Quentin Tarantino has done a good job explaining to the world what grindhouse is. For a term most people don’t know, they get the idea of a double feature of low budget movies with fake trailers in between. They don’t have to know all the details of Tarantino’s moviegoing experiences. In fact, outside of the U.S., there won’t be a "Grindhouse." It’ll just be "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" released separately.
"Especially if they were dealing with non-English language countries, they don’t really have this tradition," said Tarantino. "Not only do they not really know what a grind house is, they don’t even have the double feature tradition. So you are kind of trying to teach us something else. That was one. And two was [foreign distributors saying], ‘Screw this double-feature stuff, we want a Robert movie and we want a Quentin movie.’"
Rodriguez and Tarantino actually made their films long, then cut them down for the American "Grindhouse" double bill. "We actually have no worries about that because we cut our movies to the bone in order so they would work for ‘Grindhouse.’ So the real reality is Robert did ‘Planet Terror’ and I did ‘Death Proof’ and then we did ‘Grindhouse’ and those are three different movies. Part of the reason we were kind of able to just go for it and try to cut it to almost short of incomprehensibility was because we always knew that the full versions of the movies would go out, and eventually be on DVD out here and half the world would see that version of it. I am actually excited about both."
When it came time to put the two films together, they briefly flirted with alternating the order in different markets, but then realized "Planet Terror" was made to go first and "Death Proof" last. "His seemed to start organically and my little freeze frame end seemed to end the whole experience organically."
Still, when Americans see "Grindhouse," both films have to deliver or the experiment fails. "If it only works as a nostalgic blast or if you have to know everything about this, then we didn’t do a very good job. Conceivably the people who probably will enjoy it the most are younger people who have never had this experience before and they watch it and it’s all new to them. It makes us look even more original than we really are."
Can’t wait til Friday for the release of "Grindhouse?" Check out our "Grindhouse A to Z" feature for a fast and furious rundown of all the best exploitation classics that inspired Tarantino and Rodriguez’ double feature sleaze-fest!!
