When it came out back in the mid 1990s, the only things I knew about From Dusk Till Dawn were that Quentin Tarantino had something to do with it (turns out he wrote it) and it was about vampires.
The truth is a bit more complicated than that.
From Dusk Till Dawn is about the Gecko brothers, Seth (George Clooney) and Richie (Mac Tonight), who have busted Seth out of prison, robbed a bank, taken a hostage and blown up a liquor store. They hole up in a hotel, kidnap a minister with a faith crisis and his two kids, and head for the border.
I really wish I could end my summary there, but I've already mentioned the crazy plot twist, which was the main focus of the movie's marketing campaign.
Once in Mexico, the group takes refuge in a strip club that happens to be owned and operated by vampires. And from there, From Dusk Till Dawn becomes less of a "crime" movie and more of a "gory action comedy."
The thing is, the vampire angle shows up about an hour into the movie and I feel like it was supposed to be a major "what the fuck?!" moment. A moment that is completely ruined by the fact that every preview for From Dusk Till Dawn was basically a video montage of "Look, everybody! Vampires!"
In spite of knowing more about it than I would have liked, I did love the movie. Robert Rodriguez tends to make movies that appeal to me, this was the first time I saw George Clooney as a badass (other than how I usually see him: regular, kind of forgettable guy), Tom Savini was awesome as always (he always plays a biker badass in Robert Rodriguez movies and it's always entertaining) and, interestingly, I was most impressed with Harvey Keitel as the minister. He was playing a part so different than what I'm used to seeing him play, and he probably put in the best performance in the entire movie.
I still can't figure out why they cast an old McDonalds mascot as Richie, though. I would have cast Ted Raimi.
End of line.
-Sally
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