Review: Hobo with a Shotgun

Hobo with a Shotgun
Dir. Jason Eisener
Year: 2011
Aus Rating: R18+
Running Time: 86mins

Here’s a theory I would genuinely like to raise with Hobo with a Shotgun director Jason Eisener: If the directors of the 1960s and ‘70s grindhouse titles he so obvious adores had come into prominence today, would they make films as ugly and poorly done as this? Or would they, as I suspect they would, actually utilise the medium at their feet and allow their visions to flourish amidst the mountains of filmmaking possibilities.

Such is just one of the many, many problems with Eisener’s decrepit zombie corpse of a film. It trades on grindhouse cinema tropes from decades past, yet the people that made those films were making honest films through the only means possible. If it meant having to cast a lowly paid coffee shop waitress then so be it, but they surely never asked their cast to deliberately act like they’d just walked out of a lobotomy office. They also surely never made their films look dingy on purpose, drowning out the visuals when it’s been proven what can be achieved on a budget one sixth of the size in Gareth Edwards’ Monsters and plenty of others. Say what you will about the technical exercise that was Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s GrindHouse, but they made films that their heroes would make today if given the opportunity. They made films that took what they’d seen and interpreted it with modern day filmmaking methods. Hobo with a Shotgun, however, is nothing more than mere reproduction, right on down to the tokenistic poster designs and credit sequences.


Jason Eisener’s film arrives in cinemas with unique cache. It’s title and premise alone, as well as nudge-wink Tarantino-esque casting of Rutger Hauer, promised gullible festival audiences (of which I nearly was) a raucous good time, but it’s a rather cynical exercise. The grindhouse cinema Eisener is so desperately copying was made on the smell of an oily rag and a pit of fire in the belly to tell a story nobody else was willing to tell. Eisener’s only fire is to get a career in Hollywood by tricking festival audiences into seeing his film. It’s Eisener’s version of a child stamping his feet and waving his arms wildly exclaiming “look what I can do!” Sadly, what Eisener can do is not much more than sickening, mean-spirited, ugly trash. There isn’t anything energetic or joyful about Hobo with a Shotgun, nor anything brave, exciting and intellectually confronting. It looks ugly, is badly acted and crudely directed because that’s all Eisener was able to ascertain the original films were noteworthy for.

A hobo with no name arrives by train into a new town that is essentially lawless and overrun by criminal thugs. He witnesses the gruesome death of a stranger at the hands of a local gangster and before long sets out on correcting the town of its ills. The audience is asked to laugh along as this old, homeless gent struts about time laying waste to thuggery and hoodlums with a shotgun he purchased with money he wanted to use to buy a lawn mower. LOL, those homeless people are so weird! Of course, the violence is sickening, but always played for laughs. Especially the scene where a school bus full of young children is burnt to a crisp. That scene was hilarious, especially so when they brought it back as an even cheaper gag later in the film!!!


The entirety of Hobo with a Shotgun is nothing more than repugnant crassness, steeped in unpleasant violence and a seemingly endless bag of scum imagery. I was never so happy to walk outside of a cinema and bask in sunlight than I was after the morning screening of this film. Eisener shows such a distinct lack of understanding about film here, but the fact that since seeing it I have read so many fans of the film say “it’s meant to bad!” has made it even worse. Why would anybody want to watch a film that was deliberately made to be as bad as possible? When a filmmaker actively wants people to pay top dollar for a film that they admit is bad just so they can get cool points with the hip kids is insulting. Hobo with a Shotgun belongs in the trash. F

Black & White Friday: GrindHouse

The Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double bill that made up Grindhouse seems like a natural fit for "Black & White Friday", in which we look at what films may have turned out like - for better or worse - if they'd been made in another era. Since Grindhouse took its inspiration from b-movies (specifically Rodriguez's Planet Terror) and exploitation (Tarantino's Death Proof) that were routinely filmed on cheap black and white film stock I thought it made a great subject matter.




Back when I took a look at Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation in black and white I wrote "Oh the things Russ Meyer could have done with Rose McGowen!" and nowhere is that more apt than here. I like the idea of a movie in which Rose McGowen leads a group of maniacal, big-breasted women who have just escaped from Prison who go on the run fucking and killing any man that dares get in their way. It would be incredible, yes?


Apologies if this entry just descends into me saying things like "OMG LOOK AT THAT!!!" and "AMAZING!!!!!!" but these two movies are incredible and that's basically the reaction I have each and every time I watch them. Doesn't this just looks awesome? The added grain, scratches and all 'round retro feel certainly helps in this feature, doesn't it?


I find it funny that Fergie has appeared in three movies that were throwbacks to classic cinema. She has had cameos in Grindhouse, Poseidon and Nine. Maybe there's more to Stacy Fergie Ferg Ferguson than meets the eye? Or perhaps there's less (she does voice a character in Marmaduke after all!)


I have nothing to say, I just like the shot.


This most definitely looks like something out of Them! or from something of that ilk. All we need is a big "NOOOOO!" and the scene would be complete.


There is nothing about Rose McGowen having a MACHINE GUN FOR A LEG!!!! that is not incredible and not even black and white can destroy that beautiful image. And while the idea of a character having a MACHINE GUN FOR A LEG!!!! sorta negates the retro vibe since it so clearly wouldn't have been doable "back in the day", Rodriguez does a far better job at keeping up the grindhouse feel for the longest. Quentin Tarantino all but forgets about it from an aesthetics point of view during the second half of Death Proof. And so while I think Planet Terror is the lesser of the two films, its dedication to its idea is so wonderful that I love it all the same.


Oh Death Proof. How I love thee.


Although, to be perfectly honest, I prefer the title "Thunder Bolt".


I know this scene cops a lot of flak from people, but I love every single second of it. Every word, every camera angle, every blemish on the reel. I haven't seen all that many of the kind of movies that Quentin Tarantino was riffing off of, but their whole talking-shit-and-not-much-else vibe comes through loud and clear. I could listen to these characters talk about shit for even longer!


Curiously - and I'm sure the farthest thing from Tarantino's mind - the movie that this shot reminds me of is Orson Welles' Touch of Evil with its US/Mexico bordertown and bubbling violence. All the other shots still feel like they're out of an exploitation movie, but this one is completely different. In colour it fits, but in black and white it has that film noir aesthetic with all those shadows.


I love how cheap and nasty this sequence looks, which is why it fits into the grand scheme of all things Grindhouse very nicely. Rose McGowen doesn't have a MACHINE GUN FOR A LEG!!!! in Death Proof, but despite the bat wig she slots in perfectly. She just has that look of an actress that wouldn't have been able to make it in the big leagues due to her BIG looks and overt sexuality and would've had to appear in these genre grindhouse titles that flaunted her sexuality. Come to think of it that is exactly what happened to Rose McGowen. She's not much of an actress when working outside of her indie/genre/indie genre comfort zone, but just try and remember how beguiling she was in her Black Dahlia cameo, or how much edge she had earlier in her career in movies such as The Doom Generation, Scream and Lewis & Clark & George and then think of projects like Jawbreaker, Phantoms and Charmed.


This is gorgeous.


Not much of Death Proof's second half suits itself to black and white since Tarantino all but ditched the visual component of it, but this shot is made for it. Basically because movies don't say "THE END" anymore, but it still looks great nonetheless.

I Screencapped the Closing Credits of Death Proof So You Don't Have To

I know I have gone on and on about my affection for Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof over the last year and a half (or so) since I saw it (as a stand alone, not as part of Grindhouse - we weren't so lucky down here). Having recently just rewatched it I still have it pumping through my veins.

One of the many many things I love about the movie are the credit sequences. The opening is great with it's "Coming Attractions" and the mixed up title card and so forth, but I'm wondering if many people have taken a look at the end credits. Set to the rollicking tune of "Chick Habit" by April March, interspersed throughout the more traditional end credits are images of, what I assume are, b roll footage of b movie actresses as well as an assortment of other cinematic thingamajigs and even a couple of Death Proof bloopers (or sorts). There are 44 in total and you can click on 'em to enlarge. They're fascinating in a strange hypnotic sort of way.

Yes, I am clinically insane (especially when it comes to Tarantino).














































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