tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post8802551152791959053..comments2023-11-05T02:01:53.847-06:00Comments on Antagony & Ecstasy: MOVIES I MISSED IN 2011: YOU CAN'T SOLVE ALL THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS WITH A SHOTGUNTimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-8483186105082405332014-10-29T14:46:59.377-05:002014-10-29T14:46:59.377-05:00This is actually my favorite of the extended Grind...This is actually my favorite of the extended Grindhouse family of movies. It has this odd, dare I say, <i>gentleness</i> that none of the others do. The hobo isn't an action hero, like Zoe Bell or Machete or Wray. It's not entirely clear if he's ever held a gun before in his life. And when he gets the gun, his executions aren't Chow Yun Fat dancing or Bruce Willis wisecracking or Clint Eastwood quick-drawing or Sylvester Stallone screaming. They're set up more like horror movie kills. The closest analog I can think of is Charles Bronson, but he doesn't register the sort of gentility that Rutger Hauer brings to the part. (And Tim, you barely even mentioned the acting; as broad as most of the cast went with their scenery-chewing performances, Hauer does the opposite and pulls inward, like a bum huddling under a pile of newspapers on a cold winter night.) This guy wasn't always a hobo; maybe he used to be a construction worker, before his back gave out and he needed a cane. <br /><br />Remember his mini-monologue about bears? That was in the script for a reason. The hobo has made the deliberate choice to become a <i>monster</i> in this city of monsters, and he regrets it. He knows there's no turning back, he can't just say "aw, to hell with it" and hop on the next open boxcar of a passing train. He knew he wasn't getting out of that town alive, and he didn't LIKE that, but he was okay with it if he could save the girl and the innocent people in the town on his way out. <br /><br />Also, Tim missed one thing about The Plague; but this one isn't on him, it's given to the audience in a single line of digitized dialogue that is barely understandable. When the prostitute managed to go all <i>Dead-Alive</i> on the one member of the unholy duo, the other surviving one tried to take her away and turn her into the next armored killer! There's a deleted scene/alternate ending on the DVD which shows her waking up with six shotguns attached to her stump. The Plague isn't immortal, it's a passed-down tradition and apparently whoever kills one of them must take their place.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00287132156894296298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-8735774509930809082012-01-06T11:29:17.204-06:002012-01-06T11:29:17.204-06:00I agree with everything you say, and yet I liked i...I agree with everything you say, and yet I liked it a whole lot more than you did. The writing has a whole lot of killer one-liners, and Hauer's performance is weirdly subtle for a film like this. It's definitely the least of the <i>Grindhouse</i> films, though.Maltehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04162595103855533887noreply@blogger.com