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Kurt Russell behind the wheel in Death Proof
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Lively homage to ‘grindhouse’ cult
DEATH PROOF
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Certificate 18
IS by for shocks, with a tribute from bad-boy director Quentin Tarantino to the kind of cheesy sex-and-gore exploitation movies that played in the 60s in your local back-street fleapit, yet found their own cult fanbase despite pretty awful direction and low budgets.
They became known as “grindhouse”, backed by prints that were often scratched as well as scenes that didn’t quite match.
This was true pulp fiction. So who better to pay his own respects to the genre than the screen’s notorious enfant terrible, who led the charge to push the boundaries of violence to its limits and beyond?
Tarantino is in his element here, and film buffs will find much to compare with his previous work. Death Proof was originally one half of a 190-minute double bill, which along with Planet Terror from his friend Robert Rodriguez became a talking point at Cannes this year. Sensibly, the distributors decided to split the dynamic duo in two.
Kurt Russell features as Stuntman Mike, a psycho who is a headlight short after crashing his car once too often. Now he hangs out at a bar where he picks up girls and invites them on rides in his impregnable “death proof” Dodge that they really shouldn’t think of taking.
Early scenes at the bar are vintage Tarantino. The girls (Rosario Dawson, Sydney – daughter of Sidney – Poitier, Tracie Thoms and Zoe Bell) chat away with that edgy dialogue leading us into a sense of insecurity which, sure enough, will end in a welter of all-round mayhem.
With its close-ups on cleavage, hot-pants and moments of savage brutality, this is also Tarantino’s unashamed homage to that previous purveyor of S & M screen fantasy Russ (Faster, Pussycat, Kill Kill!) Meyer.
But the car chases are the scariest since Vanishing Point, and brought the sweat springing out on my palms.
Backed by a pulsating sound-track, QT has a lot of fun at our expense.
It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but, somewhat reluctantly, I have to admit the end result is quite hypnotically watchable. |
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