There are many directors in the world who like to make a cameo in front of the camera. Quentin Tarantino is no exception. Like "Reservoir Dogs"/Reservoir Dogs (1992), "Pulp Fiction"/Pulp Fiction (1994) have his shadow. And in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), produced and written by his friend Robert Rodriguez himself, he was even better off his trick addiction and played a role in The supporting actor Richard Gecko is not light. And hilariously, George Clooney, famous for his "handsome", played his older brother Seth Gecko. I really don't know how the parents of the Jiang Yang robbers can assign the appearance of the brothers to that. Such a combination is inherently subversive. However, coupled with the difference in temperament and behavior between the two, this reminds me of the hugely different pair played by Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in "The Twins"/The Twins (1988). The living twins.
One of the main talking points that "Killing Before Dawn" brings to audiences is its radical change in style and genre: a living turning a still-decent road movie into a hilarious vampire flick. Under this nonsensical style, the film reveals the impulse to be anti-tradition, anti-type and subvert the mainstream social order. If the first half of the film mocks the incompetence of the police in an open-ended setting, the second half mocks religion and male arrogance in a claustrophobic setting. The brothers Seth and Richard are escaped prisoners. Although both were wanted by the police, they escaped the police all the way. Unlike many escaped fugitives in other movies, the brothers are not the type of high-IQ criminals. Especially the younger brother Richard, played by Tarantino, was nervous and foolishly unable to control his impulses along the way, which caused the two brothers to make a lot of noise during their escape (such as robbery, rape, etc.). , kidnapping). But even in the face of such a pair of "stupid" thieves, the police still failed to catch them, and the two escaped from the US border smoothly. From this, it can be seen what attitude the movie has towards the American police who are worse than "stupid" thieves.
The road escape comes to a screeching halt as the brothers take their hostages, Pastor Jacob (Harvey Keitel), into Mexico. Correspondingly, not only is the American police excluded from the narrative, but the object of authority that is mocked is also turned. The bar the group went to was obviously a "happy forest" for men. In this bar, the customers are almost all men with high testosterone. And the women in the bar are almost all strippers who try to please people by scratching their heads. But it is in such a situation that seems to be dominated by men and women as playthings, men have lost their dominant position. Especially when the dancers, led by Santánico Pandemónium (Salma Hayek), reveal their true identities as vampires, the men who come to this place for fun are turned into toyed Object. Those muscular men and "sex machines" who covet beauty have become the meals of others. In this bar, which seems to be a replica of "Pansidong", the dismembered bodies of men also represent the deconstructed male society.
In addition to this, the film also taunts religion. Jacob should be considered one of the more "authoritative" characters in the movie. As a pastor, he is composed, brave, and loving. However, he couldn't tell the real background of the bar. In fact, when the bartender was about to evict the group, it was the priest who used his driver's license to keep everyone in the bizarre bar. This also shows that, as a "servant of God", he, like other ordinary people, cannot distinguish between good and evil in disguise. And even when it came to the decisive moment, although he was heroic, he was unable to save himself or others. It can be said that there are no heroic characters in this movie. All it has are little people like the Reservoir Dogs. Even a character as serious as Jacob who is clearly a double "father" (both priest and lay dad) can't escape the dead end. It can be seen that Jacob's authority as a father is so vulnerable in such an absurd and uninhibited environment. And in the final analysis, he is just a mortal with more than enough heart but not enough strength.
However, despite the film's attempt to subvert the mainstream, it has inadvertently returned to mainstream society. Such as Jacob's first love daughter Kate (Juliette • Lewis / Juliette Lewis) showed a typical Stockholm complex to Seth. And this, in a way, acknowledges the dominance of male society. In addition, the film has a distinctly white "first" nature. This is an exotic movie. In addition to the Mexican style, the film also arranged for Jacob an Asian adopted son, Scott (Ernest Liu/Ernest Liu). In addition, in the bar, almost all men of all skin colors are present. In the end, however, only the "pure blood" whites Seth and Kate survived. In comparison, people of other ethnic groups are not so lucky. Latins, yellows, blacks, etc. have all been bitten by vampires. Therefore, the film is like a porridge stewed with a hodgepodge: sometimes there are surprises, and sometimes it feels a little too much.
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