While audiences likely have mixed feelings about Grindhouse, the experimental exploitation project of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez from 2007, it has seen a rebirth in interest in the genre, and so for that perhaps we should be thankful. After all, if you want films filled to the brim with gratuitous sex and violence, the itch is harder to scratch than it should be. American audiences tend not to have a great sense of humor for a paper-thin moral swathed in waves of blood and frames of rich nudity. Some credit decency, whereas some might call it prudish. Either way, if you caught Grindhouse in theaters, you’ll remember the collection of trailers that played as an intermission, at which point Hobo with a Shotgun might ring a bell.
As the second of the fake Grindhouse trailers to be made into a feature film (the first being Robert Rodriguez’s Machete with Danny Trejo), Hobo with a Shotgun stays true to its grindhouse roots and gives anyone looking for an over-the-top cinematic experience everything they could ever ask for and in a brutally fun manner. The simplistic plot goes from Point A to Point B with all the grace of a piano dropped from a building, and it ends with the same approximate sound: thunderous cacophony. The vagrant Hobo (Rutger Hauer) hops off a train in Hope Town to find it a hellhole drowning in crime beneath the oppressive hand of The Drake (Brian Downey) and his two preppy, albeit sinister offspring: the favorite and golden boy Slick (Gregory Smith) and the more passive, dim-witted Ivan (Nick Bateman). After the two brothers slice up the Hobo for standing up to them and their mistreatment of Abby (Molly Dunsworth), a prostitute, the Hobo strikes back with a vengeance and begins doling out justice with a shotgun, “one shell at a time”. As criminals drop like buckshot-riddled flies, The Drake puts a bounty on the Hobo’s head and unleashes the two killing machines known as “The Plague” upon him, leading to a showdown after the characters wade through a knee-deep bloodbath.
Hobo with a Shotgun should give you renewed appreciation for Rutger Hauer whom, as of late, has been starring in countless pieces of crap. And even though Hobo with a Shotgun was filmed to look like a C-movie with little to no acting involved, Hauer gives one of his best performances since he convinced the world that robots could feel in Blade Runner. He plays the role with such smoldering conviction that his personal agenda, as bloody as it is, never feels as immoral as we know it is. With every large, gaping chest would he leaves in a criminal, you cheer because Hauer isn’t winking at the camera. He doesn’t handle the role like an actor that thinks he’s too good for the part, he perfectly embodies the Hobo and it goes a long way towards selling the film as a genuine entry in the exploitation genre.
However, not all the casting in Hobo with a Shotgun was as sublime as Hauer’s. Nick Bateman goes the opposite route and hams up his character, and not even in the way that would feel genuine within the genre. His performance is something akin to an overacted impersonation of Ben Affleck in Dazed and Confused, it’s the wrong kind of indulgence and it weakens the brothers as a suitable device for the film. Gregory Smith helps to balance it out, but overall the characterizations of the brothers just don’t really fit within the spectacle the film needs to be in order to work. Brian Downey, who plays their father, oozes with the right amounts of contrived villainy by taking on a personality similar to Dennis Hopper in Waterworld. It’s the right amount of exaggeration mixed with all the sneering and hand-wringing you want in an overacted bad guy.
For someone who wants the appropriate feel for a grindhouse flick, admittedly there’s something counterintuitive about releasing it on Blu-ray. The detail is astounding, but when it comes to this genre, what you really expect to see is grainy film and the occasional film imperfection. In that sense, Hobo with a Shotgun almost looks too perfect in high-definition. Director Jason Eisener did well to strike the right balance between tone and aesthetic in his film, but a little portion of that is ultimately undone by the crystal clear, flawless presentation on Blu-ray. It’s ironic how normally you buy Blu-ray for the best presentation of a film available, but in the case of Hobo with a Shotgun, we might have been better served by a VHS release.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The extras on the disc will make a happy viewer out of any fan who followed it from the initial announcement that the Hobo with a Shotgun trailer would be getting a full-blown feature up until the final release. Three commentaries are offered: a picture-in-picture commentary giving behind-the-scenes info on certain scenes and cast members; an audio commentary with Eisener and Hauer; and an audio commentary with Eisener, Writer John Davies, Producer Rob Cotterill, and the original “Hobo” David Brunt. Of the audio-only options, the first is great just to hear Hauer talking about the film while the second is easily the funnier of the two. Two featurettes include “More Blood, More Heart: The Making of Hobo with a Shotgun” a nice, dynamic look at the creation of the film which you should watch instead of the picture-in-picture commentary as it takes the more noteworthy elements and puts them front and center, and then Fangoria interviews with Eisener and Hauer. The disc is rounded out with deleted scenes, an alternate ending which feels like a comical jab at the ending of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, a camera test reel, and some video blogs.
The package includes the film on Blu-ray and as a digital copy.
"Hobo with a Shotgun" is on sale July 5, 2011 and is not rated. Action, Crime. Directed by Jason Eisener. Written by John Davies & Jason Eisener & Rob Cotterill. Starring Brian Downey, Gregory Smith, Molly Dunsworth, Nick Bateman, Rutger Hauer.
