Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane

get Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane

Year: 1998

Writer: Joe Carnahan

Director: Joe Carnahan

Budget: $7 300 (estimated)

Gross: $13 674

every now and then a film is released that becomes a genre all to itself.  when these films come out it takes no time at all for copycat films to emerge trying to piggyback on their success - just look at how many movies came out using the good ol' "bullet-time" in the years following The Matrix.

another one of those seminal films was Pulp Fiction, which brought, in its wake, many wannabe-but-weren't-cool-or-good films such as Two Days In The Valley and Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead to name a couple.  it also, however, made way for the debut feature from director joe carnahan, Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane, which stands out from the wannabes as a solid debut on its own with its own personality.

Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane might not be the best title, but it does mention four things that are quite prevalent in the film itself.  the film is about two used car salesmen, about to be evicted from their lot, when they are given an offer they can't refuse: keep a convertible parked on their lot for two days and get paid $250 000 dollars. that's it and that's all!  sound to good to be true?  well that's what they think, which causes them to... well you can watch and find out.  there you have the octane, and with the first half of the film taking us through the journey of the car to the lot, you get your blood and bullets (although there is more of that in the second half as well).

the film was made for under $7 500 and it shows, although not in a bad way.  because, while there is plenty of blood and bullets, this movie is all about the talking.  which is where my thoughts turned to Pulp Fiction and i guess also Reservoir Dogs.  both films have their fair share of violence, but i remember them much more for the talking ("i don't tip", "that would have to be one charming mother fuckin' pig" and of course "i don't know, i didn't go into burger king"). 

Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane relies even more so on the talking (because they probably didn't have the budget for much else) and overall, it works.  there are the tarantinoesque moments of dialogue: like when one of the salesmen is offended by the claim that johnny cash had a gay experience in fulsom prison.  while the pop culture nature of the unnecessary tangent sounds like tarantino, it doesn't feel derivative as so many other post-Pulp Fiction movies did at the time.  the way the script is written and the manner in which the dialogue is delivered feels maybe more like mamet then tarantino (i'm not claiming in any way that he is on mamets level, just making reference to the specificness of the dialogue and pace).  carnahan even acts in the film.  while this is also like tarantino in his films, the difference here is carnahan is actually pretty good.

this isn't a perfect film by any means.  it is a first film made for under $8000.  however it is a fun, violent crime movie, with some fun characters, great dialogue and a silly conclusion that i felt fine buying into given the enjoyment i had getting to that point.

carnahan followed-up Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane with a film called Narc, which, like Pulp Fiction following Reservoir Dogs, showed that his first independent outing was only a sign of great things to come.  his latest film Smokin' Aces didn't really do it for me (felt like it was also trying to be just a fun, violent romp, and although it had more money and more violence it was missing something that Blood, Guts, Bullets And Octane had). 

it took him about eight years to make his first three films.  however, he has about four films in production or announced over the next 2-3 years, so we are going to really be able to see whether he peaked with Narc or if he has more great films in him.  while you are waiting to see where he goes though, don't forget to go back and check out Blood, Guts, Bullets And Octane to see where he began.

Comments

[Eaglewing]

Interesting. I probably wouldn't mind checking this out if I could find it. I really liked Narc, haven't seen Smokin' Aces yet, and am looking forward to Carnahan's take on '50's noir with White Jazz. He's got a good style, should be interesting to see what he comes out with on the next couple of films.

[jesse]

ya i agree - i really liked Narc also. at one point i heard he was in line to direct Mission Impossible 3, which i think could have been really cool. Smokin' Aces felt almost like a throw away -so i think White Jazz is going to be where we really see what he can do, cause i really don't think Narc was a fluke.as far as james ellroy novels turned into movies go i hope his White Jazz is LA Confidential(great) rather then Black Dahlia(one of the worst films i have ever seen).

[Cam]

I haven't seen this one either. I really liked Narc (Ray Liotta great once again)and Smoking Aces was a great January filler while I waited for movies more anticipated so I've added Blood to my netflix list and bumped it upwards thanks again for the movie tip.

[jesse]

you are very welcome cam. let me know what you think after you watch it.

[Gary]

Does anyone remember the BMW short films with Clive Owen? Carnahan directed one called "The Ticker" with Don Cheadle and for my money it's the best of the bunch. And that's saying a lot considering the all-star line-up of directors including...Tony Scott, Guy Ritchie, Wong Kar Wei, John Frankenheimer..etc. I don't remember if it came after "Narc" or not but I think so. Anyway John Woo's "The Hostage" is my second favorite. They're posted on youtube...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTEBkAhhFxUCheck em out if you get he chance they're really cool.

[Jesse]

i loved those shorts - i had them all downloaded on to my computer when they first came out - they even had behind the scenes and maybe even commentary special features, but i could be wrong on that one. they each were so indicative of the director's sensibilities and styles that made them, which was really cool to see.

- i don't remember carnahan's specifically, but i do remember parts of woo's, wei's (the car chase scene that was almost like they were dancing around each other), frankenheimer's and scott's(didn't mickey rourke play the devil in that one?)

- i will definitely check them out again

[Gary]

Yeah they stoped selling them on the BMW site. I remember hearing about them when they first came out but I wasn't aware of what I was missing. So I kind of missed out because the youtube quality is only so-so. But at least you can still see them.

I think Gary Oldman played the devil and James Brown was in it selling his soul at the crossroads and now it's time to pay.

Owens was rumored to have been considered for the Bond role early on before Craig and someone put together a short trailer on youtube to showcase how he might have been had he taken the role from pieces of the BMW shorts which is kind of neat also.

[Jesse]

ya oldman sounds right, not rourke - good call

- ya from what i understand (talked it about it in brief on podcast episode #8): owens was who they wanted, but he went off and did Children Of Men instead.

[Gary]

Was it a good choice not to be Bond? Did he avoid the type casting that may plague Craig? Only time will tell.

I don't want to say that Children of Men was robbed but how did it not win Best Cinematography?

[Cam]

So last night I got to see "Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane". When I see a movie I like to go into it knowing as little as possible which is why I love the way you've started posting reviews. This way I can get a heads up without getting a full review until after I've seen the movie.From my first skimming of your synopsis the one thing that had caught my eye was the $7,300.00 budget, so I was prepared for that from the beginning. (When I first saw that I thought you must of meant 7 million.)As for your review I agree 7,300 percent, all the way down to it being a bad title. I had no idea Joe was in it but by mid way through I had picked him out as the best actor in the movie by far! He's actually pretty good.Other than the Johnny Cash scene and violence I didn't think he was a total Quentin knock-off. I certainly noticed what you mean by nuances of David Mamet in the dialogue and speech patterns. However, if I had to compare this to anything I had call it a really violent cousin to the early Kevin Smith films. Especially the look and feel of Clerks.The one thing that really bugged me about "Blood n Guts" was that it took nearly 30 minutes for the plot to come into focus. It spent way too much time jumping around in the beginning trying to pull you in and peak your interest. Once it did kick in (around the time of the 1st fbi monologue) I enjoyed the plot. I didn't even mind the over the top ending. I mean most movies get to the end and let you down with something cliche or worse yet mundane. At least this one had the balls to throw a real whopper our way.I loved the fbi in the dumpster scene!

"I've gotta a head!"

All in all I'm really glad I saw this and I'm now very familar with who Joe Calahan is. Thanks for the tip.

[Jesse]

i'm the same way cam, which is why i hate previews these days that give away the whole damn movie.

i'm glad you liked it. i'm with you that joe was actually a pretty good actor also. i didn't mind that it took awhile for the plot to come into focus as i was enjoying the set-ups, but i do know what you mean -

and that's a good call with the kevin smith 'dialogueing' comparison - for some reason i thought mamet right away while i was watching it, but smith makes sense also.