From Dusk till Dawn
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| From Dusk till Dawn | |
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| Directed by | Robert Rodriguez |
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| Produced by | Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino Lawrence Bender |
| Written by | Story: Robert Kurtzman Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino |
| Starring | George Clooney Harvey Keitel Quentin Tarantino Juliette Lewis Ernest Liu Fred Williamson Tom Savini Cheech Marin Salma Hayek |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | Guillermo Navarro |
| Studio | Dimension Films A Band Apart Los Hooligans |
| Distributed by | Dimension Films |
| Release date(s) | United States: January 19, 1996 Australia: April 18, 1996 United Kingdom: May 31, 1996 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000,000 |
| Followed by | From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money |
From Dusk till Dawn is a 1996 action/horror film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino. The movie stars George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, and Juliette Lewis. The film was banned in the Republic of Ireland on its release in 1996, but the ban was lifted in 2000.
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[edit] Plot
Fugitive bank robbers and brothers Seth (George Clooney) and Richie Gecko (Quentin Tarantino) are fleeing the F.B.I. and Texas police. During the first few minutes of the film, they hold up and then destroy a liquor store and kill the clerk, and a cop. Two witnesses they held hostage in the store can escape during the shooting. They still hold a bank clerk hostage in the trunk of their car, whom Richie later rapes and murders (offscreen).
The Fuller family — Jacob (Harvey Keitel), the father and a pastor who is experiencing a crisis of faith; his son Scott (Ernest Liu); and daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis) — are on a vacation in their RV. They stop at a motel and are promptly kidnapped by the Geckos, who force the Fullers to smuggle them past the Mexican border. Seth and Jacob make an uneasy truce: if the Geckos can make it past the border, Jacob and his family will come out of the ordeal unharmed. They succeed and arrive at the "Titty Twister", a strip club in the middle of a desolate part of Mexico, where the Geckos will be met by their contact Carlos (Cheech Marin) at dawn. The Geckos demand that the Fullers have a drink with them before leaving, despite Kate's obvious discomfort.
Soon after entering the club, chaos ensues as the employees and strippers are all revealed to be vampires. Most of the patrons are quickly killed, and Richie is bitten by the star stripper, Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek), and bleeds to death. Only Seth, Jacob, Kate, Scott, a biker named Sex Machine (Tom Savini) and Frost (Fred Williamson), a Vietnam War veteran, survive the attack. The slain patrons — including Richie — then come back to life as vampires, forcing Seth to kill his own brother.
During this second struggle, one of the vampires bites Sex Machine in the arm. Subsequently, Sex Machine changes into a vampire and bites Frost and Jacob before Frost throws Sex Machine through the door which allows an army of vampires to enter as bats from the outside. Seth and the Fullers desperately escape to a back storeroom and fashion anti-vampire weapons from items found therein, including a pneumatic drill, crossbow, shotgun and holy water (which requires Jacob to recover his faith to bless it). Jacob, knowing he will soon turn into a vampire as well, makes a reluctant Scott and Kate promise to kill him when he changes.
The four then make their final assault on the undead. Jacob changes, but Scott hesitates to dispatch his father, allowing Jacob to bite Scott. Scott then hits Jacob with holy water and shoots him. Scott is then captured by several vampires who begin to devour him. Begging for death, Scott is shot by Kate. Only Seth and Kate are alive, surrounded by vampires. Just as they contemplate suicide, streams of sunlight shine through new holes in the walls, making the vampires back away. Dawn has come, and Carlos is trying to shoot his way in. On Seth's call, Carlos' bodyguards blast open the door, letting in full sunlight and killing every vampire inside. Carlos admits that he had never entered the club, but that he had thought it looked like "a fun place."
Kate asks Seth if she can go with him to El Ray, but he declines, saying, "I may be a bastard, but I'm not a fucking bastard." She (in the RV) and Seth (with Carlos) go their separate ways after Seth gives Kate some cash. As they leave, the camera pans back to reveal that the "Titty Twister" was actually the top of a partially buried ancient Aztec temple, presumably the home of vampires for centuries, and that hundreds of trucks and bikes have been toppled down the side of the cliff.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Harvey Keitel | Jacob Fuller |
| George Clooney | Seth Gecko |
| Quentin Tarantino | Richie Gecko |
| Juliette Lewis | Kate Fuller |
| Ernest Liu | Scott Fuller |
| Salma Hayek | Santanico Pandemonium |
| Cheech Marin | Border Guard/Chet Pussy/Carlos |
| Danny Trejo | Razor Charlie |
| Tom Savini | Sex Machine |
| Fred Williamson | Frost |
| Michael Parks | Texas Ranger Earl McGraw |
[edit] Labor issues during production
From Dusk till Dawn employed a non-union production crew, which is unusual for a production with a budget above 15 million dollars. Rodriguez, Tarantino and producer Lawrence Bender defended this choice because it made for a more team-like atmosphere on the set instead of people having to stick to their certified jobs. Yet the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts targeted the production for strike action seeking to shut down filming, feeling that the film was a large enough production to warrant a unionized crew. Police were employed on set during some shooting days although no industrial action took place. This issue is covered in the making-of documentary Full Tilt Boogie featured on the film's DVD.
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack features mainly Texas blues by such artists as ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan. The Chicano rock band Tito & Tarantula, who portrayed the band in the Titty Twister, appears on the soundtrack as well. The film's score is by Graeme Revell. "Dark Night" by The Blasters plays over the film's opening credits.
[edit] Sequel and prequel
The film was followed by two direct-to-video follow-ups, a sequel, From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money and a prequel, From Dusk till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter. Danny Trejo is the only actor to appear in all three, although Michael Parks appears in The Hangman's Daughter. Rodriguez, Tarantino and Bender served as producers on all three movies. Both sequels were received poorly by critics. Texas Blood Money currently has a rating of 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. [1]
[edit] References
- ^ "Rotten Tomatoes - Texas Blood Money". rottentomatoes.com. 2008-10-21. http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/from_dusk_till_dawn_2_texas_blood_money/. Retrieved on 2008-10-21.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: From Dusk till Dawn |
| Preceded by Twelve Monkeys |
Box office number-one films of 1996 (USA) January 21, 1996 |
Succeeded by Mr. Holland's Opus |
| Preceded by Muppet Treasure Island |
Box office number-one films of 1996 (UK) June 2, 1996 – June 9, 1996 |
Succeeded by The Passion of Darkly Noon |
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