April 20, 2021 marks the death of Monte Hellman at 91, one of those race filmmakers that Quentin Tarantino adored, and not only for being the executive producer of ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (1992). His death, in Palm Desert (California), after a fall at his home, is another symbolic echo of the change in the way of making films in Hollywood, in times of platforms and ‘Asphalt road in two directions‘(Two-Lane Blacktop, 1971) is a living testimony to that forgotten era.
Among his classics we also find ‘El tiroteo’ (The Shooting, 1966) or ‘Game-cock‘(Cockfighter, 1974), almost a spiritual epilogue of’ Carretera ‘, the ones that preserve the greatest trace of an author who He always moved skillfully between very fair budgets, as a lesson from having passed through the Roger Corman factory, something in common with so many other creators of American independent cinema. Representing a freedom and spirit that permeates the song at twilight of ” Once upon a time in Hollywood ” (2019), whose characters could enter and leave a Hellman movie, just like Stuntman Mike from ‘Death Proof’ (2007)
