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I think there are two things Craig Lindsay and most of the others I have read who are celebrating Quintin Tarrantino's latest assault on the American character fail to articulate or even understand.  Namely, that grindhouse films were never publicized, were screened for very short runs in the worst theatres, and were intended for audiences that were not, shall we say, mainstream.  Like pornography in the 70s (and really any time before the internet came along), grindhouse films were seperated by mainstream culture by a veneer of civility, however thin, that was and is important to maintain.  When young, impressionable viewers got their hands on porn, or snuck into a grindhouse bloodfest, they knew they were doing something wrong by societal standards.  They knew their elders were not encouraging their attendance at/viewing of such trash and they knew that it was just that, trash.  It was easy for them to dismiss grindhouse films' in general and specifically its much repeated theme: "violence is good and vengeance is great!".   Tarrantino has not so subtly removed that veneer of civility, almost single handedly.  His films, which earn R ratings inevitably, are targeted specifically at young teens and, due to the massive advertising budgets lavished on them, at mass audiences.  The young, impressionable viewer knows this intuitively and is confused by it.  How many generations of young, impressionable viewers can be allowed to be so confused before we end up with a generation that would think the behavior Americans displayed at Abu Ghraib, for instance, is the status quo?  Are we already there?

Instead of pandering to this crap, wouldn't it be nice if our local paper of record showed a little character instead of contorting itself radically in an effort to appear hip to the youngsters out there who don't read their paper anyway?  In the past few weeks the N&O has ran stories essentially advocating for Pole Dancing, for "Girls' Nights Out in Las Vegas" and now for another Tarrantino blood and gore fest with a heavy side order of vengeance.  Can the Third Page Girl be far behind? 

My father was in the U.S. Coast Guard (now retired), and while I was in high school we were blessed to be stationed in Hawaii.  We lived in a town named Wahiawa, in the center of the island of Oahu.  Literally a couple of blocks from my house was the Wahiawa Cinema, and I spent many many evenings expanding my horizons and having a wonderful time.  The Wahiawa Cinema's only advertising was "49 Cents Any Seat Any Time", and it was no lie.  They always showed two movies; first, the main feature, then a second feature, followed by the main feature again.  The show started at 6:30pm and ran until it was all over.  For $1.00, I could see two movies and buy a bag of lemon drops, which I would enjoy over the next few hours.  The "box office" attendent sat there with a big pile of pennies, I would slip my dollar under the window, get my 51 cents in change, buy a bag of lemn drops, and find a seat (vary rarely a problem), and proceed to see kung-fu glory in "Five Fingers Of Death", horror in "The Twilight People" and "Equinox", war in "Ambush Bay", history in "Samson and the Slave Queen", western adventure in "Duck, You Sucker!", and many movies which I still remember but can no longer recall the names, and surely have never seen on tv or in Blockbuster.  Great "mainstream" movies were also shown, long past their box-office-hit days ("The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean", "Dirty Harry", "Shaft's Big Score", "2001: A Space Oddessy", "Diamonds Are Forever"), alongside now-cult-movies like "Vanishing Point".  Bizarre movies like the horror flick featuring a vampire who was a hippie guru cult leader amazing his followers/prey with his mystical (vampiric!!) powers.  All TOO FUN and I treasure every memory and moment.  I am blessed to have had this experience.