Death Proof

Death Proof (2007)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Actors: Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito

Synopsis: Psychotic Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) stalks two groups of sassy young women in his ‘death proof’ car.

Review: Tarantino’s homage to the exploitation genre is this ‘grindhouse’ feature, Death Proof – part of a double-bill alongside Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. If, in truth, it’s all a bit juvenile and unmemorable, the closing, climactic car chase does give the film an appropriately adrenaline-filled kick to the slow-burn talky scenes that proceed the action, and, to some extent, contextualise it.

All Tarantino’s faux grindhouse tics that he evidently thinks are so amusing are present, but it’s not a particularly rewarding conceit to frame a movie around. There are the purposely ropy pans, the burn marks on spliced reels of film, unintentional jump cuts, and there’s even an intentionally weird edit in the first scene in the Mexican bar that showcases Tarantino at his most playful – almost imagining that a section of his film had gone missing.

The film does rely, to quite a large extent, on the sass of his dialogue and the subtext of having a voyeuristic stuntman procuring sadistic pleasure at the maiming of pretty young women. Sure, Tarantino makes nods towards equality with the evening up of things at the end, although the final scene of Stuntman Mike getting set on by the women is a touch silly and tame. (August 2019)