Death Proof
Ahh … (lol, sorry, I seem to be starting that way a lot recently) ... to start a new entry for these individually-released portions of Grindhouse? to … gasp ... consider them virgin viewings? Are they different enough from their 90 minute double-billed release? And so on …
I was personally really anxious to give the Grindhouse movies another chance, a re-evaluation even – not only as the original double-bill but also, moreso, as separate works as the directors chose to cut them for DVD, or, in this case, even Cannes. In this case in particular, I really wanted to find something to love. Robert Rodriguez – he does this kind of thing anyway, you expect it from him, he started with the infamous $7,000 El Mariachi, he dabbles in 3-D, HD, green screen, he makes unabashedly kid-friendly movies like Sharkboy and Lavagirl and unabashedly geek-friendly movies like Sin City – he’s an entertainer, often primarily of himself. Tarantino, on the other hand, and excuse me for being pretentious but – he’s an artist. I don’t accept the argument that the Grindhouse stuff is an extension of what he was already doing in Kill Bill ... Kill Bill was so much more than the schlocky homages, I don’t even know where to begin. He said himself, I think around the time of Kill Bill, in fact, something along the lines of how he wants the average teenage boy sitting at home in his bedroom discovering his movies further on down the line to never be let down – hence the big thing with Kill Bill’s advertising “The Fourth Film from Quentin Tarantino”. It’s never just another movie from him – at least, it’s never meant to be – it’s always THE nth classic from one of the modern greats – at least, it ought to be. Did that all make sense?
By the time “Death Proof” starts in the 3 hour Grindhouse set-up, I was already feeling overall let down by Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror”. The trailers, of course, were an almighty cinematic palate cleanser, and to my surprise, I spent the first few minutes of Death Proof unbelievably buzzed. It did feel like the 6th Tarantino movie. But by the end, again, I just felt let down. It was better than “Planet Terror”, granted, but it still felt like a fairly unimportant exercise, however successful it had turned out (in a nutshell – congratulations, you recreated the trashiest cinema known to man, Grindhouse; congrats, you know your stuff, and as a consequence it turned out, well … trashy, what’d you expect?)
In this version, though, I’m glad to say, by the end, I was amazed by how much I found myself getting into it. Having only seen both versions once, I couldn’t get into detail, but I’m pretty sure there’s more to that final chase this time around, and I was just practically screaming “YES!” at the screen.
Of course, the other thing I criminally didn’t mention in the Grindhouse review is the stunts in this movie. They are truly awe-inspiring and worth an extra star on their own. They were worth that the first time around and I just didn’t even think; they’re worth it even more in this version.
It remains the worst of Tarantino’s catalogue (and I even count his Four Rooms contribution there) – like I said at the start, that’s kind of the point ... – but at least I can now say it most certainly is a Tarantino movie, and I think, yes, going by my response to it in each incarnation, it is different enough to call a different movie. It’ll be interesting to see if Rodriguez’s portion is so much improved.