What’s this all about?
A private detective, hoping to expand his practice, accepts a job from a wealthy widow to investigate the source of a “snuff film” that she has found amongst her husband’s belongings. The detective gets drawn into the world of underground pornography, which leads to depravity and murder. Having learned the truth, he seeks justice, and a return to his normal life.
Who is Nick in this one?
Nick plays “Tom Welles,” a hard-working private detective with a wife and baby at home. It’s a more subdued role than we’ve seen for Nick in a while, and screaming is kept to a bare minimum. Nick channels a hundred black and white gumshoes from the Film Noir days, and does a credible job selling his hard-boiled determination.
Who else is in this one?
Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line) is “Max California,” a peddler of pornography in L.A. Phoenix is at his least crazy and most believable, here. He manages to imbue a pretty gross character with a lot of humanity and depth.
James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) plays “Eddie Poole,” a two-bit pornographer. He manages to imbue a pretty gross character with extra grossness and filth. He plays a scumbag, like he nearly always does. I hated him, so I guess he did a good job.
Arnold Heald (Silence of the Lambs) plays the attorney, “Longdale.” This actor always gives me “evil Carey Elwes” vibes, and it works well here.
A super-young Norman Reedus(The Walking Dead) plays a dirtbag punk. Imagine that. He hasn’t grown in his scraggly beard, yet, in this one.
Did you see that?
As a hard-boiled detective, our man Nick carries a pistol.
What kind does he carry?
Why, a Walther PPK, of course, just like James Bond. It’s a radically impractical pistol for 1999, chambered in an anemic .380 ACP, and holding only six rounds, while also managing to be heavy, hard to shoot, and relatively unreliable (compared to semiautomatic pistols of the late ‘90’s).
The PPK (which stands for “Polizeipistole Kriminal”, in German, or Police Pistol Criminal, in English) was designed for undercover police work in the 1930’s, and it’s a stylish gun. I assume its inclusion here is a nod to the old-time detectives who would have carried it, or maybe to the PPK’s most famous user, James Bond. It’s also possible that it was used simply because very realistic blank-firing replicas of it have been available for years, which is why you still see it so often in TV and movies.
Using the PPK in a “modern” film is like putting your character in a vintage car. It looks cool, even if it doesn’t make sense, and I’m OK with that. -Michael
There was a moment in the film that just took me back to a time of old.
Nick was outside doing yard work when a call came in for the new job and we cut from Nick’s wife yelling out of the house at him that he has a call, to Nick getting to his office/desk in the house, picking up the land line and yelling into the house “I’ve got it” so his wife can hang up the other landline. How long has it been since you’ve done that? That was everyday life back then. -Sarah
What were Nick’s best parts?
While investigating the alleged “snuff film,” Nick meets with the mother of the possible victim of the crimes shown in the film. He does an excellent job conveying both that he will do just about anything to get the information that he needs, and that he realizes the human impact of the crimes that he is investigating. He portrays concern and pity for the victim’s mother without being over-the-top.
That said, Nick’s acting is absolutely solid throughout the film. It’s hard to believe he’s the same guy who was literally screaming about buttholes in The Rock. -Michael
I agree. Nick delivers a very solid performance. It really is hard to pick a top scene. Normally, when I can’t decide which one to go with, I go with my personal favorite to watch. The subject matter on this though makes that hard. Nick really delivered on the delivery of lines but also the physical reaction and subtle acting that happens without words. I think the moment he saw Max California’s death coming, but couldn’t react fast enough to stop it is a perfect example. -Sarah
What were Nick’s worst parts?
Nick is nearly killed in a fight with the villainous murder “Machine” (not Sly Stallone from Over The Top) and we see him pull up to a hospital emergency room entrance and fall out of his car, where he is attended to by medical staff.
In the very next scene, he’s returning to his home at night, stumbling around in the dark and wailing incoherently, while his wife freaks out.
Were we supposed to believe that he went to the hospital and was treated for serious wounds, but no one told his wife where he was, and that he was released, and drove himself home without calling her, while still unable to walk properly? What the hell was going on in that scene? We’ll probably never know, but Nick got to shout and flail. Maybe it’s in his contract. -Michael
When Nick takes the job, he obviously needs to watch the snuff film in question for the first time. While he does a great job looking appropriately horrified and extremely effected during the first run of the film and also does a great job throughout the film of showing less and less emotion as he gets more used to the new dark world he is now in, during the very first viewing, where we as the audience see the film for the first time too, he is a bit over the top with his being appalled and disturbed. He practically falls off his chair when the very first slap occurs. Not that it was a pleasant thing to watch, but come on, Nick’s character is not that much of a tender foot. He should have taken that bit less extreme. -Sarah
How was the movie?
Joel Schumacher directed the first two thirds of this movie to feel like an old-time hard-boiled detective picture. The inciting incident, in which Nick, standing in a grand, wood-paneled library, is given a distasteful task that must be kept very private at the behest of his rich benefactor could have been a remake of Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep. Similarly, we get a lot of “procedural” scenes, where we see the detective doing mind numbing research, and waiting for hours to pick up a lead; things we don’t see much in modern crime fiction. The detective also uses cleverness in his interactions with people to tease out information that would have otherwise been missed. If you’re into crime procedurals, as I am, it’s a good watch.
Somewhere in the second act, though, things go from dark to darker, as Nick descends into the world of late 90’s hardcore pornography, and it almost becomes a body horror film. I think this is where the film sort of falls apart. I was 22 when this film came out. The first 60 minutes would have bored me to tears, and there’s no way I would have gone to see this. The last 30 minutes would have scandalized my parents to the point that they would have left the theater.
It’s very unclear to me who the intended audience for this film was, as it’s both a suspenseful mystery, and a graphic and violent crime film. It tries to out-shock Pulp Fiction while playing like Chinatown. It’s like if a straightforward heist movie suddenly turned into an over-the-top, gory vampire horror film.
No, I didn’t like From Dusk Till Dawn. Why do you ask? -Michael
It was a good and solid movie. I’m a little surprised it didn’t do better back in the day and that I’d never heard of it before now. -Sarah
Yeah, but did you like it?
I’d never heard of this movie before this viewing and had no preconceived notions about it. I enjoyed it, but found it a little intense. If you like violent crime films, give it a watch. If you prefer to see the detective solve the crime by collecting the suspects in the parlor, maybe skip it. -Michael
I agree completely. It was good. I enjoyed it, but not an easy topic. I don’t really want to watch it again anytime soon, but I do recommend it. -Sarah
Where can I watch it?
You can rent it on Amazon Prime.
Leave a Reply