Films: From Dusk Till Dawn, Sinners, & Naza

Last Thursday, the Prince Charles (PCC) did a vampire day! So I said I'd take the day off for that.. and with the first two days of the week off as well, why, I said I might as well take the whole week off! so I did. This vampire day had a variety of vampire films.. I started with From Dusk till Dawn, because I'd never seen it - stars Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Juliette Lewis, Tarantino (would you believe), who also co-wrote it, and Salma Hayek.. it's about a couple of criminals who hole up in a truck stop that turns out to be populated by vampires! With Salma Hayek's character name of Santanico Pandemonium, I had to wonder whether she wasn't one of them.. 

I was slightly late for the advertised start time, arrived during the ads. And wow, did this ever turn out to be a classic Tarantino.. he and George Clooney play a couple of hardened robbers, Tarantino a sex-crazed psychopath, George the older, more sensible one. The bodies ratchet up nearly from the start, Tarantino shooting pretty indiscriminately - and when Harvey Keitel has the misfortune to pull his motorhome into their motel with his kids (Juliette Lewis plays his daughter), well, they end up being dragged into it, as the brothers use them as their cover to cross the border.

Long story short, they end up in this hell-hole of a bar (open from dusk till dawn), and that's when things really get crazy..

Tarantino plays crazy as well as he writes it. George is the thief you can't help rooting for, who keeps his brother in check as much as he can, but does the right thing when it comes down to it. Anyway, who could be mad at those big brown eyes..? And Juliette Lewis is the sassiest preacher's daughter you could hope to meet. Salma Hayek plays the most exotic of dancers, and the bar scenes before the vampires appear are sexy and dangerous and OTT, half-naked dancers all over the place, dangerous-looking men, and guns appearing from the most interesting of places.

Once the vampires do appear, it's a manic fight to the death, most people (and all the vampires) being killed by the end. And the ending is suitably classic. Yeah, if you like your films OTT, Tarantino certainly delivers, and I loved this.

Then I'd booked to see Sinners, because I just love it. I had about half an hour between, and was peckish, so I schlepped over to Gregg's, where I had some hot, southern fried chicken goujons (decent value, four large goujons at just over £1 each) - I could count on these more than the steak slices I used to love; you can't depend on Gregg's to serve them hot.

And so back to the cinema for Sinners. Which made an interesting comparison, because I remember people renarking at the time that it was copying From Dusk Till Dawn. Heh, it certainly did not! Yes, both have people holed up in a bar, fighting vampires - but where From Dusk Till Dawn paints all the vampires as monsters and concentrates principally on ultra-violence and sex, Sinners is much more restrained, giving us a chance to get to know the characters, with vampires that yes, are monstrous, but do at least talk a good talk. And anyway, that film is all about the music, which is what is what is supposed to have attracted the vampires in the first place.

Afterwards, I'd booked to eat in Bella Italia.. was greeted on the doorstep by a guy with a beer who asked me whether I was looking for a table! Well, you can see how I was a bit nonplussed.. for a minute, I thought he was serving it to someone sitting outside, but no, he took a sip! Plus he was wearing a walking cast. Must've been the boss, I guess. Anyway, he directed me to the last table downstairs, and as usual, I was well and quickly fed..

And then went to join The Hideout for The Lost Boys, about a town full of vampires (Kiefer Sutherland is one of them), and which I'd also never seen! Back to Victory House again beforehand, of course, where I asked for white wine, he informed me they had only Chardonnay, and I asked for a large glass. Whereupon he looked dubious, and asked whether I wouldn't like a rose instead. When I insisted, he showed me the bottle - they actually didn't have enough left for a large glass! So I had a medium. Honestly, and they call themselves a wine bar..

The others were sat around the corner.

So I then started looking for my ticket on my phone - and would you believe, I didn't have one! Obviously signed up with the group, and so much was going on, I completely forgot to get a cinema ticket. Now, JH being a generous soul, he would have given me his - but another member of the group hadn't thought to buy one in advance, and as JH explained to us, it was now sold out. So I suggested he give it to him instead. Ah well - I was as happy to go home, and went to bed early - I was wrecked.

Last Friday was supposed to be my second day in a row with them, for Crawlers.. the latest spider horror! But as he explained, it'd been pulled from release. So I had a look at what else was on - and when I saw Naza listed, I really couldn't choose anything else. A documentary interviewing Israeli soldiers about their kill policy in Gaza.. I'd heard enough about it to be very keen to see it. One of the closest showings to me was in the Barbican, which I chose because that meant I could eat in Cote Barbican afterwards, where I hadn't been in an age.

Filmed at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, the film has the interviewer speaking to soldiers in shadow, their voices disguised. We learn early that "naza" refers to collateral damage - the Israeli army is given an a number of naza that is acceptable. One naza is one person. They do not distinguish between people - an adult, a child, a baby - each constitutes one naza.

One explains how they deliberately target the homes of people they want to kill - they're easier. They know in advance how many people are likely to be there, that they're perhaps killing the wife and, say, four children. Five naza.

One says that the attitude is that there are no innocent people in Gaza. Another, that whatever the Israelis do, the Gazans deserve it. Another, that Gaza became like a factory of targets. Another tells how approval was once given for 500 naza to kill one target. That's all in the trailer.

One describes the training video that gives the impression that soldiers go out of their way to avoid killing children - not true. One describes a line of refugees heading to a food distribution site, and how soldiers were given permission to shoot anyone who broke the line. He said they looked like ants.

One says he never used to understand how the Nazis did it - he does now. I take his point - there's a cold, clinical efficiency to it that you don't often see. The film even includes an old interview with Netanyahu, in which he is asked the definition of a terrorist, and describes it as someone who kills innocent people unnecessarily..

The credits roll silently. The audience leaves silently. What more is there to say?

I was a little late to dinner - the film ran a little longer than anticipated - but there was no problem getting a table, and I had a long, boozy dinner. And life went on.

More in the next post..