Grindhouse

Grindhouse was a double-bill schlockfest from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Both were big fans of the exploitation genre tried to recapture that glory of those late 60s/early 70s films. Robert Rodriguez’s entry was Planet Terror (about biological weapon-induced zombies) and Tarantino’s was Death Proof (Stuntman Mike and his killer car). They two were even separated by a handful of over-the-top trailers for other fictional grindhouse films — most notable was Machette starring Danny Trejo, which was later turned into it’s own actual feature. Ultimately Grindhouse was a commercial failure dud, but like many grindhouse films of yore, in time it developed its own cult following, especially for the awesome cars in Death Proof — 1970 Dodge Challenger (with specific references to Vanishing Point [1971]), a 1971 Chevrolet Nova (with license plate “JJZ 109” from Steve McQueen’s Bullitt [1968], and the rubber duck hood ornament from Peckinpah’s Convoy [1978]), a 1969 Dodge Charger (same vehicle and license plate “938 DAN” from Peter Fonda’s Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry [1974] and of course the Duke’s of Hazzard’s General Lee) and a 1972 Mustang (likely an homage to the similarly-styled 1973 Mustang Mach 1 named “Elenore” from the original Gone in Sixty Seconds [1974] — it also has a “BRAND X” license plate referencing the obscure 1969 counter culture sketch film from pop artist Wynn Chamberlain).

Heads up Tarantino collectors… this US one sheet is a rare recalled style that most people don’t even know exists! Apparently designed before the film was finished editing, the tagline boasted “2 1/2 hours of pure dynamite!” Just one problem, when they finally finished post-production the run time was well over 3 hours. The poster was recalled, possibly even before it was distributed to theaters as there are so few copies of this existing in the wild. The studio quickly and quitely replaced with it a modified tagline, “Two great movies for the price of one!” Watch out for the single-sided and slightly undersized reprints!