| Best of QT Fest - Day 5 |
This article is part of Best of QT Fest
We have officially passed the halfway point at the Best of the QT Fest. Tonight's line-up was the night I was looking forward to the least (well, not Rolling Thunder... that's one of the one's I've been really psyched about). But hell, even a bad night at a QT fest is better than a good day at a multi-plex. And, it turned out that the two movies I was worred about, Billy Jack and Vanishing Point, actually ended up be cool in their own way. I should learn not to doubt the master.
Billy Jack (1971)
Directed by: Tom Laughlin
Starring: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor
Tarantino Introduction:
Tarantino got on-stage and began to chuckle at the concept of pacifist hippie movies where everything is solved by violece. He really digs this movie, though, going as far as to call it one of the "best modern day westerns." QT is quarter-Cherokee, and he says that the scene in this movie were Billy Jack describes the Indian religion was the first time he (QT) really got a sense of what their belief system was all about. He says its easy to dismiss their belief in the god of water, god of dirt, god of fire, etc, as being juvenille (as least how its portrayed in the media), but that when you hear Billy Jack talk about it, it sounds really profound.
The other really great thing that QT pointed out about this movie is that the female lead in this movie, Delores Taylor, is also Tom Laughlin's wife in real life. Laughlin wrote and directed this film (and the other Billy Jack movies) and QT sees them as a really beautiful love letter between a man and his wife. Tarantino was really serious at this point in the introduction, telling us to watch the way Laughlin looks at Taylor in this movie, and pointing out that he went as far as to give her top billing in the Billy Jack sequels. "It honestly breaks my fucking heart." Great way to prime us for the movie.
Trailers:
The Killers - I watched this one not to long ago, and loved it. Theres a scene in the trailer where criminal Ronald Reagan tells his girlfriend Angie Dickenson to go back to the house. She refuses, saying "I like it here." Reagan gets this great smile on his face, walks towards her, says "I can take care of that," and absolutely slaps the shit out of here. Great crowd reaction.
Electra Glide In Blue - The story of a 5'4" motorcycle cop in a 6'2" world. Review
Police Woman & Hell Night - These trailers played back to back, and after each one, QT could be heard yelling "TOMORROW!"
The Movie:
I remembered hating this movie the last time I saw it, but couldn't remember why. After seeing it again, I'll say that there are some really cool things about this movie. Billy Jack himself is a fantastic character, his monologue in the ice cream shop about controlling his temper, the slow-motion fight scene where Laughlin injures a half-dozen extras (seriously... some of those kicks to the face could have been in Ong Bak not felt out of place)... all of that stuff is really fantastic.
My problem with the movie, though, comes with all the stuff that takes place in the alternative-hippie-commune/school. There's these kids living out there, and although keeping them safe is the focal point of the film, I could have done with waaay less time watching them dancing interprative dances and performing bad improv drama. I may be in the minority on this (in fact, I'm sure I was last night), but the scenes with those annoying child actors were mostly insufferable. Not all of it should have been taken out... there's a 4-man street performance scene that was honestly hilarious and incredibly well-written. But most of the rest of the scenes with the kids at the school (and at the town meeting) just seemed to go on forever, with the only payoff being to show that they were 'different.' Of course, you can find kids exactly like that in every drama department in every high school across the nation, so I'm not sure how 'different' they really were.
None of that takes away from the fact that anytime something bad's going down and you see Billy Jack arrive in the background, it's a really kickass moment. And the final scene with One Tin Soldier blaring away put a big smile on my face. On the whole, not a bad way to kick things off.
Vanishing Point (1971)
Directed by: Richard C. Sarafian
Starring: Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger, Victoria Medlin
Tarantino Introduction:
Tarantino's intro for this one was short, because he wanted the movie to "speak for itself." So, instead of delving into Vanishing Point ("I could do a whole treatise on this one"), he pointed out that this movie was continuously playing in theaters from its release until around 1977. Anytime a car movie would come out, the theater owners would pull out a print of Vanishing Point, and have themselves a double feature. Tarantino described this one as an "existential hippie headtrip action film," and praised it for being one of the first films to use a song (as opposed to score) based soundtrack (something QT has obviously used to great success in his films.) He also teased us by mentioning that this movie would be the "touchstone, major plot point, the rosetta stone" of his half of Grindhouse.
Trailers:
Citizens Band - This Jonathan Demme movie looked like a cross between a haunted CB radio flick and a rural version of the Conversation. Brian's eagle eyes caught the split-second appearance of John "Psycho From Texas" King III, which caused him to blurt out "It's Wheeler!" Well done.
Lady In Red - She learned to live life the hard way... now she's ready to give lessons.
Twisted Nerve, Don't Go in the House - Another tease for tomorrow night's marathon, another burst of "TOMORROW!" from the back of the theater.
The Movie:
I didn't take a lot of notes (actually any notes) for this one. It's not really something that would sound that good on paper anyway. The plot is bare bones minimum - a driver with a tortured past makes a bet that he can get from Denver to San Francisco in a certain amount of time. Along the way he meets a shitload of strange characters and becomes the focus of a nationwide manhunt, all the while being guided by instructions from a mysterious blind DJ named Super Soul.
This really wasn't my kind of movie, but I can see why people who are into this kind of allegorical journey through life type movie really liked it. The film is amazingly well shot, and one a surface level, the characters he meets in the desert are really facinating. My particular favorite was the crazy old man who collected snakes and sold them to the evangelical Christians. In my mind he's the long-lost brother of Snakey Bender (from Snakes), and whenever the technology gets good enough that you can make movies with digital copies of dead actors, I'll be putting out a Bender Brothers flick. Watch for in in 2014.
When the movie was over I had no clue what I'd just seen, but was relieved to hear that Brian and NY Sean felt the same way. That was actually Brian's second time to see it, and he let us know that the film was made as an extended commercial for the then-newly-released Ford Charger. Apparently, Ford funded this movie, with the only instruction being that Sarafian make a movie that made the car look cool. You'd never expect a major corporation to be behind something that artsy, so that little bit of knowledge made the film retroactively a bit cooler.
Rolling Thunder (1977)
Directed by: John Flynn
Starring: William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones
Tarantino Introduction:
Tarantino saw this one for the first time in the sixth grade - he went to go see it as a double feature with Enter the Dragon, and while the thought EtD was a great movie, when this one screened, he was blown away. In fact, he cited this and Assault on Precinct 13 as the two movies that he would track all around LA, travelling from one drive-in to another, and into ghetto theaters anytime either one was shown. "And back then, I didn't have a car. So I had to take the fucking bus, alright? Which, in any other state would be alright... but in LA... IT SUCKS. Their bus system is all fucked up, and if I didn't catch the 11:03 bus just right, I'd be fucking stuck in the ghetto all night. But you know what? It was all worth it to see this movie."
Tarantino describes how the great thing about pre-home video cinema, was that things weren't readily accessible. "You know, you don't always need to have the shit available right now." He described the all-too-common experience of rushing out to buy something at Best Buy, only to find it years later with the cellophane wrapper still intact. In his mind, there's something to be said for the experience of just remembering a movie. He ran down the list of movies from this week that aren't readily accessible on home formats (including Kiss the Girls and Make them Die and The Dion Brothers), but consoled us by saying "Now you've seen it. You've got it, remember it, carry it with you. And the next time it's on somewhere, go see it, and you'll be happy to get the chance to watch it again." As the lights went down, he suddenly remembered to remind us "tip your waitstaff" to which a female voice in the back of the Drafthouse could be heard to reply "Thank you!"
Trailers:
Gator - We're comin' to get ya, Gator.
Trackdown, Cannonball, All in a Night's Work - I didn't really take notes about any of these... All in a Night's Work looked kinda cool though. And Cannonball always rocks.
The Movie:
Tarantino had described this movie as the best combination of character study and action flick, and he's dead on. The entire first half of the movie looks at a man who's come back from being a POW in Vietnam. He has the standard problems you see in these types of movies - his wife's moved on, his kid doesn't remember him, he can't relate to anyone around him, and he just can't get used to the idea of being able to do whatever he wants. Devane does an incredible job portraying this man who has become detached from society... something about the way he holds himself and the way he looks at people around him really make it seem like he's landed in an alien culture that he absolutely has no connection with.
Then, in a moment QT told us to watch for, a gun is produced, Devane's hand is chewed off in a garbage disposal, and it all changes. The slow build of the film's opening 40-50 minutes suddenly starts to pay off in a huge way. There's a sequence where Devane goes to visit his fellow-prisoner Tommy Lee Jones. Jones has resumed living with his catty wife and her redneck family. He's sitting in the living room and his family is prattling on about some local boy who'd played for the Cowboys for two years... Jones just sits there, looking completely out of place, no expression on his face. Devane asks to talk to him alone, tells him he's found the men who took his hand (among other things). Jones waits half a beat, then simply says "I'll get my gear then." It's such an incredibly badass reaction, and the crowd response was huge.
From there on out, the two go on a killing spree. And the great - and kinda tragic - thing about it, is that for the first time, you see some real emotion from them. There's a scene where a hooker watches Jones pull a gun out of his duffel bag, and asks him what he's gonna do. His simple response, while he grins: "We're gonna kill a buncha people."
I forgot to mention it above, but QT spent a long time raving about the performance of Linda Haynes in this movie, describing her performance as being completely natural... and he's right... she puts in a heartbreakingly authentic performance as a young woman in love with the idea of Devane's character. And you know things can't possibly work for them, but you really want it too. There are long scenes featuring close-ups of her face, and as QT pointed out, you might as well be watching a documentary. She doesn't play at Texas barfly... she is a Texas barfly. QT has thought about remaking this movie, and the one reason he won't do it is because he can never replace Linda Haynes.
I've danced around a couple of the things that happen in this film, just because it the kind of movie that I'd hate to spoil for anyone. Not enough good things can be said about it. It was out on laserdisc for a while, so it is avaliable, but we all need to beg and plead until we get a jam-packed DVD release of this film. One of the highlights of the festival.
Rolling Thunder was a hell of a way to cap off the slow build from the first two films. This night could easily have been billed as American Badass Night. We walked out of the theater around 3AM, empting into the drizzling abandoned streets of Austin. A few hours of sleep to be had, then back to the Drafthouse for the all-night horror marathon. See you then. |
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Author: Micah
Post Date: 04.28.06
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