Death Proof
2007
D: Quentin Tarantino
**********
Pros: Grindhouse Atmosphere, Well-Executed Violence,
Witty Dialogue, Good Cast, Clever Premise
Cons: Resolution Partially Ruined by Unlikeable
Protagonists
Death Proof, one half of the Grindhouse double feature, seems to be
the black sheep of Quentin Tarantino’s oeuvre.
It’s consistently listed as the worst of his films, and even Tarantino himself shares this opinion. Most of the
criticism focuses on the long, talky portions of the movie. Personally, I think this is justified for a
few reasons. Death Proof, like its counterpart Planet Terror, is an homage to 70’s exploitation flicks, which
often took their time with meandering conversation to fill out a feature length
with limited effects budgets. In
addition to this, Tarantino’s tongue-in-cheek dialogue helps the movie remain
watchable while the slow moments succeed in making the payoffs more effective
when you get to them. In fact, I tend to
find this buildup preferable to some of the shorter, but more pointlessly
long-winded, restaurant scenes I’ve seen in Tarantino films (lookin’ at you, Inglourious Basterds).
Slasher
movies tend to be a bit rigid in their premises. Tarantino, however, gives us a very creative
twist on the genre here. A long-time fan
of practical stunts and effects, he was fascinated by stuntmen’s practice of
“death-proofing” cars so that they could survive stunts. Therefore, he created a Stuntman Mike (Kurt
Russell), a killer who murders women by ramming their cars in his own
death-proofed muscle car. A clever idea
and an effectively meta love letter to the old ways of effects filmmaking.
The story
begins with radio DJ Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) celebrating her
birthday with her friends Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Pam (Rose McGowan), Shanna
(Jordan Ladd), and Lanna (Monica Staggs) at a bar tended by Warren (Quentin
Tarantino). Jungle Julia reveals that
she has used her radio show to set up an asinine prank to shame Arlene into
giving a lap dance to any stranger that reduces Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening” to a bad double entendre in her presence. Stuntman Mike, who’s been stalking the girls,
claims the lap dance. Arlene is
initially apprehensive, but Mike disarms her with his charming personality (and
a John Wayne impression). The moment the
inevitability of said lap dance is effectively established, the movie
humorously cuts to a blank screen informing the viewer of a missing reel (a common
thing in cheap grindhouse theaters). It
then cuts back to the characters leaving the bar post-lap dance. This moment is no doubt annoying if you’re a
horndog with no sense of humor, but it’s not like your missing much with
Unrated Cut’s lap dance. It’s pretty
PG-13, and the only memorable thing about it is that it’s set to a really good song.
While Julia, Arlene, Pam, Shanna, and Lanna
depart in one car, Pam hitches a ride with Mike. After revealing that his 1971 Nova is only
death-proofed for the driver’s side, he batters the unfastened Pam to death
with the car’s cabin by driving swerving and braking suddenly. He then dumps her body and pursues the other
girls in their car. Overtaking them, he
turns around and rams them in a combined 200 mph head-on collision, turning his
headlights on the exact moment before impact).
The crash is one of the few I’ve seen in a movie that depicts just how
grisly a car accident can be. Each woman’s
ultraviolent death is preceded by her initial reaction to Mike’s headlights’
turning on at the last second. Later,
Mike is sent to the hospital, where we see cameos of three Planet Terror characters.
After teasing Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton), Ranger Earl McGraw
(Michael Parks) tells Ranger Edgar McGraw (Justin Parks) that Mike will not be
charged because he was sober whereas the women were not. He still has a hunch Mike murdered them,
speculating that he does so as a sexual fetish.
The movie
then begins its second self-contained half (which is odd within a double
feature) by introducing Abernathy Ross (Rosario Dawson), Kim Mathis (Tracie
Thoms), Zoë Bell (Herself), and Lee Montgomery (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The second half also starts out chatty, but
has subverts the expectations set by the first by having the conversations be
more relevant. In their first driving
scene Kim chides Abernathy for not putting out enough to her boyfriend. Aside from the creepy idea that she’s
obligated to have sex with him, there’s apparently this odd rule I’m not
familiar with. After Abernathy tries to
tell them he cheated on her on her birthday, the group tells her that she
should forgive that just because he made a mix tape for her afterward. Apparently even more so because this tape was
in an obsolete medium. Maybe Tarantino’s
taking his retro-fetish a little too far.
The conversation may foreshadow something Abernathy does that’s even
worse in terms of coerced sex on friends.
The group
goes to test drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger owned by the shady Jasper (Jonathan
Loughran) because it’s just like the one from Vanishing Point. Zoë and Kim
plan to do a “ship’s mast” on the car (it’s not as dirty as it sounds) while
Abernathy and Lee wait with Jasper.
Seems reasonable, but this plan catches a hitch because Abernathy is a
horrible person. Despite not being a
gearhead like her other two friends, she complains about be left out and talks
them into taking her and leaving Lee alone with Jasper (who, by the way is the
hospital rapist from Kill Bill). With the consent of Kim and Zoë, she
convinces the loutish hick that Lee is a porn star who will be happy to have
sex with her. And all this coming from
someone who had the nerve to judge Kim for carrying a gun for self-defense (This
provokes a great pro-gun rant from the latter.
Tarantino has a relatively heterodox view on the issue, and it’s a
refreshing thing two see in a movie).
Rosario Dawson’s acting does make the scene kinda funny, offensive as it
is. Abernathy and Co. have basically set their “friend” up
for a rape just so they can take a joy ride in a car, and this is what kinda
ruins the movie for me. By making the
movie’s heroines people I can’t root for, Tarantino wrecked the premise of the
movie’s second half, and cheapens the resolution to a victory of the lesser
evil. And the worst the women in the
first half did was that lap dance dare, as well as general vapidity.
Still, the car
chase that ensues when Mike attacks them in a 1969 Dodge Charger is very
satisfying. It’s suspenseful when he
menaces them while Zoë is clinging to dear life on the hood of the Challenger
from her stunt, and it’s pretty glorious to watch when the women turn the
tables on Mike. After Mike has had his
fill of toying them he bids them farewell at a stop, and Kim shoots at him with
a gun. I could say the pro-gun message
is a little poorly-executed since this only happens once a Mike is no longer a
threat, but it’s amusing to watch Mike turn into a crying wreck when being
wounded in his arm. Unlike most slasher
movies, which depict their antagonists as unstoppable forces, this movie
wonderfully subverts the genre by revealing these predators to be what they are
in real life: pathetic cowards. After
the women chase down Mike, they crash his car pull him out and hilariously
start punching him until he drops, celebrating as the movie cuts to
credits. The delivery of this end would
have been perfect had it not been for a brief shot after the blackout in which
Abernathy, cementing her status as a hypocrite in regards to deadly force even
further, kills Mike in cold blood by axe-kicking his face in. I think the movie flew a little too close to
the sun in that moment.
The movie’s
style is very good for what it is. The
scratchy picture is effective, without being as exaggerated as it is in Planet Terror. Also, the “missing reels” are done with more
restraint, in contrast with the more stereotypical execution of the other
movie. I’m not even sure that’s what a
film burnout looks like, but I could be wrong.
The chases and stunts are very good, and one is set to pretty good music. They all use practical effects and coherent
editing. Tarantino worked as
cinematographer to great effect in this movie and he made good on his
frustrations regarding most modern car chases.
There are also funny little touches, like Mike’s inexplicable
fourth-wall breaking at one point, and his ducky hood ornament. Another amusing moment is when the title
screen shows an animated title card for “Thunderbolt,”
only to have it instantly covered by a crudely plastered on “Death Proof” label.
The movie
has its own little connections to the other Grindhouse
films. Even though it’s shown after Planet Terror, it clearly takes place
before it. At one point in Planet Terror we hear a brief In Memoriam on the radio for Jungle
Julia. The movie has cameos by Eli Roth,
Marcy Harriell, Omar Doom, and Michael Baccal.
Also Lee Montgomery from the second half is the actress who plays the
cheerleader in Eli Roth’s fake trailer for Thanksgiving. This seems to show some inconsistent meta,
though: a real-life movie in which a character is an actress in a movie that I
just saw a trailer presented to me on the same plane of reality as the
movie? Still, I’d argue that Death Proof is the better half of Grindhouse. While PlanetTerror is a gory romp that caricatures the grindhouse style, Death Proof is a wittier movie that is
more faithful to the midnight movies it cherishes while doing a better job
transcending them. I’m sometimes not
sure what’s better, a middling movie, or a mostly great movie with a nagging
and normally fatal flaw. I believe Death Proof is definitely the latter.
QUOTES
PAM: Is it safe?
STUNTMAN MIKE: It’s better than safe. It’s death-proof.
PAM: How do you make a car death-proof?
STUNTMAN MIKE: Well, that's what stuntmen do. You've seen a movie where a car gets into
some smash-up there ain't no way in hell anybody's walking away from?
PAM: Yeah.
STUNTMAN MIKE: Well, how do you think they accomplish
that?
PAM: CGI.
STUNTMAN MIKE: Well, unfortunately, Pam, nowadays more
often than not, you 're right. Tsk. But back in the all-or-nothin' days. Vanishing Point days, the Dirty Mary Crazy Larry days, the White Line Fever days... real cars
smashing into real cars. Real dumb people driving 'em. So, give the stunt team
the car you want to smash up, they take her and reinforce that fucker
everywhere and, voila! You got yourself a death-proof automobile.
PAM: So how exactly does one become a stuntman?
STUNTMAN MIKE: Well, in Hollywood, anyone fool enough to
throw themselves down a flight of stairs can usually find someone to pay them
for it. But really, I got into the business the way most people get into the
stunt business.
PAM: How's that?
STUNTMAN MIKE: My brother got me in it.
PAM: Who’s your brother?
STUNTMAN MIKE: Stuntman Bob.
STUNTMAN MIKE: Do I frighten you?
[Arlene nods]
STUNTMAN MIKE: Is it my scar?
ARLENE: It’s your car.
STUNTMAN MIKE: Yeah, I know. I'm sorry.
It's my mom's car.
STUNTMAN MIKE: Well Pam, which way you goin' left or
right?
PAM: Right.
STUNTMAN MIKE: Aw, that’s too bad.
PAM: Why?
STUNTMAN MIKE: Well,
because there was a fifty-fifty shot on whether you'd be going left. You see, we're both going left. You could have just as easily been going left
too and if that was the case, it would have been awhile before you started
getting scared. But since you're going
the other way, I'm afraid you're gonna have to start getting scared...
immediately.
STUNTMAN MIKE: Hey,
Pam, remember when I said this car was death proof? Well, that wasn't a lie.
This car is 100% death proof. Only to get the benefit of it, honey, you REALLY
need to be sitting in my seat.
LEE: You carry a gun?
KIM: Uh-huh.
LEE: Do you have a license to carry it?
KIM: Yeah, when I became a Secret Service agent, they
gave me a license.
LEE: Did you know Kim carried a gun?
ABERNATHY: Yes. Now, do I approve? No. Do I know? Yes?
KIM: Look, I don't know what futuristic utopia you live
in, but the world I live in, a bitch need a gun.
ABERNATHY: You can't get around the fact that people who
carry guns, tend to get shot more than people who don't.
KIM: And you can't get around the fact that if I go down
to the laundry room in my building at midnight enough times, I might get my ass
raped.
LEE: Don't do your laundry at midnight.
KIM: Fuck that! I wanna do my laundry whenever the fuck I
wanna do my laundry.
ABERNATHY: There are other things you can carry other
than a gun. Pepper spray.
KIM: Uh, motherfucker tryna rape me? I don't wanna give
him skin rash! I wanna shut that n***** down!
ABERNATHY: How about a knife at least?
KIM: Yeah, you know what happens to motherfuckers carry
knives? They get shot! Look, if I ever become a famous actress, I wont carry a
gun. I'll hire me a do-dirt n*****, and he'll carry the gun. And when shit goes
down, I'll sit back and laugh, but until that day, it's Wild West motherfucker!
[The women pass some cows while chasing
Stuntman Mike]
KIM: Moo, motherfucker, moo!
PAM: So what’s your name, Icy?
STUNTMAN MIKE: Stuntman Mike.
PAM: Stuntman Mike’s your name.
STUNTMAN MIKE: You ask anybody.
PAM: Hey, Warren, who is this guy?
WARREN: Stuntman Mike
PAM: And who the hell is Stuntman Mike.
WARREN: He’s a stuntman.
JUNGLE JULIA: I think you got Mike laid tonight. Looking good, Cannonball Run!
PAM: He’s just giving me a ride
JUNGLE JULIA: Oh, no doubt.
ARLENE: Have a nice ride!
PAM: Oh
double-fucks. I’m not gonna fuck him!
STUNTMAN MIKE: I can hear you!
PAM: He’s old enough to be my da…
STUNTMAN MIKE: I
can still hear you!
STUNTMAN MIKE: Be careful, my arm’s broken!
KIM: Oh, this one?
STUNTMAN MIKE: [high-pitched
scream]
EARL McGRAW: I'm gonna' tell you like The LORD told John:
If he ever does it again, I can be goddamn sure he don't ever do it again in
Texas.
[movie cuts to
Lebanon, TN title card]
JASPER: Why’s she dressed like that?
ABERNATHY: Well, you see, we're making a Hollywood movie
in town, and it's a cheerleading movie and she's one of the cheerleaders.
JASPER: What’s a cheerleading movie?
ABERNATHY: A movie about chearleaders.
JASPER: Is it a porno movie?
ABERNATHY: …YES.
WARREN: Chartreuse! The only liquor so good they named a
color after it!
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