The Best of QT-Fest Day 5: The Big Triple Feature

I went to a Pre-QT fest dinner with some of the regulars and had a lot of fun. However, they were warning me about Billy Jack and not agreeing with Tarantino's choice of it at all. So, I was a little shaky about it. Still, I was definitely going to see it.

The night started off with Lewis Black of the Austin Chronicle talking about Billy Jack and saying that he'd basically seen the movie when he was living in politically dead Florida and was blown away by the politics of the film, despite not being able to figure out what they were (Like a Sam Fuller movie). When he went back to Chicago, he showed the film to his politically active friends and was embarrassed halfway through when he looked at the film in that political climax. He was saved, however, when his friends were laughing at the film and thought that was the reason why he brought them. Oh Lewis.

Quentin got up on stage and began preparing us for the film and talked about how the film seemed like it was pretty quiet politically then, but watching it now it's incredibly blatant in it's display of endorsing non-violence. To add to this, this was a film that everybody in his fifth grade class saw. They'd talk about it on the playground because it was a real badass movie. He couldn't imagine the Anti-Bush film that everybody in 5th grade would go see today.

He then got serious for a bit talking about much of a love letter this film and it's two sequels are from Tom Laughlin (writer/director) to his wife Delores Taylor (lead actress/ writer). "Delores Taylor, she's not an attractive woman. I'm not saying that for a laugh", the audience at this point is dead quiet, "She's not a good looking woman, again, not for a laugh, but it's such a love letter from a man who worships his wife that it absolutely breaks my heart.". It also gets serious, too, in the film she gets raped and the film deals with the pain of rape like no other, leading it to get praise for Pauline Kael (whom Tarantino describes as "One of the best writers ever").

Quentin went on to talk about how when he first showed the movie he performed a scene from the movie before showing it (in a similar fashion to his acting performance for Silent Night, Deadly Night. However he wasn't going to do it, because he thought that he might have cockblocked the movie, and if there's one thing he's not about, it's cockblocking the movie!

Billy Jack
I was really impressed with Billy Jack. I'd heard from a few people who'd seen it that it was "ok" or "worth seeing, but nothing spectacular", and the like, so the bar was set pretty low (then raised by both Lewis and Quentin). I can definitely see why 5th grade classes across the country went to go see this, Billy Jack is an incredibly character, in every frame of the movie you look at him and you see a real man. He stands tough, he fights for what he believes in, and he just doesn't take any crap. At one point not only does he beats a guy up, but tells the guy exactly how he's going to do it first. Billy Jack fights to protect an Indian reservation and an alternative school on the property from people who want to poach mustangs on the land and destroy the school because they don't believe in it's hippy messages.

The school is made up of students played by members of "The Committee" an improv group that featured Howard Hesseman - best known as Dr. Johnny Fever. The improvers do what they do best - improv. They have these bits in the film where they have a zany situation and run with it in the film. They start and they keep going and going and going. Some of them run 10 minutes, even. All they can do to stop them is to just use a flip transition and try to move on. They never end, they just edited the movie to go to something else after a while. I thought it was hilarious. Funnier than the actual gags the improv group did.

Billy Jack is interesting in that it plays like a great exploitation film, but it's also so serious and well done enough that it's also a forgotten mainstream film. It's got some wonderfully badass moments, and some uncomfortable moments and some funny moments. I really liked it, I don't know how the others didn't.

Vanishing Point
This is one of my brother's favorite films. I'm actually surprised he didn't come down and see it. Either way, I was pretty excited about this one, there's not a better atmosphere to screen any film than QT Fest.

Quentin took the stage and was brief for once in his life. He basically didn't want to oversell or overhype the movie and wanted it to speak for itself. He did mention that it was pretty much the movie that spawned the car chase genre of film - one that he's looking to continue in "Death Proof" - his half of the upcoming Grind House film he's doing with Robert Rodriguez. He expanded and said that, basically, Vanishing Point is the rosetta stone to his film, any questions about his movie can be answered by Vanishing Point. He also cited 'Point as being one of the first films to have a pop-music soundtrack despite the film not using any hit songs, and only very recently had an album released of all the songs.

I can see why my brother likes this movie so much, it's the best of the "man and his car" type films that I've seen. We never learn much about Kowalski, we see glimpses of his past, but nothing too comprehensive. We're not even sure of what to make of the glimpses that we do get. Kowalski is just too cool the way we see him. He drives, and does his thing. We don't need to know about his childhood or what he did in high school - we accept him as he is now - doing speed and driving a car on a job that he was encouraged not to take. Super Soul, the blind DJ guiding him acts as his only friend, despite not having any means of communicating with him directly.

This is a very 70s film, it's concepts of defeating the establishment in any way that you can, in extreme individualism, in burning lots of fossil fuels, but it still holds up well today. The ending still boggles a few minds, as discussions as to possible meanings or reasons for it could be heard afterwards. If nothing else, the ending's great because it can still get people talking today.

Rolling Thunder
As much as Billy Jack was dogged for me prior to tonight, Rolling Thunder was built up. People were (supposedly) attending the night just to see this film again (of course, there's people who claim this for just about every film).

This isn't one of the films that Quentin saw opening weekend (from the way he talks about the movies that he'd watch back then, it's hard to believe that exists). In fact, it took him a while to see it, and all the while he kept hearing about it and hearing about it. Eventually he got to see it in a double bill with Enter the Dragon. Rolling Thunder is the one that he was impressed with. So much so that he followed the movie around, watching it wherever he could, taking the LA bus system (Which sucks, according to him) all over the county to see it in whatever dirt theatre he could. Sometimes he'd even miss the bus and be stuck in the ghetto all night. Rolling Thunder made it worth it.

He described the traveling to follow the movie around in a very nostalgic way, saying that the DVD market has ruined some stuff. "I go into the bathroom and I hear people say 'oh, the Dion Brothers, I'll have to pick that up on DVD'.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH" he unleashes his evil laugh. The Dion Brothers isn't on DVD. A lot of these won't work as well on DVD - the few movies that I've found on DVD haven't been the same (Fistful of Talons). However, some (Crack House) are still amazing. He agrees, there's something that isn't the same about getting a DVD from best buy for $15 when you have to get some other stuff and a year later you haven't even unwrapped the plastic (he admits doing this himself). "You've seen it, now you've got it in your head, remember it and take it with you. Next time it's playing somewhere, go see it and be happy to relive it."

The movie, itself, stars out slowly. A pair of Vietnam vets come home from being POWs for 7 years. They have to readjust to a life that's basically foreign to them. A father comes home to a son that he doesn't know and a wife that moved on. They're able to get a cold beer when they want one, and eat decently. They've come home from being tortured to be celebrated. Tommy Lee Jones plays one of the vets and sports perhaps the greatest natural monobrow in film history. It should be a thing of legend.

Soon, Maj. Charles Rayne is confronted over a case of silver dollars he was given by a bunch of thugs. He doesn't respond to their threats and ends up being tortured, beaten, his hand put in the garbage disposal and his family shot. You get caught up in it and almost forget that they're not doing this over a large sum of money. It's just about $2,000. Nothing worth losing a hand over. But Rayne is a proud man, a tough man, and he doesn't give in. Sometimes your best traits are your worst, and he suffers because of it. He swears revenge. He spends his time tracking down the people responsible.

Then come some of the great moments of the film. Rayne goes to Tommy Lee Jones' house during a family dinner and tells him that he's found them. Tommy looks at him, nods his head a little and responds, "I'll get my gear" and pulls a shotgun out of his closet. Wild applause over this. The two gear up and go down to Nuevo Laredo (which isn't as tough then as it is now) to go stir things up. The baddies are held up in a brothel, so TLJ goes in and procures the services of one of the ladies. He goes up to her room and is completely uninterested in her. She notices this and keeps trying him. He doesn't care, he lets her do whatever. She takes off his shirt and sticks her hand down his pants. He secretly pulls out both pieces of his shotgun from his duffel bag. Gun shots go off, he pulls her hand out, sits up and slides the two pieces together. The hooker asks, "What the fuck are you doing?". TLJ simply responds, "I'm about to kill a bunch of people".

I'm not sure there's a better exchange in all of film.

Rolling Thunder is everything that I was hyped up to believe and more. I can definitely see why Quentin would follow this movie around, and I definitely hope this shows again in town so that I can relive it.

We leave and it's raining, people stay under the overhang of the drafthouse before mustering the courage to run out in the rain. Eli Roth said it best with, "C'mon, that guy lived in a POW camp for 7 years, we can take some rain!"
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