Date: Wednesday, March 26, 6:30pm
Beverage of Choice: Miller High Life
I felt Planet Terror was the perfect film for the re-launch of Angry Man. Having seen Grindhouse in the theater and feeling like it was the best theater experience I had ever had, this was the right choice. It's kind of like director Robert Rodriguez had an exploitation checklist when conceiving this project: Extreme gore? Check. Lesbians? Check. Violence towards children? Check. Flesh eating ghouls? Check. Wailing saxophones? Check.
I hadn't had a chance to check out the DVD since picking it up, and I had forgotten how great the dialogue was in the film. This was really like getting great action, gore and sex with a great script to boot, instead of what you might find with this type of film. I applaud Rodriguez's choice to keep the whole missing reel concept in the film. I know he had intended this from the beginning, unlike Tarantino with Death Proof, who "shot a reel" and then put it back in for the DVD release. It just seemed like to right choice for Planet Terror, and really kept with the whole grindhouse atmosphere. I was just reading the book Sleazoid Express recently, which is the history of 42nd street cinema in New York, and I remember reading that projectionists used to clip out the sexy parts for their own personal collections, and a lot of the time you would go to the theater and those scenes would be missing. Also, down south on the Drive-In circuit, managers would "edit" the content of their own accord if they deemed it too offensive.
Basically, this just shows Rodriguez's commitment to authenticity and how he went all-in with this project. Between Death Proof and Planet Terror, Planet is definitely my favorite, partly because Rodriquez kept true to the original vision. I think Death Proof is great, but it really went out on it's own path.
2 comments:
I'm with you, Eric. I didn't get a chance to see Grindhouse in the theaters what with the baby and all, so I was really looking forward to this.
Rodriguez has alwaye been kind of hit or miss with me. I generally appreciate what he does, but sometimes his movies drift into self-indulgent overkill (Hello there "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"). Planet Terror was to me a perfect vehicle for his style.
It takes a very special talent to intentionally make a geniunely great movie that's also loving homage to a genre of unintentionally bad flicks. Planet Terror is near perfect in tone. It never degrades to parody (which would have been the cheap and easy way out). Instead it's a celebration of what it used to be like going to the movies... or at least some movies.
By the way, it took me about half the film to realize that Rose McGowan played my least favorite witch in Charmed. After Planet Terror her stock has risen. Wowzers!
Then again, she was also in Monkeybone.
Loved it -again!
Somehow, the air smells more stale and the saturation of color is more vivid when watched during Angry Man.
This film is pure fun and Rodriguez is obviously having the time of his life.
As a child that grew up on the Drive-In Movie on WPIX, The 4:30 movie on Channel 7 out of New York, and various other collections of gore/action adventure/horror, this movie did something for me that was bordering on nostalgia of my own.
Brilliant, bravo, and I didn't know Rose McGowan was in Monkey Bone...
-Bryan
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