Grindhouse is a Shrine to the Rip-Roaring Exploitation Films of the Past
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Grindhouse has horror, action, gore and powerful women in the arms of powerful men. Those were the days.
Written by BHM Editor Don Sumner
April 17, 2007
Release: 2007
Written and Directed by: Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror segment), Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof segment)
Additional segments written and/or directed by: Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright and Jeff Rendell
Starring:
Rose McGowan as Cherry
Freddy Rodriquez as Wray
Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike
Sydney Tamiia Poitier as Jungle Julia
Plus: �Many, many more
The 70s. The men were macho and tough, the woman sexy and deadly. Television flashed images of Charlie’s Angels, The Bionic Woman and Starsky and Hutch. Sideburns, tank tops, sassy women and men brimming with over-the-top masculinity. Those were the days…
Rodriguez and Tarantino seem to think so too. Grindhouse, the latest offering by this movie-making duo, is more than a movie. Well, it is two movies actually along with the 70s movie-going experience of previews, trailers and subliminal messages to cause trips 
to the concessions stand, but it was more than that also. Grindhouse is a tribute. A tribute to a time when going to the movies was an adventure. Men were men, women were dangerous and women’s liberation was in full swing. The weak shall perish, the strong shall survive and women can be sassy and hot while still kicking your ass.
Grindhouse is a double-feature in one. The first film, Planet Terror (Directed by Rodriguez), is what we here at BHM would call a “not a zombie, zombie movie”. There are freaky folks wandering around town feasting on living human flesh…they aren’t the risen dead but merely mortals infected by an experimental government biological warfare virus.
The real story, though, is Cherry (Rose McGowan). She is a go-go dancer (don’t call her a stripper) that once had big dreams, but is now defeated and spends her nights dancing for strange men before bursting into tears. There are other back stories also, including the bi-curious doctor with an abusive husband, a secret-society assassin living as a lowly tow truck operator and the creator of the best barbeque in Texas. The virus-infected flesh-eaters bring this motley crew together to make a stand for humanity and personal power. Whew.
Planet Terror is extremely fun with great gore, tons of action and lots of things blowing up…and a stripper chick with a kick-ass gun for a leg. Yes friends, all this, and zombies (kind of) too can be yours in Planet Terror.
The second feature is Death Proof, written and directed by Quinton Tarrantino. What a rush!
Four female friends go about their lives as pseudo-celebrities in a small town somewhere in America. They are celebrities because Julia, the statuesque ebony goddess of the quad, is also the popular radio D.J. known as Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier). As the women go about a typical day they notice a strange hot rod that seems to be following them around…notable because of the skull and cross bones on the hood.
Later that evening the “duo times two” are hanging out at the local watering hole when they meet the owner of that crazy car – Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell). Mike is charming (although old enough to be their father) and appears harmless. Too bad they didn’t re-think that.
Without giving too much away I can tell you that Mike is a very (very, very) bad guy who, in addition to Jungle Julia and friends, stalks another female foursome with terrorizing results. Like all good films where sexy independent women are victimized, Mike gets his just deserts. Nuff said.
The short bits prior to and between the features are worth the price of admission by themselves. Previews of films like Machete (Latin Assassin) and Werewolf Women of the SS (Inflicted Nazi chicks with their breasts hanging out) are intermixed with Laugh-In type psychedelic screensavers bearing messages to entice you to buy popcorn and “enjoy life, see movies more often”.
I hate to say it, but I remember when such messages were normal movie-going fare. At least the subliminal snack-directives were done in an obvious-enough way to allow the audience actually see the mind control that movie theaters had over all of us.
Grindhouse is not fine cinema. It is, however, highly entertaining whether you remember the era being parodied or not. Although Grindhouse is long (191 minutes) there was not a single instant that the film dragged or lost my interest. In fact, I had to use the men’s room for the last 90 minutes of the film, but I held it to avoid missing anything.
Grindhouse is immature, gory, has gratuitous nudity and little redeeming social value, but since when are those factors necessary criteria for an incredible movie experience? A wise man once said “cold girls in tube tops make great cinema”, after all. I suggest that, in spite of the dreadful lack of political correctness or inherent cultural value, you go see Grindhouse anyway. Questions or comments about Grindhouse? Contact us!
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