Car nut
Synopsis: Radio DJ Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia “daughter-of-Sidney” Poitier) and her friends Arlene (Vanessa Perlito) and Shanna (Jordan Ladd) are planning a weekend at Shanna’s lake house. They meet at a local tavern beforehand, where they encounter a strange man who calls himself Stuntman Mike (His Badassness Kurt Russell). Little do they know that Stuntman Mike has a penchant for killing beautiful women, and using the most uncommon serial killer weapon of choice: his skull-emblazoned, “death-proofed” 1971 Chevrolet Nova SS.
Death Proof was supposed to be the second half of Grindhouse (the first being Planet Terror), an ode to Seventies exploitation movies (which were shown in sleazy American theatres called “grindhouses”, hence the name) by directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Staying true to the original experience of watching a grindhouse movie, Grindhouse premiered in the United States with the two movies shown back-to-back, and even contained visual imperfections like excessive dirt and specks, unaligned screen titles and missing frames. Because of poor box office performance, the producers released Death Proof as a stand-alone movie for the overseas markets, for fear of alienating more audiences with its unusual structure and style.
The Big Movie Freak was just a tot and halfway around the world during the Seventies, so the change in format meant little to me. Admittedly, I didn’t even know what a grindhouse was (Butcher shop? Disco? Pepper factory?) before Grindhouse, although I'm aware of the existence of Dario Argento, Italian giallo movies, and Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill. Death Proof works just fine without the double-bill gimmick, although the same can’t be said about the deliberate messing about with the visual quality. The references are lost to all but American movie fans above the age of forty, and may confuse some of the younger crowd who are not privy to the moviemakers’ intentions.
Still, like what a friend of mine jubilantly exclaimed after watching the movie, Death Proof was a lot of fun. Tarantino managed to take one of the stalest of movie genres, the “slasher” pic (movies about maniacs murdering nubile girls), and made it fresh and exciting again. This he did by subverting some of the genre’s conventions, including the cliché of an unsuspecting victim slowly realising her dire circumstance when the stranger giving her a lift suddenly turns into a direction not headed towards home. Of course, in a Tarantino movie, the killer takes his time to coolly elucidate the situation to the victim first before he even makes that turn! It’s a classic Tarantino moment, finding humour in terrifying situations, and there are quite a bit of these, building up to the biggest laugh in the movie; the thrilling, gleeful and off-kilter finale that sent people in the cinema into a laughing fit over, of all things, the brutal and violent comeuppance of a major character.
Tarantino is also known for being able to wring out memorable performances from both unknown and revered actors alike. Standouts include Vanessa Perlito, Tracie Thoms (as Kim), Rosario Dawson (as Abernathy), Kurt Russell and real-life stuntwoman Zoë Bell (as herself), who did a more convincing job at being a girlish badass than Uma Thurman did in Kill Bill. Interestingly, Bell also doubled for Thurman in Kill Bill.
One of the few gripes I had was how thin the movie was in terms of plot. It’s not really Tarantino’s fault, as he was originally writing one-half of a movie, albeit part of a double feature. Another gripe was the overlong dialogue sequence at the beginning, which was either deliberate padding or the result of critics over-praising Tarantino’s writing abilities over the years. Thus, like Kill Bill, Death Proof is also just a trim short of perfection. But with movies this cool and badass, I can’t complain. It’s easily the best of 2007, so far. - BMF
For the record: Pulp Fiction > Reservoir Dogs > Death Proof > Kill Bill > Jackie Brown
Death Proof > 2007 summer blockbusters
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill). |
