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Death Proof

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Death Proof
File:Death Proof (Netherlands).jpg
Grindhouse theatrical poster
Directed byDeath Proof:
Quentin Tarantino
Written byQuentin Tarantino
Produced byElizabeth Avellan
Erica Steinberg
Robert Rodriguez
Quentin Tarantino
StarringKurt Russell
Rosario Dawson
Vanessa Ferlito
Jordan Ladd
Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Tracie Thoms
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Zoë Bell
Rose McGowan
Marley Shelton
CinematographyRobert Rodriguez
Quentin Tarantino
Edited bySally Menke
Distributed byDimension Films
The Weinstein Company
Release dates
Grindhouse:
Running time
114 min.
Country United States
LanguageEnglish

Death Proof is a 2007 feature length film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, as part of Grindhouse, a double feature film collaboration with Robert Rodriguez .

Tarantino's film, a tribute to grindhouse cinema" and "B movies," follows a misogynistic, psychopathic stunt man/serial killer who targets young women, murdering them with his "death proof" stunt car.

Grindhouse was released on April 6, 2007, ticket sales performed significantly below box office analysts' expectations despite mostly positive critic reviews. In much of the rest of the world, each feature was released separately, with Death Proof screened in an extended version.[1][2] Two soundtracks were also released for the features and include music and audio snippets from the film. Death Proof was released separately in international theatrical markets, and on DVD in the United States on September 18, 2007.

Plot Summary

Three friends – Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Shanna (Jordan Ladd) and radio disc jockey Jungle Julia Lucai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) – are driving down Colorado St in Austin, Texas to celebrate Jungle Julia's birthday, unknowingly followed by a man in a souped-up 1970 Chevy Nova. While drinking at Güero's Taco Bar, Jungle Julia reveals that she made a radio announcement earlier that morning, offering a free lap dance from Arlene to anyone who calls her Butterfly, buys her a drink and recites a segment of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," much to the chagrin of Arlene.

As the night goes on, and the girls meet up with some boys at the Texas Chili Parlor, they run into Pam (Rose McGowan), a childhood adversary of Jungle Julia's, who is being studied by Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a scarred, charming stunt double for Hollywood action films. He spends the night wooing the women, working his way up to Arlene, who realizes that he’s been following them all day, but gives in to his charm.

After receiving the free lap dance, Mike offers Pam a ride in his car, assuring her that it’s “death proof”. In the car, he is revealed to be a psychopathic serial killer who takes pleasure in murdering young women on the road. After taunting Pam by telling her that the car is only death proof for the driver and brutally murdering her by slamming his boot to the brake, causing her to smash her face in on the dashboard, Mike chases after the girls and, with his lights off, causes a high-speed head-on collision with the other girls' car, violently killing the three women and their driver, Jungle Julia’s pot dealer, Lanna Frank (Monica Staggs). Mike suffers only minor injuries and, because the girls were driving while intoxicated and Mike had not consumed any alcohol, he is cleared of all criminal charges, much to the chagrin of Texas Ranger Earl McGraw (Michael Parks), who knows Stuntman Mike is guilty.

File:McGowan and Russell in Death Proof.jpg
Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) offering Pam (Rose McGowan) a ride in his car, assuring her that it’s “death proof”.

Fourteen months later, Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), Kim (Tracie Thoms), and Zoë (Zoë Bell), a group of women working below the line in Hollywood travel through Tennessee.

Zoë, a stunt driver, has lusted after a 1970 Dodge Challenger, and they visit a man who has one for sale. They pretend to take a test drive prior to purchasing, but just want to fulfill Zoë's desire to drive the car, and drive it at high speed as it was driven in the film Vanishing Point, a favorite of hers. Kim, against her will, and Zoë have decided to play a dangerous game called "Ship's Mast", and therefore prefer Abernathy not to come with them, but she insists. On the insistence of Abernathy, Lee is left behind as a guarantee that they do not steal the car. Zoë, holding on to two belts attached to the car, rides on the hood as Kim speeds faster and faster down the road.

During this game, Mike arrives suddenly, and targets them with his 1969 Dodge Charger, repeatedly crashing into them, and eventually Zoë is thrown from the hood. Kim, who carries a gun for protection, shoots Mike in the arm, causing him to flee. Abernathy and Kim look at the fields, dazed by both fear and the loss of Zoë. However, Zoë, unharmed except for a "bruise on her bum," emerges from the brush, where she had been thrown. The three girls decide to take brutal revenge against their sadistic attacker, with Abernathy being the one who decides they should "kill that bastard." Zoë grabs an abandoned length of galvanized fence pipe and jumps into the car as it speeds off.

Stuntman Mike's injury causes him to stop the car and attempt to tend to his wound. As he tends to himself, his true personality is revealed: he is nothing more than a bullying coward who hides behind his cars to feel safe. In doing so, he releases his safety harness. The women find him, violently crash into the back of the Charger, and attack him brutally, and Mike flees again without refastening his harness — nullifying much of the 'death proof' aspect of his stunt car. An extended chase scene follows, which includes multiple collisions. Previously uninvolved vehicles are struck by both cars as the women pursue the frightened stuntman. Just as he becomes convinced that he has escaped, the pursuing vehicle blindsides him and he crashes to a stop. Screaming in pain, he is hauled out of the car and the three women brutally punch him dozens of times. Stuntman Mike is knocked to the ground, and the women leap in celebration, caught in a midair freeze-frame as the film ends. As the film credits roll, we cut back to the girls who are still celebrating. Abernathy raises her leg and, with an ax kick, smashes in Stuntman Mike’s face with her boot heel, before going back to the credits.

Cast

Actor Role
Kurt Russell Stuntman Mike Mikke
Rosario Dawson Abernathy
Vanessa Ferlito Arlene/Butterfly
Jordan Ladd Shanna
Rose McGowan Pam
Sydney Tamiia Poitier Jungle Julia Lucai
Tracie Thoms Kim
Mary Elizabeth Winstead Lee Montgomery
Zoë Bell Herself
Omar Doom Nate
Michael Bacall Omar
Quentin Tarantino Warren
Monica Staggs Lanna-Frank
Michael Parks Earl McGraw
James Parks Edgar McGraw
Tim Murphy Tim the Bartender
Marta Mendoza Punky Bruiser
Electra Avellan Crazy Babysitter Twin #1
Elise Avellan Crazy Babysitter Twin #2
Marley Shelton Dr. Dakota McGraw Block
Jonathan Loughran Jasper
Nicky Katt Counter Guy

Production

Directing

File:Quentin Tarantino directing Death Proof.jpg
Quentin Tarantino directs Death Proof

According to actress Marley Shelton, "(Rodriguez and Tarantino) really co-directed, at least Planet Terror. Quentin was on set a lot. He had notes and adjustments to our performances and he changed lines every once in a while. Of course, he always deferred to Robert on Planet Terror and vice versa for Death Proof. So it's really both of their brainchild."[3] Tarantino has stated "I can't imagine doing Grindhouse with any other director in the way me and Robert did it because I just had complete faith and trust in him. So much so that we didn't actually see each other's movie completed until three weeks before the film opened. It was as if we worked in little vacuums and cut our movies down, and then put them together and watched it all play, and then made a couple of little changes after that, and pretty much that was it."[4]

Casting

Many of the cast members had previously worked with one or both directors. Before appearing in Grindhouse, Shelton had auditioned for The Faculty, but Rodriguez chose not to cast her. She was eventually cast in the role of 'the customer' in the opening sequence of Sin City.[3] Rosario Dawson previously appeared in Sin City. Michael Parks reprises the role of Earl McGraw in Planet Terror and Death Proof. Parks first portrayed the role in From Dusk Till Dawn. His son, James Parks, appears in Death Proof as Edgar McGraw, a character that first appeared in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. The first time the two characters appeared together was in Tarantino's Kill Bill.

Tarantino himself plays small roles in both segments of Grindhouse, and director Eli Roth, who contributed the fake trailer Thanksgiving and whose film Hostel was produced by Tarantino,[5] has a cameo in Death Proof.

Tarantino attempted to cast both Kal Penn[6] and Sylvester Stallone[7] in Death Proof, but both were unable to work due to prior commitments. In an interview, Tarantino revealed that he decided to cast Kurt Russell as the killer stunt driver because "for people of my generation, he's a true hero...but now, there's a whole audience out there that doesn't know what Kurt Russell can do. When I open the newspaper and see an ad that says 'Kurt Russell in Dreamer,' or 'Kurt Russell in Miracle,' I'm not disparaging these movies, but I'm thinking: When is Kurt Russell going to be a badass again?"[8]

Cinematography

Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino each acted as cinematographer on their segments. Although Rodriguez had previously worked as the cinematographer on six of his own feature films, Death Proof marked Tarantino's first credit as a cinematographer.[9][5]

Special effects

The intentionally "aged" look of the film, as seen in the fake trailer Machete.

The film uses various unconventional techniques to make the films more like those that were shown in grindhouse theaters in the 1970s. Throughout both feature-length segments and the fake trailers, the film is intentionally damaged to make it look like many of the exploitation films of the 1970s which were generally shipped around from theater to theater and usually ended up in bad shape. To reproduce the look of damaged film reels in Planet Terror, five of the six 25,000 frame reels were edited with real film damage, plug-ins, and stock footage.[10]

Editing

During editing, Tarantino and Rodriguez came up with the idea of inserting "missing reels" into the film. "(Quentin) was about to show an Italian crime movie with Oliver Reed," Rodriguez recalls, "and he was saying, 'Oh, it's got a missing reel in it. But it's really interesting because after the missing reel, you don't know if he slept with a girl or he didn't because she says he did and he says that he didn't. It leaves you guessing, and the movie still works with 20 minutes gone out of it.' I thought, 'Oh, my God, that's what we’ve got to do. We've got to have a missing reel!' I'm going to use it in a way where it actually says 'missing reel' for 10 seconds, and then when we come back, you're arriving in the third act. [...] The late second acts in movies are usually the most predictable and the most boring, that's where the good guy really turns out to be the bad guy, and the bad guy is really good, and the couple becomes friends. Suddenly, though, in the third act, all bets are off and it's a whole new story anyway."[11]

On the editing of Death Proof, Tarantino stated "There is half-an-hour's difference between my Death Proof and what is playing in Grindhouse. [...] I was like a brutish American exploitation distributor who cut the movie down almost to the point of incoherence. I cut it down to the bone and took all the fat off it to see if it could still exist, and it worked."[4] An extended, 127-minute version of Death Proof was screened in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 60th Cannes Film Festival.[4][12][13][14] Tarantino is quoted as saying "It works great as a double feature, but I'm just as excited if not more excited about actually having the world see Death Proof unfiltered. [...] It will be the first time everyone sees Death Proof by itself, including me."[4]

Music

Cover of Death Proof soundtrack
Main article: Death Proof (soundtrack)

The soundtrack for Death Proof consists entirely of non-original music, including excerpts from the scores of other films. Soundtrack albums for both segments were released on April 3, 2007. A separate soundtrack for Planet Terror was also released. Both albums featured dialogue excerpts from the film.

Theatrical release

Internationally, Planet Terror and Death Proof were released as separate films, approximately two months apart.[15] According to the poster artwork for each film's release in the Netherlands, the fake trailers for Death Proof were directed by Rodriguez, while those for Planet Terror by Tarantino. No mention was made of the trailers by Roth, Wright, or Zombie.[16][17]

In the United Kingdom, Death Proof was released on September 21 2007. The release of Planet Terror will follow at an unspecified later date.[18] Death Proof was screened in Europe in the extended version that was presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The additional material includes scenes that were replaced in the American theatrical release version with a "missing reel" title card, such as the lap dance scene. A total of 27 minutes were added for this version. One of the first screenings of Death Proof was made at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on 20th August, with star Zoe Bell attending the screenings.[19] Tarantino also screened Death Proof by itself at the Cinemanila Film Festival in The Philippines, and it is being released as a solo film in South Korea as well.

In reaction to the possibility of a split in a foreign release, Tarantino stated "Especially if they were dealing with non-English language countries, they don't really have this tradition ... not only do they not really know what a grind house is, they don't even have the double feature tradition. So you are kind of trying to teach us something else."[20] Many European fans see the split as an attempt to increase profits by forcing audiences to pay twice for a film that is shown as a single film in the United States.[21] A number of European fans of Tarantino have expressed their outrage in film forums and with online petitions, with some announcing they will boycott the films or possibly download them.[22]

DVD release

Death Proof and Planet Terror will be sold separately on DVD. Death Proof was released on September 18, 2007 region 1 DVD.[23] Planet Terror will follow on October 16, 2007. Both releases will be two-disc special editions.[24] Best Buy also released exclusive steelbook copies of Death Proof, containing a bonus disc featuring the FX special 'Welcome to the Grindhouse.'

The Death Proof DVD includes the extended cut of the film shown at Cannes and across Europe, documentaries on the casting of the film, the various muscle cars and Tarantino's relationship with editor Sally Menke, an interview conducted by Tarantino with cult director Cirio H. Santiago, trailers, and an international poster gallery.[25] The DVD packaging also includes a $5 discount coupon toward purchase of the Planet Terror DVD.

Triva

♦ The black and yellow car from the second half of the movie recalls Uma Thurman's outfit from Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol.1". It also has a small decal on the backthat reads "The Pussy Wagon", similar to the one on the truck Thurman's character commandeers.


Notes and references

  1. ^ "The Grindhouse Split". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  2. ^ "Grindhouse News". ESplatter. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  3. ^ a b Spelling, Ian. "Doctor in the GRINDHOUSE". Fangoria. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Telegraph was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "Quentin Tarantino filmography". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  6. ^ Sciretta, Peter. "Did You Know: Kal Penn was cast in Tarantino's Grindhouse?". Ifilm. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
  7. ^ Sciretta, Peter. "Tarantino wanted Stallone for Grindhouse". Ifilm. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bloodbath was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "Robert Rodriguez filmography". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  10. ^ "VFX World". Grindhouse: Pistol-Packing VFX. Retrieved April 18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wizard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "Director Tarantino in competition in Cannes". Yahoo. 2007-04-19.
  13. ^ "Death Proof". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  14. ^ "Cannes Film Festival archives". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  15. ^ "Alles Over Quentin Tarantino" (in Dutch). 2007-03-18. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "Dutch Death Proof poster art". Retrieved 2007-04-09.
  17. ^ "Dutch Planet Terror poster art". Retrieved 2007-04-09.
  18. ^ "Grindhouse Dismantled". 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  19. ^ McCarthy, Todd (May 22, 2007). "Review of Death Proof". Variety. Retrieved 2007-06-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  20. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes". Tarantino Chops Feature Length "Death Proof" For "Grindhouse". Retrieved April 18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ Zagt, Ab (2007-03-1). "De goedkope trucs van Tarantino" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "Geen double feature in Benelux (Reacties)" (in Dutch). 2007-03-02. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
  23. ^ "ASIN: B000R7HY0K". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-06-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  24. ^ Gingold, Michael (July 3, 2007). "DVD Chopping List". Fangoria. Retrieved 2007-07-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  25. ^ Monfette, Christopher (July 26, 2007). "DVD SDCC: Grindhouse Gets Cut in Two". IGN. Retrieved 2007-07-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)

Further reading

  • Tarantino, Quentin and Rodriguez, Robert. Grindhouse: The Sleaze-filled Saga of an Exploitation Double Feature. Weinstein Books, 2007. ISBN 1602860149. The book includes forewords by both directors, interviews, a history of grind houses, and behind-the-scenes information about the production of the film. In addition, the book also includes the complete scripts for Planet Terror and the faux trailers Machete and Thanksgiving.


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