Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse grossed $11.6 million last weekend, which is probably more than the combined opening box office of all the films quoted in Grindhouse (Dawn of the Dead, Planet Terror, Vanishing Point and so on). The entertainment press reported the figure as a major disappointment because the film was expected to gross $20 million on its opening weekend. The Weinstein Company, which released Grindhouse, is considering splitting the film into two parts, allegedly because the Weinstein Company failed to "educate" film viewers in the South and Midwest.
Much has been said about Tarantino and Rodriguez's invocation of an older mode of film viewing, a mode that was already outdated and imperiled when it flourished in the 1970's. Several commentators have pointed to the chase scene in which two vintage muscle cars dart in and out of a highway full of minivans and SUV's as a metaphor for the state of the American entertainment industry. The directors' protest against the homogenized and soulless products of contemporary Hollywood proves to be short-lived and futile. Grindhouse, it turns out, is more Cadillac Escalade than 1970 Dodge Challenger. The film has fallen prey to the same absurd market dynamics as every other Hollywood film: Grindhouse didn't score well in audience recognition tests, and it fell below opening weekend projections, so it's going to be yanked from the screens.
The fate of Grindhouse is all the more poignant because Tarantino and Rodriguez, more than any other major American directors, are auteurs of a very specific mode of reception: the B movie screened in a grimy theater and the film picked from a dim corner of an independent video rental store in the days before Blockbuster. Rodriguez's entire career has been devoted to recreating the feelings of watching those films. Tarantino is more textual than Rodriguez, his style more dependent on bricolage. Their type of devotion to déclassé genres is only possible in cinema and music. Literature has been warning about the dangers of reading too much genre fiction since Madame Bovary. I've never been a big fan of the genres Tarantino and Rodriguez recreate so lovingly, but I can certainly understand their passion for the film viewing experience.
I've always been ambivalent about Tarantino. Seeing Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were such ideal film-going experiences that I've never seen either one again on DVD for fear of being disappointed. Tarantino is an undeniably gifted director, but his aesthetic is adolescent and his influence has been baleful. Still, I can't help sensing that the splitting of Grindhouse is a bad sign for the future of American movies. When the American public has to be educated in how to watch a slasher film, we're all in big trouble.
Update, 4/16/2007: The Weinstein Company isn't going to split up Grindhouse after all. Unfortunately, Grindhouse tanked again at the box office, pulling in a mere $4.2 million. On the other hand, that's still good enough for 10th place in the US last weekend.
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