‘Deadbeat at Dawn’ or — The Little Film That Could.
Jim VanBebber’s ‘Deadbeat at Dawn’ (1988) is a super grungy, grimy, nasty, low-budget exploitation action flick that is the epitome of DIY film-making which is not only surprisingly good but also oddly cute and endearing.
Gang leader Goose decides to quit the world of turf-wars and violence and to go straight to support his girlfriend. However, after she is brutally murdered as part of a retaliation by a rival gang Goose sets out for vengeance, even if it means leading to his own destruction.
So it’s your usual revenge tale mixed up with a ‘The Warriors’ style street gang flick and a healthy dose of Shaw Brothers inspired martial arts action… and all shot on weekends over a period of four years for $10,000 in Dayton, Ohio. And for the first thirty minutes or so it plays out as you might expect with all its low budget trappings blatantly on display which, for me, is something that can easily sink a movie. However, it works! VanBebber and his crew don’t let their nonexistent resources from stopping them from aiming high and they certainly know all the ingredients needed for a film to “work”. So there are colourful characters with over the top speeches, some pretty decent camerawork and editing along with a nice flare for action. And despite the “gritty” nature of it all it never once becomes truly nasty. I was dreading the killing of Goose’s girlfriend, worried that it might just be horrible for the sake of it and with the brutality only emphasised by the low-budget look. Fortunately it had me laughing my ass off, especially the disposal of the body. although that could be saying more about me. Either way, this isn’t a grim film in the slightest as it is way too silly for that.
Half-way through I was enjoying it and thinking “they’re kinda pulling it off.”
And then came the armoured truck sequence where the gang pull off a daring robbery involving setting the streets on fire to divert traffic and causing city-wide panic, rappelling from roof-tops, firing throwing stars from sniper positions, killing the guards and generally the sort of stuff you might see in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ or a Michael Mann mov… hang on! Yeah, for a few, brief, fleeting seconds I was comparing ‘Deadbeat at Dawn’ to a Christopher Nolan movie and that’s when my jaw hit the floor. Sure, it is still a group of young dudes running about Dayton with a camera stealing shots left, right and center but their ambition is off the charts… and they pull it off!
After that the film is full-on balls-to-the-wall, twat-to-the-mat, excessive violence and action that never lets up to the point of putting most big-budget action films to shame. It’s like they thought of what they would love to see happen in a movie and just went for it and that DIY aesthetic only adds to the energy (the pacing to this movie is just great).
I was trying to think how best to describe ‘Deadbeat at Dawn’ and for me it was like watching ‘John Wick’ except if it was directed by Keanu Reeves and not the actor Keanu Reeves but actually directed by Theodore “Ted” Logan, the character, and it’s as lovable as that sounds.
If you’re not into low-budget, blood-splattering, juvenile (and this film IS juvenile but in the best possible way) film-making then you might be left sitting scratching your head wondering what anybody could see in this. But if watching a bunch of dudes running about their local streets pretending they’re Chuck Norris (and ‘Deadbeat at Dawn’ is better than anything Chuck Norris ever made) then you’ll have a total blast with this one.
Low-budget film-making at it’s finest.
