has Robert Rodriguez ever actually seen an Alfred Hitchcock film?
It bothers me that every time Robert Rodriguez said he set out to make a "homage" or "tribute" to a past genre (exploitation films) or director (Alfred Hitchcock), it always feels as though he only knows the most superficial aspects of said genre/filmmaker, as the final result almost always barely resembles the films he was said to have been inspired by.
When you look at Planet Terror and Death Proof side-by-side, it's clear from just watching a few minutes of each film, which filmmaker understands the type of movies Grindhouse is paying homage to better. Tarantino shot and edited Death Proof very much in the manner of a low-budget 70's exploitation film, with minimalistic camerawork/lighting, organic-looking film scratches, and abrupt jump cuts to give the illusion of missing frames.
With Planet Terror, however, Rodriguez goes completely overboard with excessive CGI, frenetic camerawork, and overblown spectacle. It's still a fun film, but as a tribute to 70's grindhouse flicks, it's about as authentic as your average American dojo. With Machete, the first 15 minutes of the film works okay as an exploitation tribute, but the rest of its 1 hr 45 min runtime is just typical over-the-top Robert Rodriguez fare, complete with digital blood, intentionally corny performances and a self-aware tone. Its sequel, Machete Kills, strays even further from its grindhouse roots and comes out feeling like just plain crap.
What's interesting is that with both Planet Terror and Machete, Rodriguez never once ever cited a single 70's exploitation film as an inspiration. The closest I could find was him citing John Woo's The Killer and Hard Boiled as movies that influenced him while he was coming up with the idea of Machete while shooting Desperado, but those were 80's/90's Hong Kong films, and not 70's grindhouse films. With this, I honestly don't see any Alfred Hitchcock influence in anything beyond its title, and I don't think I'm far off from Rodriguez's actual thought process.
I've heard him describe how Hitch's films always had these unique and memorable titles (Vertigo, Psycho, Frenzy) and he wanted to make something that had one of those... and that's it. He never once described Hitchcock's visual language, storytelling techniques, or work methods, just his titles.
Granted, I haven't actually seen this film yet, but from seeing the trailer, it feels more like a poor man's Chris Nolan thriller than anything remotely resembling the Master of Suspense. For the five of you out there who's actually seen it, is there anything in this film that's remotely Hitchcockian at all? Or is it just Robby Rod bullshitting about movies he barely knows anything about again?