Grindhouse: As close as a movie goer will get to time travel...

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2007)

The new release from the directing duo of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino has been called many things from a "throwback," to an "homage," to "simple blood-drenched popcorn fare." If anything it's as close as a moviegoer will get to time travel. Tarantino and Rodriguez want to take you on a trip. The year will be 1970-something the place: a run down theatre in an unsafe part of town. Buckle up because this is "Grindhouse."
It all begins with the advertising for the film. Tarantino and Rodriguez want to take you someplace. The posters for films in the 1970's were about selling the story or an image or an icon. This is no more apparent than the posters for the film itself. Artificially yellowed and faded, the posters for Grindhouse sell what it's selling. Sex. Violence. Machismo. "Death Proof" has a muscle car with a skull on it. "Planet Terror" has a silhouette of a buxom woman with a machine gun for a leg. When you needed to draw someone to a theater with an image. Using powerful colors: reds, whites, blacks and P.T. Barnum-like headlines like "2 ½ hours of pure dynamite!" These posters aren't selling a movie: they're selling the grindhouse experience.
In an age of pristine digital projection, THX/Dolby surround sound, and remastered prints, Grindhouse takes a novel approach by DOWNgrading the film. I should clarify that when I use the word "film," I'm lying to you because Rodriguez's half of Grindhouse was shot on digital tape, edited on computer, and exported to film stock only at the end of the process. The Scratches, pops, nicks, skips --the look of a film that's been rode hard and put away wet, to use an expressionhave all been added on-purpose and WITH purpose. The film is strategically worn & weathered in a way to add to the historical accuracy of the grindhouse experience. Action scenes seem to have more scratches and skips than pure dialogue scenes. The destroyed stock perpetuates the mythology that '70's film fanatics working as projectionists would often stay after-hours at the theatre to run their favorite action scenes for friends they snuck in through the back fire exit. Remember, this was a time before the '80's brought us "repeat viewings" on VHS. A time when to see a film 400 times you had to go to the theatre 400 times.
The directors faced a few hurdles in the handling of "Grindhouse"'s content in the politically correct 21st century that their '70's counterparts didn't. Sex scenes have been removed most likely to avoid the dreaded X rating. Per MPAA's unofficial standards, a recipe for an X is extreme violence, gore, swearing, nudity and sex. Nix the nudity and sex, keep the rest--- and garner your R. By eliminating the scenes, they keep the running time down from four hours to three, and create a joke out of the missing scenes by inserting a "Missing reel. Sorry for the inconvenience  The Management" title card. Again this plays into the realities of 30 years ago when porn wasn't just a mouse click away---before the crystal clear DVD pause and computer screen grab. Film buffs would snip frames of their favorite sex scenes to view with a film loop in the comfort of their mother's basements. I'm sure there came an occasional time when a ballsier projectionist would simply steal the entire sex scene reel.
The films of Grindhouse are designed for film buffs. Casting genre favorite cameos such as Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, Tom Savini, Jeff Fahey. It's a Gen X smorgasbord that reminds the now thirty-somethings about their teenage days watching The Terminator, Dawn of the Dead, Die Hard until the tapes wore out. Josh Brolin is made to look exactly like 70's-esque father James Brolin in his Amityville Horror days. Makeup Master Tom Savini who supplied many of the gore and splatter effects from what are considered the tent pole horror films of the 70's, appears as an effeminate deputy. For fans of '70's horror their faces bring a familiarity and credibility to what is technically a ruse. We're not watching a '70's film, but yet are led to feel like we are.
Most importantly to be pointed out, and what many consider to be the high points of the film, are the trailers for the fake grindhouse films. Shot by such guest directors as Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, Devil's Rejects), Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel), Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead), and Rodriguez himself, the trailers often rival the two films that air before and after them. Unhindered by having to subscribe to any plot, and with tongue firmly planted in cheek, they rattle off tales such as "Thanksgiving" (a parody of holiday themed horror movies), "Don't" (a parody of horror trailers in general) and "Werewolf Women of the SS." Full of blood, boobs, and monsters, these are mini-masterpieces that could be shoe-horned into any real grindhouse showing and no one would bat an eyelash.
Is Grindhouse a GOOD film or film(s)? Not necessarily. I may purchase it for my DVD shelf. I may pull it out every other year to screen with friends. But I don't think it'll show up in my yearly October/Halloween marathons of horror classics. No, Grindhouse needs to be seen on the big screen in mixed company in a darkened theatre. It's an experience. I would hope that some of the art house theatres or what's left of the modern day grindhouses runs the film "Grindhouse" in yearly weekend showings. That's how it needs to be seen. In its element.
Although Tarantino and Rodriguez's Grindhouse is not an example of great film-making, it IS an example of great film appreciation and a wonderful experiment in replication of an event. It's made BY film fans FOR film fans. So buckle up, wear your bellbottoms and enjoy the wayback-machine called "Grindhouse."