The format of
Grindhouse two features joined together with four trailers thrown in for good measureand its three-hour-plus running time have the films producers a little worried. The long length mean less screenings per day and therefore less money, and the format may be totally foreign to a generation of filmgoers who never went to a grindhouse.
Eli Roth, director of Cabin Fever and Hostel , directs one of the trailers contained within Grindhouse . He says that audiences should not be put off by either the films structure or its length. Whenever you had a sleepover with friends you always watched movies back to back. So people have seen movies in this manner but not in a theater. People say, Well what if you have to go to the bathroom? Well go to the bathroom! Its like part of the experience. You go come back and youve missed part of the movie, and go What the hell happened? and you have to try to figure it all out and you have to catch up. Thats all part of the experience, its not a bad thing. Its a fun thing, and these guys just made such awesome movies. Planet Terror is unbelievably good and Death Proof is just amazing and with such a great cast.
To prep the cast for Grindhouse , filmmaker Quentin Tarantino invited everyone over to his house for film screenings. Three of the Grindhouse babes taking part in a whirlwind promo tour earlier this month talked about the film, and recalled movie night at Quentins.
Quentin Tarantino directs Vanessa Ferlito
We went to Quentins house and watched a bunch of old grindhouse trailers, says Vanessa Ferlito who plays Butterfly in Death Proof . We saw Raquel Welch in this weird roller skating movie. Then we watched Vanishing Point . It was pretty fun. He schooled us at his house. But thats Quentin. He loves to be so involved. And every weekend he would have a screening at his house.
Sydney Poitier, daughter of Sidney, plays the self-assured morning DJ Jungle Julia in Death Proof. She recalls, Quentin had the whole cast over to his house to watch a film called Macon County Line. It was a grindhouse movie and the way in which it was like our movie was the way in which it started off as one thing and ends up as something completely different. So he showed us that and then he showed us an hour or more of trailers from the grindhouse period, all from his collection. There was everythingsexploitation trailers, blaxploitation trailers, kung fu, horror. It really gave us the tone. I realized that I had seen a couple of them so on the whole it was all so new to me, I didnt know they made movies like this so I just watched with my mouth open.
We got pretty primed on grindhouse movies, says Rose McGowan who has roles in both Planet Terror and Death Proof, These movies were so out there and hilarious and just kind of absurd. Grindhouse is a real tip of the hat, Quentin and Robert werent trying to make bad movies at all and they certainly didnt but they were doing an homage to these guys who were such outsiders and who bucked the system and because they had no money they would just do the craziest things, why not? Lets put a frog head on this girls body and then stab her. Robert and Quentin pay homage to these guys who could do whatever they wanted because they were on the fringe but its amazing that they were able to do it from the inside.
Eli Roth recalls his grindhouse experience with great affection: I remember going to see movies growing up in Boston and I remember going to see Evil Dead II in this grindhouse theater where my feet stuck to this puddle of gum, and popcorn and syrup and goo. And I also remember going to this thing they had called Schlock-Around-the-Clock where they showed 24 hours of the worst movies ever made. It was so much fun but the most disgusting theater. Youd go and bring a sleeping bag and watch for 24 hours. I just remember going as a kid and seeing movie after movie after movie and having the time of my life I loved it and I never wanted it to end.
Among Roths favorites were slasher films: My friend Jeff and I, we always watched slasher movies and we watched Halloween, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Mothers Day, April Fools Day, There was always a holiday slasher film, My Bloody Valentine . Every year we were waiting for the Thanksgiving slasher movie. How come it hasnt been done? And finally when Quentin and Robert asked me to do this trailer I was like Thanksgiving . I got it.
Making something that was meant to be only a trailer and never a movie proved to be a very freeing experience for Roth. I was literally coming off making Hostel II , says Roth, and I scheduled two extra days to shoot this trailer for Grindhouse . And it was the most freeing experience I ever had directing. There was no continuity. It was all gags, all kills. It was just about coming up with every shot and we didnt have to worry about continuity with actors, we didnt have to follow a story. It was everything about filming really fun kills. And gratuitous nudity. Theres not a profession for just making trailers but after this I think there might be. If Grindhouse does well Im gonna make a profession of making fake trailers. Its just too much fun its almost like cheating.
Grindhouse obviously draws on old movies for inspiration but Tarantino also turns to music to help define a character or a mood. He has noted that he has a room full of just vinyl and he locks himself in when he writes. He plays records until he finds the beat for the story. Poitier says that Tarantino had a very particular song in mind to define Jungle Julia.
Quentin has the most stellar taste in music, says Poitier, The girls spend a lot of time in a bar where theres this classic old jukebox and its his personal jukebox with his music on it. And the jukebox plays all this great music that really informs the film and the characters. One of the inspiring images for Jungle Julia was of her dancing in front of the jukebox as it plays Baby Its You by Smith. And that was one of the songs that I heard first. And it kind of gave me a sense of who she was.
Sydney Poitier as Jungle Julia in Death Proof
While Grindhouse pays homage to exploitation films, it also gives a contemporary spin to the female characters says Poitier, All these women are very badass, very sexy, very strong and tough. Quentins always reinventing the genre hes working in; the twist here is that in the old grindhouse films, the women werent winners. They were often victims in some way but in Quentins movie they are hands down the heroes. Bad things happen to the first set of girls in Death Proof but by the end of the movie its become a womans revenge film and its very empowering and awesome. So it has the look and feel of a 70s grindhouse film but its very today. Its similar to Pulp Fiction in that its set in modern day but you couldnt really tell, it could be any time.
Partially inspired by the character she played and partially driven by her Irish nature, McGowan says she enjoyed getting down and dirty for the film and even did some of her own stunts. But, she says, the irony is that I didnt get hurt doing anything difficult. I do these backbends and if you listen very carefully when I do the simple one just to show someone what my trick is, youll hear something crack as I injured my hand, my two fingers. But on the big stunts, I didnt get hurt. But it was cool to step up and do that.
McGowan, known to TV fans for her work in Charmed , has become the poster child for Grindhouse. Its her character of Cherry the go-go dancer who loses her leg to the infected hordes and has it replaced with a machine gun.
Rose McGowan as Cherry Darling in Planet Terror
Yeah that image of her with the machine gun leg, McGowan says with an ironic laugh, Well Ill know Ive made it if next Halloween theres a drag queen with a machine gun leg. But I liked that Cherry was actually a three dimensional character. I mean what you see in the trailer is totally badass and shes really strong at that point but she starts out quite loser-ish god bless her. Shes in a dead end life really and theres this beautiful dance sequence in the beginning and it ends with her in tears. Then through this strange confluence of events, and a lot of hilarious, bizarre and fantastical situations she ends up getting a machine gun leg and saving the world.
If McGowans machine-gunned leg Cherry is the iconic image from Planet Terror , Kurt Russells Stuntman Mike with his black Chevy Nova provides Death Proof with its visual signature. Plus it offers Kurt Russellthe former Disney star turned action heroa chance to play against type. Not since he donned an eye patch for Snake Plisskin in John Carpenters Escape from New York , has Russell had a chance to play so nasty. And this time out theres nothing redeeming about him.
I love Kurt Russells Carpenter movies, said Tarantino at last summers Comic-Con, I love MacReady ( The Thing ) but I particularly love Snake Plisskin and Jack Burton ( Big Trouble in Little China ). As Snake hes kind of doing this Clint Eastwood thing and as Jack hes kind of doing his John Wayne thing. As serious as he is, he also knows that in acting youre a child. And theres play time and theres a playfulness about him going that way and committing to it a hundred percent.
He goes a hundred percent as Stuntman Mike as well. Poitier notes that the role is completely counter to what Russell is like: Kurt Russell is this great guy. Hes this down to earth, nice, really grounded man. Hes so humble and fun to work with. I think Stuntman Mike is a great character for him to play because there are so many levels to the character. He has to charm all of these girls and make them feel safe with him and then he turns crazy on them. And he did that so well we were all kind of wow.
Ferlito agrees: Kurt Russell is so dreamy. Plus hes great to work with, really respectful. I thank god it was him because I had to do some crazy things and he was very supportive. We had this lap dance, which is very intimate, and he let me do my thing. He was very supportive.
But that lap dance, which has a major build up in Death Proof , is never actually seen in the version of the film hitting theaters. Instead, just as it is about to occur, a title card comes up and apologizes for a missing reel, and the next scene is everyone leaving the bar after the lap dance occurred. Its a funny gag and it probably means that the scene will be a bonus feature on the DVD.
The DVD will probably highlight some of the films that inspired Grindhouse . Roth says that whenever Tarantino mentions other films or pays homage to them, he instills them with a cool factor that makes them appealing to a whole new generation.
Look what Quentin did with kung fu movies and Kill Bill . After Kill Bill came out, everybody went out and found Sonny Chiba movies. Quentin has the amazing ability to turn people on to a whole wave of cinema that maybe they never appreciated before. You know that Quentin puts references to Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry because he wants people to go out and see those old movies and appreciate them.
Well dont wait to see Grindhouse on DVD. Get out to a theater now, maybe one where youre feet stick to the floor and the seats creak (you know just for added atmosphere) and experience this movie on the big screen. You wont regret it.
