and that's part of what's been the heaviest overall critique: that Tarantino's crime-genre first-half, involving the bank robbers kidnapping a RV-driving Texas family to cross the Mexican border, is the best thing going: so by the time a giant barroom of truckers and strippers turn into CGI vampires, the best of DUSK is dead and gone...
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| Tom Savini and Fred Williamson in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
Which is only half true... since what's a nail-biting thriller turns into frantic vampire bedlam, with two terrific side-characters, played by iconic 1970's football player turned blaxploitation star Fred Williamson and applied horror effects guru Tom Savini (also featuring stripping vamp dynamo Salma Hayek)...
Sharing terrific chemistry with and against Clooney, wielding the kind of rebellious mentor confidence he'd lack before or after (OUT OF SIGHT a slight exception); Tarantino's passive/aggressive geeky predator; and first-billed veteran Harvey Keitel, underplaying the former preacher/father role alongside an actress usually prone to completely overboard performances...
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| George Clooney and Juliette Lewis in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
With a shy, virginal confidence effectively morphing into a bonafide action starlet, Juliette Lewis has never been as subtle or effective, particularly when having to kill her adopted brother...
Providing no-name Ernest Liu a worthy one-hit-wonder addition: to what's equally character-driven as plot-intense, mostly thanks to a director creating a fast-moving intentional cult classic from its very inception.
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| Quentin Tarantino in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| George Clooney in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Salma Hayek in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Salma Hayek in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Harvey Keitel FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Cheech Marin in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Fred Williamson in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Tom Savini and Fred Williamson in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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Kelly Preston in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN with Harvey Keitel
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| Kelly Preston in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Tom Savini and Fred Williamson in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Harvey Keitel in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Kelly Preston in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Kelly Preston and George Clooney in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| John Saxon in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Michael Parks in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| John Hawkes in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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George Clooney in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN with Quentin Tarantino
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| George Clooney in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Marc Lawrence in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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| Lawrence Bender in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN |
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