From Dusk Till Dawn Ii

[Rode Strawther]

FromDusk till Dawn is a 1996 American action horror film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino from a concept and story by Robert Kurtzman.[4] Starring Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Tarantino, Ernest Liu, and Juliette Lewis, the plot follows a pair of American criminal brothers (Clooney and Tarantino) who take a family as hostages (Keitel, Liu, and Lewis) in order to cross into Mexico, but ultimately find themselves trapped in a saloon frequented by vampires.

From Dusk till Dawn premiered on January 17, 1996, at the Cinerama Dome theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles,[5] and was released on January 19 in the United States. It initially received mixed reviews from critics, who described the film as well-made if overly violent. After enjoying financial success at the box office, From Dusk till Dawn has since become a cult film[6] and spawned a media franchise of sequel films, a video game and other media adaptations.

Fugitive bank robber brothers Seth and Richie Gecko hold up a liquor store, killing clerk Pete Bottoms and Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in a shootout. They inadvertently destroy the building as they leave. At an inn room where they are hiding out, Seth returns from getting food to find Richie has raped and murdered a bank clerk they had taken hostage, much to his anger.

Jacob Fuller, a pastor experiencing a crisis of faith brought on by the death of his wife, is on vacation with his teenage children Scott and Kate in their RV. They stop at the inn and are kidnapped by the Gecko brothers, who force the Fuller family to smuggle them over the Mexican border. In Mexico, they arrive at the Titty Twister, a strip club in the desert, where the Gecko brothers will be met by their contact, Carlos, at dawn. Carlos will escort them to the sanctuary at "El Rey", a place of safety for fugitives from justice whose admission fee is 30 percent of everything they have. When Richie complains to Seth that this is too high, Seth tells him it is non-negotiable.

Seth, Kate, and Scott escape to a storeroom, followed shortly by an injured but still alive Jacob, brandishing a shotgun. In the storeroom, they fashion weapons from truck cargo the vampires have looted from past victims, including a stake mounted on a pneumatic drill, a crossbow, and holy water, which requires Jacob to recover his faith to bless. Jacob, knowing he will soon become a vampire, makes Scott and Kate promise to kill him when he changes.

The group makes their final assault on the undead. Sex Machine mutates into a large rat-like creature and attacks Seth, but is killed. Jacob becomes a vampire but Scott hesitates to kill him, allowing Jacob to bite him. Scott kills him, but then is overwhelmed by vampires, who begin to devour him; he begs for death, and Kate kills him. As vampires surround Kate and Seth, streams of morning light enter through bullet holes in the building, making the vampires back away. Carlos arrives and his bodyguards blast open the door, letting in the sunlight which kills the vampires.

Seth chastises Carlos for his poor choice of meeting place and negotiates a smaller tribute for his admission to El Rey. Kate asks Seth if he wants her to go with him to El Rey, but he refuses, apparently concerned for her safety, leaving her with some cash. Kate drives away in the RV, leaving the Titty Twister behind, which is revealed to be the top of an eight-level partially buried Aztec temple.

From Dusk till Dawn was conceived by Robert Kurtzman, who hired Tarantino to write the script as his first paid writing assignment.[7][8] Universal Pictures originally considered Tarantino's screenplay for From Dusk till Dawn as the follow-up to Demon Knight and the second in a proposed Tales from the Crypt film trilogy, but ultimately produced another vampire film, Bordello of Blood, instead.[9]

As with many of Rodriguez's films, From Dusk till Dawn employed a non-union production crew, which is unusual for a production with a budget above $15 million.[11] The making of the film, including the crew's non-union status, was documented in Full Tilt Boogie, released two years later.

On May 1, 1996, the film was banned in Ireland; Irish Film Censor Board head Sheamus Smith cited its "irresponsible and totally gratuitous" violence, which he felt was particularly untimely in the wake of the then-recent Dunblane and Port Arthur massacres.[15][16] In January 2004, the video release was passed with an 18 certificate.[17]

Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and described it as "a skillful meat-and-potatoes action extravaganza with some added neat touches".[21] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: "The latter part of From Dusk till Dawn is so relentless that it's as if a spigot has been turned on and then broken. Though some of the tricks are entertainingly staged, the film loses its clever edge when its action heats up so gruesomely and exploitatively that there's no time for talk".[22]

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote: "Rodriguez and Tarantino have taken the let-'em-eat-trash cynicism of modern corporate moviemaking and repackaged it as junk-conscious 'attitude'. In From Dusk till Dawn, they put on such a show of cooking up popcorn that they make pandering to the audience seem hip".[23] However, in his review for The Washington Post, Desson Howe wrote: "The movie, which treats you with contempt for even watching it, is a monument to its own lack of imagination. It's a triumph of vile over content; mindless nihilism posing as hipness".[24]

Cinefantastique magazine's Steve Biodrowski wrote: "Whereas one might reasonably have expected that the combo of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez would yield a critical mass of nuclear proportions, instead of an atomic fireball's worth of entertainment, we get a long fuse, quite a bit of fizzle, and a rather minor blast".[25] In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle called the film "an ugly, unpleasant criminals-on-the-lam film that midway turns into a boring and completely repellent vampire 'comedy'. If it's not one of the worst films of 1996 it will have been one miserable year".[26]

In Marc Savlov's review for the Austin Chronicle, he wrote: "Fans of Merchant Ivory will do well to steer clear of Rodriguez's newest opus, but both action and horror film fans have cause for celebration after what seems like a particularly long splatter-drought. This is horror with a wink and a nod to drive-in theatres and sweaty back seats. This is how it's done".[27]

The soundtrack features mainly Texas blues by such artists as ZZ Top and brothers Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan on separate tracks. 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 and closing credits.

From Dusk till Dawn was followed by two direct-to-video[30] installments, a sequel From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) and prequel From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2000). They were both received poorly by critics.[31][32] Danny Trejo is the only actor to appear in all three, although Michael Parks appears in both From Dusk till Dawn and The Hangman's Daughter. Rodriguez, Tarantino and Lawrence Bender served as producers on all three films.

A television series inspired by the films premiered on the El Rey network in March 2014, produced and directed by Rodriguez. The show was intended to explore and expand on the characters and story from the film, providing a wider scope and richer Aztec mythology.[33][34]

From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter is the 2000 American supernatural crime-horror direct-to-video prequel to From Dusk Till Dawn. It was written by lvaro and Robert Rodriguez and directed by P.J. Pesce. It is the third film in the trilogy of films but chronologically it is the first.

The film opens in 1913, Mexico when Pancho Villa is talking in Spanish and another man says he wants to see the bullet go by him. His blindfold is removed and as they are talking, a gun is seen being spun and Pancho tells his men to get ready. As they get ready to fire, the man, Ambrose Bierce, wakes up and notices his gun is in another's hands. He goes to Catherine Reece and when she tells him he has a nice gun, he smacks her and gets his gun back. She tells him she just wanted a look at it and he asks her if this is close as the gun is near her face. She nods yes and he tells her to go, to which he kicks her as she does. He asks for a drink and as he waits, a woman, Mary Newlie and her husband, John are seen handing out pamphlets.

He then talks to the bartender about pursuing business in Mexico and says he plans on joining Pancho Villa's revolutionary army. He also has a valuable object in his possession and as he talks, there are yells, and the outlaw Johnny Madrid walks out with the hangman to the execution platform. The Hangman, Mauricio,pulls out his whip and starts hitting Johnny in the back, giving him some fresh cuts. He then spots a girl, Esmeralda, who is revealed to be his daughter, and whips her too. He then wraps the noose around Johnny's neck and asks him if he has any last words, to which he replies "See you in Hell". The execution then begins and Ambrose notices the young woman, Reece, from earlier and that she has a shotgun ready to fire. As Johnny drops through the platform, Reece fires and Johnny is saved. He grabs a horse and starts shooting some of the men, and then grabs Esmeralda's hand, and takes her with him. Mauricio repeatedly shoots at them and one of his men tries to stop him, saying that she's his daughter, and he pulls off the hood, revealing a man with a few scars and says he'd prefer it's her.

As this happens, Ambrose starts boarding a stagecoach and isn't too thrilled about riding with the Newlies, greeting it with sarcasm. As they ride, they talk about religion and he reveals that he plans on joining the revolutionary army and he's an atheist. Somewhere else, Johnny and Esmeralda arrive at some rocks with some water and Johnny confronts Joaquin, who asks where he and the men were. Joaquin tells him that Chato is the "jefe" now. He tells Joaquin to get him and he does. They prepare for a showdown, and as they get ready, Johnny shoots Chato twice in the head and kills him. Soon, a rider is seen on a horse and most of the men are watching Esmeralda, while Johnny practices with his guns. One of the members brings the rider in and it's revealed to be Reece, and she tells Johnny that she wants to be his apprentice. He tells his men to kill her, and while pointing her gun at his privates, she reveals she shot the rope and she tells him what Ambrose is carrying for Pancho Villa. Ambrose is then seen thinking about the nightmare he had, but with the addition of vampires, and Mary takes away his alcohol, but gives it back. Johnny and his gang then get ready to rob the stagecoach and tells Reece if it fails, she dies. They go after the coach and begin to attack, killing both of the drivers and some of the outlaws. They look for the suitcase and find it's just a manuscript of Ambrose's new book, The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, and Johnny is upset at this. Ambrose tells Johnny it's his life and he plans on joining Pancho's army, and Johnny puts down his gun. Joaquin points his gun at him, and Johnny tells him to leave him alone as he is an honorable man. After the outlaws leave, John gets kicked by Ambrose and they start to fight each other, with John punching him, but Mary intervenes. The outlaws arrive at a cemetery and John is seen driving the stagecoach, with them beginning to walk across the desert.

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