“Hero. Gang. Girl. Guy leaves gang. Gang kills girl. Guy goes back with gang. Guy kills gang. Dies. You know, that’s it...silly.” Well, that certainly is a concise way of describing renegade auteur filmmaker Jim VanBebber’s most famous film aside from The Manson Family (2003). This plot summary comes from an interview with the man himself, so he’s nothing if not self-aware. His magnum opus, Deadbeat at Dawn (1988) is ambitious, bizarre, violent, and ludicrous. It’s a film bursting with wild energy and a forceful determination to inject a cocky swagger into a relatively simple tale of love and revenge that’s both epic and intimate.
A three-and-a-half-year odyssey, VanBebber had to wait over ten years for the film to receive a proper release, after he’d been shafted by the company in charge of the VHS release. 2008 saw the release of a compilation package and Arrow video would put out a fully-restored Blu-ray in 2018 using VanBebber’s original 16mm print. The bad boy from Greenville, Ohio found a brand-new generation of fans who lapped up his penchant for boatloads of blood and kung fu badassery.
Although leaps and bounds a different film, Deadbeat at Dawn is something of a precursor to El Mariachi (1992) as far as filmic aspirations go. Both films feature jaw-dropping (for a low-budget) stunts, a visually kinetic shooting and editing style, and oodles of violence, though Deadbeat defeats Mariachi in the bloodletting department by a mile. From the accents employed by much of the cast and the urban setting, I’d’ve guessed the film was shot in Baltimore as their way of speaking reminded me of John Waters’ misfits. Instead, it was shot in and around Dayton, Ohio. Not exactly the film capital of the world, but it’ll do. In fact, due to the graininess of the 16mm footage and the crumbling streets and buildings, the film feels like it was shot much earlier, perhaps in the late 70’s rather than the mid-80's. This works to the film’s advantage since much of the acting is enthusiastic but amateurish at best. By evoking a gritty, lived-in quality as well as shooting on actual film stock, it feels like a real movie. It certainly needs all the help it can get.
Jim VanBebber wrote, directed, edited, choreographed the fight scenes, provided the makeup effects, and even starred in the film as the leader of the Ravens street gang. They’re engaged in a turf war with the Spiders, or Spyders, if you go by some graffiti near the conclusion. His interests lie in taking the viewer into the mind and soul of his protagonist through the hallucinogenic and phantasmagorical use of kaleidoscopic images scattered across the film. As Goose (VanBebber)'s life spins out of control, we’re shown his quick descent into alcoholism, drug abuse, self-destruction, and ultimately, a suicide attempt. As an actor, VanBebber isn’t particularly charismatic unless he’s kicking some ass. His slightly genteel voice betrays the illusion that he’d be the leader of an ultra-violent gang of street toughs. Scenes with his girlfriend, and a handful of moments later on, vary wildly in tone. One minute he’s treating his occultist girlfriend Christy (Megan Murphy) with disdain and refuses to wear her odd piece of protective jewelry; the next he’s restrained, even apologetic about his wicked ways and she convinces him to leave the life for good. This is after he’s fought a hard-won and bloody battle against the Spiders’ leader Danny (Paul Harper) in a cemetery while Christy was clearly turned on by all the bloodshed.
The first big fight scene in the cemetery is preceded by the approach of the gangs, with Goose and Danny wearing masks while other members don’t. It’s not quite clear why they’re wearing them since they know each other already, but they agree to a knife fight in lieu of shooting one another. Overall, the first half of Deadbeat at Dawn isn’t very engaging. It’s clear what VanBebber is going for and there’s some clever visual touches, including a rack focus from a switchblade to Goose, then back to the blade. The fight has some slashes and gashes, but nothing that would indicate the more extreme violence later in the film. I was reminded of the gang rumble in the opening of Olaf Ittenbach’s mind-blowing SOV splatterfest The Burning Moon (1992). The onscreen injuries sustained by the warring gang members aren’t particularly graphic, so either you hope the gore factor gets kicked up several notches or you assume that this is as graphic it’s going to get.
Due to the near four-year shoot, hairstyles and looks change frequently. In fact, I was genuinely confused for a while because Danny’s girlfriend had the same hairstyle as Christy, so I was puzzled and assumed she was somehow sleeping with both men. VanBebber’s hair is sometimes straight and at other times feathered like Farrah Fawcett. To its credit, the film does justify the most obvious change in everyone’s appearance, inserting a title card indicating “Weeks Later.”
Harper as Danny does a great deal of moustache acting, but he’s actually a pretty convincing villain. He’s slimy, devious, and has excellent support from easily the most memorable of his henchman, Bonecrusher (Marc Pitman), played with a bugged-out insanity which justifies a rambling, semi-coherent monologue that’s become one of the most famous moments in the film. He and another gang member have been sent on a mission to eliminate Goose, who literally has to lock Christy into their apartment with a padlock, and he snorts either coke or nitrous oxide and launches into this:
“I hate people, man. I don't care. I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit about nothin'. Man, all my life people have fucked with me. Don't you fuck with me, man. I just fuckin' hate people. I hate people and I don't care. I just don't fuckin' care. I don't care. I'm the baddest motherfucker you ever saw, man.”
They find Christy alone while Goose sells off his stash of drugs to some business guy in an alley. They beat her to death and Goose is completely destroyed. Rather than burying her, he drops her into a trash compactor, which is a surprising option, to say the least. He drowns his sorrows at a bar and even tries to make it with local skank Iris (Maureen Allisse). This leads to one of the funniest moments where a drunk Goose tries to karate kick another guy but it’s as if his leg weighs 500 pounds and he just stumbles back. He bounds over tables and bar patrons and heads to his dad’s shitty apartment.
Charlie Goetz plays Goose’s junkie father with an outrageous conviction that appears to intimidate even VanBebber himself. Many scenes play out in long, unbroken masters and it becomes a question of taste regarding whether you get used to the go-for-broke, shout-to-the-rafters acting style or it falls flat because these are clearly non-actors who are way out of their depth for such tricky material. As a writer, VanBebber comes up with serviceable dialogue, it’s just the execution that sometimes gets in the way. Tough guy talk like: “You’re on our turf, scum fuck” and “I’m gonna pull your eyeballs out of your head and eat ‘em!” is juvenile, but fun. His use of symbolism is a bit heavy-handed, yet evocative nonetheless. Bonecrusher describes Christy’s exposed intestines being reminiscent of “snakes,” and he later shoves a real python in Goose’s face. It gets even crazier as Goose has a nightmare set in the cemetery where a blood-soaked sheet containing the remains of his lady is revealed to be a decayed skeleton and Bonecrusher arrives to shove his weapon of choice, a golf club, into Goose’s chest. The club promptly becomes covered in snakes.
His downward slide continues as he wanders the streets with blood on his hands and even envisions blowing his own brains out with the world’s smallest gun. Like seriously, either his hands are huge or this thing is a baby’s toy. This does lead to a fabulous exchange between Goose and a homeless man. “What’re you gonna do with that gun?” “I’m gonna shoot myself.” “(Laughing) All right, hey! Cool with me...all right, yeah...ok...yeah...” He just keeps chuckling to himself. It’s pretty wonderful. Many scenes are clearly shot guerrila-style, with VanBebber walking the streets with blood on his hands, much to the chagrin of obvious non-actors.
The Ravens are under new leadership, with hardass Keith (Ric Walker) taking the reins and calling a truce with the Spiders so they can pull off an armored car robbery. It’s an intriguing development and one which results in an uneasy alliance made even more tense due to Goose’s correct belief that Danny had Christy killed. In a well-framed wide shot, Goose attacks Danny, is subdued, then goes right in after him again. It’s marvelous and funny at the same time.
This kind of framing and shot composition is the main reason why Deadbeat at Dawn isn’t to be dismissed. It is, quite simply, an exceedingly well-photographed movie. VanBebber and producer/cinematographer Mike King (VanBebber’s regular DP) employ evocative lighting, particularly reds and greens, along with smooth dolly shots and an exciting robbery scene in which Goose actually ropes his way down the side of a huge parking deck before flinging a Krull-sized ninja star at the Brinks Security guard. How he got a real Brinks truck into his little movie, I have no idea, but it lends authenticity. His framing is also particularly of note, with low, menacing angles and the use of a subjective camera for some dialogue sequences.
While he’s a bit of a shrimp, I can’t say VanBebber’s fighting skills are unimpressive. Is the film something of a vanity project? Yes, but fortunately, he’s got the creativity to back it up whereas filmmakers like Tommy Wiseau or Neil Breen come off as pure egotists with nothing to actually show for it. Goose’s skills with a pair of nunchucks are pretty fantastic and unlike Michelangelo in any of the TMNT movies, we actually get to see him hit people with them.
Danny double-crosses Keith and The Ravens and it’s a bloody massacre. Blood explodes from various gang members in a volume that equals the kind of splatter we saw in Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Goose is the only one who decided to arm himself and he uses his expert knife skills to impale a few gangbangers before escaping with the sack of money. He ends up at a service station, in an inexplicable and very out-of-place scene, where he puts down his sack of one hundred thousand dollars to rob the employee. Then a cartoonish grandmother and grandson pull into the garage and start yelling and shooting at him. “Gimme yer gun, gramma!” says the young man dressed like a Mormon. They must not have taught them to shoot very well in Utah because first he shoots the attendant, then he shoots some popcorn, and then he continues to shoot the remnants of the popcorn over and over again. The grandmother continues shouting, “Shoot him! Shoot him through the head!” It negates the serious atmosphere VanBebber has established.
The gorgeously-shot final showdown takes place at an empty train station where the Spiders corner Goose, who’s waiting to give the money to Christy’s sister. The brutality and mayhem in this scene was what I expected to see throughout the entire film, but as Harry Dunn said to Lloyd Christmas, “You go and do this...and totally redeem yourself!” This entire sequence is insane and justifies the lackluster first half. One particular attention to detail that I appreciate is Goose’s need to constantly run away from his attackers and pick them off one by one. Countless action movies have us believe that our hero’s enemies will only fight one at a time instead of just dog piling on top of him. Danny, in a tilted, extreme close up, says through gritted teeth, “Let’s get that motherfucker. Let’s take him out and get that fuckin’ bag.” The camera spins around Goose in a legit badass moment and the “one man versus an army” battle begins. I especially enjoy the ADR’d line, “Come on, Mr. Kung Fu!”
The editing and sound effects (akin to the smashing fists of Indiana Jones) are visceral and sudden, reminding me of Mel Gibson’s use of double impact cutting for Apocalypto. Lots of karate kicks (Billy Jack was purportedly a big influence) and Goose even has a fight with a bat-wielding guy while whipping around his nunchucks. They end up slamming Goose’s head repeatedly into a wall, then he pulls a Donald O’Connor and flips himself over to escape. Bonecrusher picks up a huge piece of wood that’s supposed to be insanely heavy, though you can tell it isn’t, and he lives up to his name by punishing Goose’s body with it. Considering how awful Bonecrusher has been, his death is especially sweet. He gets a ninja star in the forehead and is thrown over a bridge, where he’s run over by a car in a shot that I’m honestly still uncertain how VanBebber achieved. It’s either a very convincing dummy or he was able to seamlessly merge the actor and his roadkill mannequin,
Christy’s sister Sandy shows up right at that moment and actually runs into Goose with her car. Danny carjacks her and Goose ends up hanging out the window as he scrapes the walls of an alley. No stunt doubles here. This is the real deal. Finally, Danny’s throat is literally ripped out in one of the best throat-rips I’ve ever seen, mainly due to the way he reaches in and yanks the guy’s Adam's apple out. In a bit of dialogue I literally predicted was coming, he gives Sandy the money and tells her Christy’s dead. Sandy: “Did you kill her?” “No (big pause), I loved her.” He seemingly dies on the street, although I’d like to think he could come back for a sequel. Deadbeat at Dusk.
While the film really has outstanding elements, there are some undeniable technical problems and goofy bits of nonsense thrown in. Bonecrusher emerges from underneath some sheet metal in a hole in the ground during the final fight for no reason. Danny goes out of focus big time after he beats up his pregnant girlfriend and although it feels intentional, it also doesn’t appear to serve any purpose. There’s a truly odd exchange between a chatty waitress and a Jesus freak who ordered multiple breakfasts for “the Lord.” The random use of masks was never properly explained. A scene where Goose gets chased down by a car is great, but the eventual car crash is horribly edited. I’m willing to believe that this was all the footage he had to work with, but it’s still pretty rough.
All these technical gaffes aside, this is undeniably one of the most passionately-made movies I’ve ever seen. Some moments in it are practically miraculous. It’s one helluva ride.
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