Grindhouse (Tarantino/Rodriguez, 2007)

[DrewReiber]

Weinsteins ready for 'Grindhouse'

-- Grindhouse "officially" cost $53 million (if we believe them), and was originally budgeted at $40 million.

-- The running time is 3 hours and 12 minutes.

Interesting article.

[Antoine Doinel]

DavisDVD reports that Grindhouse will be split in two for the DVD release.

I'm guessing there will be a double dip on this anyway. Seperate releases of Death Proof and Planet Terror and then some kind of "ultimate" Grindhouse with both films and a plethora of extras.

[Cinesimilitude]

Eli Roth's infamous Thanksgiving faux trailer.

That trailer alone could have been given NC-17, The MPAA probably knew it was a lost cause to request too many cuts.

I can't wait for this.

[Antoine Doinel]

From Nerve's ScreenGrab blog, some info on the soundtrack to Death Proof:

The Music of Death Proof: A Beginner's Guide
4/2/2007 5:00:00 PM

Quentin Tarantino is almost as much a "rock" star as a "god among directors," and so each new film inspires obsessive speculation of its soundtrack. The CD of his half of Grindhouse just hit the streets and already the WWW has provided a great deal of information about Death Proof's tunes, which includes loose stringed car tunes and smokey blues numbers. Here is a guide to the songs with information culled from numerous websites.

"The Last Race" — Jack Nitzsche

This twangy, jaunty tune originally appeared in the 1965 sub-Disney film Village Of the Giants (possibly over the credits). The film itself concerns a boy scientist (Ron Howard) who invents a growth juice. Bert I. Gordon's all-star boy cast also includes Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford, and Beau Bridges (as the bully who steals the formula).

"Baby, It's You" — Smith

Though originally recorded by the Shirelles and later by the Beatles, the version of this Burt Bacharach (music), Barney Williams, and Mack David (lyrics) song is the one that appears on the album A Group Called Smith, with lead singer Gayle McCormick. Smith was a band discovered by Del Shannon.

"Paranoia Prima" — Ennio Morricone

What would a Tarantino film be without a sampling of Morricone? In this case it is an edgy passage of the score from Dario Argento's 1971 The Cat O Nine Tails (Il Gatto a Nove Code).

"Jeepster" — T. Rex

This 1971 single inspired a wee bit of controversy owing to its similarity to the Howlin' Wolf song, "You'll Be Mine," by Willie Dixon. Marc Bolan later acknowledged that he "lifted it from a Howlin' Wolf song." Salient lyrics include, "Just like a car you're pleasing to be hold /I'll call you Jaguar if I may be so bold / 'Cos you're my baby, 'cos you're my love / Oh girl I'm just a jeepster for your love — oh"

"Staggolee" — Pacific Gas & Electric

This tune comes from the 1970 Columbia album Are You Ready, which also contained the band's first hit. This short lived band was basically built around the voice of singer Charlie Allen, who started out as the drummer, and became even more Allen centric when the band quit shortly after the record's release. "Staggolee" is Allen and co-writer John Hill's variation on the tradition blues number, also called "Stagger Lee and numerous variations, about the murder inspired by the theft of a hat. Pacific Gas & Electric later went on to do the soundtrack to Otto Preminger's film Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.

"The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)" — Joe Tex

This tune by the Texas-born singer (as Joseph Arrington Jr., in 1933) who may have invented rap," was a hit in the mid-1960s.

"Good Love, Bad Love" — Eddie Floyd

Most famous for the label-defining Staxx hit "Knock on Wood," Eddie Floyd recorded this slow ballad in the mid-1960s. Floyd is also famous for his cover of Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me," and appeared in Blues Brothers 2000.

"Down In Mexico" — The Coasters

Narrative song-oriented, and more or less the invention of songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, The Coasters broke into the charts with this, the band's first hit, back in 1956. Sample lyrics include: "Down in Mexicali / There's a crazy little place that I know / Where the drinks are hotter than the chili sauce /And the boss is a cat named Joe."

"Hold Tight — Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Now nearly forgotten competitors to the Beatles (but all from Wiltshire rather than Liverpool), and with a law-firm-sounding band title combining all their nicknames, this band had a number of hits in the mid-1960s, including this single from 1966. What's curious about this band, at least in this song, is their quintessential American So-Cal surf sound.

"Sally and Jack" — Pino Donaggio

Brian De Palma remains one of Tarantino's favorite filmmakers, and this musical passage is a love theme from Blow Out from 1981. Pino Donaggio is something of an heir to both Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone in his stripped down approach and gift for melody, respectively, and he has collaborated with De Palma on numerous films, beginning, memorably with Carrie. Another one of his early scores is for Don't Look Now.

"It's So Easy" — Willy DeVille

This Mink DeVille tune (which I haven't been able to track down, but which presumably appeared on one of the group's first three albums) was also used in one of the disco scenes in William Friedkin's 1980 film Cruising. Under the leadership of Willy DeVille (aka, William Borsay), Mink DeVille was one of the first of the pan-sexual New York glam bands.

"Riot In Thunder Alley" — Eddie Beram

Info on Eddie Beram is hard to come by, but this drum-oriented instrumental appears in the Richard Rush directed speedway film Thunder Alley starring Annette Funicello and Fabian.

"Chick Habit" — April March

April March (born as Elinor Blake) is the animator turned indie pop musician. As an animator, she worked on Pee Wee's Playhouse, and did the credit sequence for the Madonna film Who's That Girl. As a musician she had two groups (The Pussywillows and The Shitbirds), and is an acknowledged Francophile. In fact, "Chick Habit" is an Anglicized version of the Serge Gainsbourg tune, "Laisse Tomber Les Filles," itself an entry in the so-called yé-yé sound whose practitioners include Jane Birkin, Petula Clark, Françoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, Chantal Goya, and, of course, Brigitte Bardot. "Chick Habit" first appeared on the March's 1994 disc Gainsbourgsion! (apparently never officially released), and was first used in the 1999 film But I'm A Cheerleader. The Tarantino Wiki's Grindhouse pages point out that in Death Proof, the character of Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in the final scene is dressed in a cheerleader uniform. Relevant lyrics to the song include: "Hang up the chick habit /hang it up, daddy, /or you'll be alone in a quick /hang up the chick habit /hang it up, daddy, /or you'll never get another fix /i'm telling you it's not a trick /pay attention, don't be thick /or you're liable to get licked /you're gonna see the reason why /when they're spitting in your eye /they'll be spitting in your eye /you're gonna need a heap of glue /when they all catch up with you /and they cut you up in two." — DK Holm

[Fletch F. Fletch]

The Village Voice digs it.

Rolling Stone briefly interviews Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright.

[John Cope]

Armond's righteous rage.

[DrewReiber]

Armond's righteous rage.

I stopped reading when I saw this:

If one made sense of it—as geeks did when attempting to justify '70s exploitation movies

That's some pretty pathetic passive aggression. It completely undermines any attempt at refutational argument or even expanded criticism beyond that statement. I must now assume I should not read anymore reviews from Armond unless I'm already familiar with what types of films he views as without merit. Yeesh...

[colinr0380]

Eli Roth's infamous Thanksgiving faux trailer.

What more could you ask from a trailer? Boy and girl kissing in car before...boy and girl kissing in dark woods before...

And to cap it off boy and girl in school gymnasium after dark which combines nudity while bouncing on a trampoline! (Why didn't any real exploitation film think of doing this?) The ending to that one is a real leg-crosser!

The most recent film I remember seeing with a 'boy and girl going into the...' scene was that German film Anatomy from 2000, which has the couple making out on an autopsy table! This is the Anita Loos music video for Anatomy - she plays the girl in the film too and there are brief clips of her sexy dancing on the autopsy table! Franka Potente is the lead, in the Jamie Lee Curtis sweet and innocent role, while Anita Loos plays the sexy (and of course doomed!) best friend!

I like the way the Thanksgiving trailer makes the film seem like it would be really bad in its full length. I could imagine the '42nd Street audience' getting a bit bored with a film where everyone just gets decapitated, even though they are done wittily (the papier mache head, the blow job to the headless boyfriend, the kiss with the body falling away underneath!) and then just when the audience gets antsy there is just a hint of the film reaching a horrible, grotesque conclusion with the Thanksgiving dinner party scene, which of course would make sitting through the previous 80 minutes of the feature worthwhile!

[Barmy]

Yeah, I don't care what Armond says either. But then again, real grindhouse was not relentlessly hyped in a transparently corporate way like this one has been. And, like SoaP (and Kill Bill, for that matter), I feel like I've been hearing about it for years prior to its release.

[Hrossa]

Oblivious to the desolation—the cultural dead-end—that grindhouse fare represented

I guess Armond's right. There actually aren't any 70's B-movies with any redeeming qualities.

No comment:

The first victimized group includes a black radio DJ named Jungle Julia—a racist taunt purposely doubled by casting Sydney Tamiia Poitier (daughter of the legendary Civil Rights-era actor) in a role best described as Samuel L. Jackson with tits.

Alas, Grindhouse is also a watershed event; a big-ticket capitulation to Hollywood's constant chase after the youth market, validating teens' lack of discretion as the prevailing cultural standard. And here R.R. and Q.T. are right: Grindhouse's frenzy of vengeance indicts all of American pop culture. It's an Abu Ghraib action extravaganza.

Well, now finally the apocalypse is upon us. Grindhouse is the film that did all of American pop culture in. It wasn't Dancing With the Stars or the cable news coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death and aftermath, surprisingly.

This review deserves to go in a book somewhere.

[Jeff]

Yeah, I don't care what Armond says either. But then again, real grindhouse was not relentlessly hyped in a transparently corporate way like this one has been. And, like SoaP (and Kill Bill, for that matter), I feel like I've been hearing about it for years prior to its release.

But then, "real" grindhouse didn't have a $54 million budget to recoup. I think the idea here is to create an homage to grindhouse cinema, not a replica of it.

[patrick]

Maybe I missed this somewhere in the thread, but I've heard that due to various countries' differing censorship policies (and probably the urge to mess with geeks), pretty much every country will get a different cut of Grindhouse.

[domino harvey]

I don't think White is completely off base with some of his more outlandish societal criticisms, but that review was probably 90% written before he even saw the movie(s).

[bufordsharkley]

I just got back from a sneak preview of this....

(Best to introduce my tastes, in reference to all this: I'm pretty damned far from a Tarantino apologist, though I'll admit Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown are beautiful. Kill Bill, for instance, I found to be dreck. And the less said about Robert Rodriguez, the better-- I struggle to think of anybody with less skills or worse instincts.)

...That said, this was absolutely amazing, in every sense of the word. Give it a chance-- it starts out as a puerile gagfest (though the gags are occasionally clever), only a success as a experiment in formalism and film theoretics.

Then Tarantino's segment happens. Some people walked out during the first half-- I really couldn't blame them, as it was watchable and occasionally funny, but little else.

And as I said, I'm pretty damned far from an apologist-- but Holy Hell. I can say, with no exaggeration, that Tarantino's segment is a cinematic landmark-- it introduces new ways of making the audience feel.

(And I'll qualify again-- this isn't even my kind of movie. My tastes run in the line of Tati, or Dassin, or Keaton, or Errol Morris....)

...I felt an adrenaline rush (something I may have never experienced in a theatre before) that lasted 10 minutes after the credits ended. And if the audience there was any indication, I wasn't alone-- 85 percent of the people stayed until the last credit spooled out. A good guess is that they physically couldn't stand up if they wanted to.

(The feeling is fading now in my mind, and I'm starting to feel foolish for raving this much-- to qualify again, I'm damned stingy with this sort of high praise-- but it was a stunning experience.)

[DrewReiber]

I don't think White is completely off base with some of his more outlandish societal criticisms, but that review was probably 90% written before he even saw the movie(s).

There isn't a thing in that review I could take seriously.

But then, "real" grindhouse didn't have a $54 million budget to recoup. I think the idea here is to create an homage to grindhouse cinema, not a replica of it.

Honestly, the whole "grindhouse" term is wholly misused, especially by Rodriguez and Tarantino. I'm just going to presume, at least with this label, that they mean the b-level genre fare from the early 70's to early 80's as they seem to imply (John Carpenter, slashers, Duel, etc.). I am curious to know how much each director spent, as Rodriguez seems to be able to do a lot with a little while Tarantino rarely goes that far out on budget. I don't think either of them has spent over $60 million a project yet, but I could be wrong. And again, I'm not entirely sure I buy that number provided but I guess we'll all see soon.

Well, now finally the apocalypse is upon us. Grindhouse is the film that did all of American pop culture in. It wasn't Dancing With the Stars or the cable news coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death and aftermath, surprisingly.

This review deserves to go in a book somewhere.

Amen, brother.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I am curious to know how much each director spent, as Rodriguez seems to be able to do a lot with a little while Tarantino rarely goes that far out on budget.

I've seen rumors (and nothing more than that) on a couple of sites suggesting that Rodriguez went over-budget and over-schedule and the Weinsteins had to rein him in.

[DrewReiber]

I've seen rumors (and nothing more than that) on a couple of sites suggesting that Rodriguez went over-budget and over-schedule and the Weinsteins had to rein him in.

From what I remember Rodriguez said at San Diego, and the explanation later given for the shutdown of production, was that both directors were supposed to aim for 60-75 minute films and while shooting Planet Terror the script grew beyond the original pages. Tarantino's did as well and even though he wasn't shooting yet, both productions needed financing to be adjusted accordingly. From Marley Shelton's comments, Tarantino was on Terror's set helping pound out notes and script alterations so both parties must have known what was going on when it happened. I don't think the Weinsteins had to reign him in so much as get the script locked so they actually had the money to finish the film.

The shutdown turned some below-the-line people against Rodriguez, which then resulted in a number of nasty rumors ranging from stories about the seperation with his wife or even that he doesn't shoot his films. I ran across some of these second hand through a friend of mine who works with Panavision. I honestly don't care about that stuff and none of it was my business, but clearly there was an agenda set by a few people to hurt Rodriguez personally and I believe Tom Savini even publicly chimed in at one point to counter those attacks. None of it ever popped up in the media, so I'm guessing it thankfully died on the Internet.

Too bad about Planet Terror needing a production reorganization though, because up until then Rodriguez had a pretty solid reptutation of staying under budget. I'm guessing that the Weinstein's embraced the expansion because the only other choice would be to nix the double-feature idea completely and end up generating a lot of negative publicity they could do without. My fingers are crossed on the weekend numbers, as I really want to see such valiant efforts rewarded for trying to get people excited about the theatrical experience again.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Well, the Variety article you linked to at the top of the page blames the hiatus squarely on Rodriguez' personal troubles, so it looks like at least some of the rumors made their way into the "legit" media (even if there's nothing particularly seamy in there). How this squares with the "Rodriguez was going over-budget" story is anyone's guess but I suppose they're not mutually exclusive. Regardless of the actual numbers and the reasons behind them, the stuff in the trailer alone looks like it cost more than any two or three dozen real grindhouse pics put together...

[Anonymous]

In my opinion the budget is Grindhouse's biggest problem. If Tarantino and Rodriguez were really sincere about their intentions and wanted to pay tribute to 60s/70s exploitation films properly, then they would've done the films independently, with unknown actors, small budgets and no special effects whatsoever. All that CGI in the trailer looks horrible, hand-made effects are always better. Also, the faux trailers by Rob Zombie and Eli Roth are much more in the actual Grindhouse-tradition than the Rodriguez/Tarantino films. I'd much rather see Thanksgiving or Werewolf Women of the SS than Death Proof and Planet Terror.

[colinr0380]

I don't really agree with White suggesting that exploitation films rightfully died out and that it then took Tarantino and Rodriguez to revive them. The 'grindhouse' or drive-in experience may have gone but I don't think White sees how the films influenced studio films (for example the recent remake craze, but also a studio like Paramount financing Friday the 13th films) and how video took over as the means of showing exploitation films. Also some of the bigger studios started divisions to produce direct to video fare. So I think it was more that the independents gave way to the studios as films just became too expensive to make and there were less independent producers and places to show them to justify the market for showing them in theatres. I guess it also looks back to a time where if you wanted nudity you had to visit the theatre in the particular neighbourhood showing the sexy films, whereas once video arrived it was preferable (for lots of reasons!) and more convenient to watch at home!

I'd agree with the above concerns raised about the budget. One of the things I'd hoped for from Kill Bill was a little ironic nod to the audience that they were aware they were making a big budget film with famous actors to recreate the feeling of tiny films with mostly unknown (or *shock* foreign!) actors. But then I suppose the irony is there in the simple existence of the films - I don't think any studio was going to celebrate any of these types of films if left to their own devices!

[Fletch F. Fletch]

I read somewheres that the budget jumped considerably when Rodriguez wanted to do the CGI work on Rose McGowan's amputee gun leg.

Let's face it, the budget is still pretty tame compared to the $100 million+ of blockbusters like Spider-Man 3 and the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Not to mention, with all of this hype, I think that the Grindhouse movies will easily make their money back and will capitalize on the long weekend... I predict a strong opening weekend. The key will be if it has legs, if people will want to go back and see it again.

[Anonymous]

Well Grindhouse's budget is not astronomical, but what bothers me about Tarantino and Rodriguez is their lack of guts. I mean, a real exploitation homage would have to be done independently and not in a big studio way. CGI, famous actors and big budgets should be verboten when it comes to that kind of concept.

I love exploitation films of all kinds and constantly watch them, but what Rodriguez and Tarantino are doing has nothing to do with the real deal. Those two are simply very naive drinking buddies who lack the sensitivity, wit and intelligence to pull off a genuine homage. John Waters should do it, not those hacks.

[Antoine Doinel]

Well Grindhouse's budget is not astronomical, but what bothers me about Tarantino and Rodriguez is their lack of guts. I mean, a real exploitation homage would have to be done independently and not in a big studio way. CGI, famous actors and big budgets should be verboten when it comes to that kind of concept.

Yes, in a perfect world, that would be wonderful. But how many distributors do you think would pick up a three hour film with no stars, "vintage" special effects, and countless gore and nudity? And how much do you want to bet that the MPAA would've given that film an NC-17 instead of an R? That film would've be a ridiculously hard sell even with Tarantino's attached to it. Under those conditions it would've been pointless to make the film at all.

As someone else mentioned this is an homage to exploitation films, not a direct replication. As directors why should they confine themselves to genre and technical specifications from thirty years ago? This isn't an self-defined experiment like Soderbergh's The Good German but an attempt to create their own double feature, with their own individual style with borrowing ingredients from exploitation pics of the past.

I can only imagine the cries of "rip-off!" and "unoriginal!" that would've come from this board had Tarantino gone the direct duplication route.

[Antoine Doinel]

Time Out NY examines the grindhouse theatres of yore.

[domino harvey]

I doubt this makes more than $15 million this weekend. The studio knows it will recoup with DVD and the international market, I doubt even they are anticipating a number one opening.