DEATH PROOF (2007) - Review

Death Proof

Action/Thriller
1 hour and 53 minutes
Rated R

Written by: Quentin Tarantino
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Produced by: Elizabeth Avellán, Robert Rodriguez, Erica Steinberg and Quentin Tarantino

Cast:
Kurt Russell
Rosario Dawson
Vanessa Ferlito
Jordan Ladd
Rose McGowan
Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Tracie Thoms
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Zoë Bell

A White-Hot Juggernaut At 200 Miles Per Hour!

Fasten your seat belts, and hold on for dear life, as I examine Quentin Tarantino's homage to the carsploitation genre: Death Proof. If you're not familiar with the genre, understand that it is one to be thoroughly appreciated. Muscle cars, square-jawed actors, exhilarating chase-sequences, and of course beautiful ladies - how could you not love carsploitation films?

Tarantino obviously has a strong love and admiration for the genre, mainly evidenced by the references sprinkled throughout the Tarantino-typical dialogue, as well as the vehicles themselves. Kudos to Mr. Tarantino for using the actual cars throughout the chase sequences, as opposed to taking the easy way out with CGI.

For all of its carsploitation beauty, Death Proof is not a film without flaws. As mentioned already, the film has the classic Tarantino-dialogue added throughout, which any fan of his would find enjoyable. The problem is, Death Proof is a carsploitation film - or at least it's trying to be one. The carsploitation films of the 1970s (e.g. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry or Vanishing Point) aren't dialogue heavy films. In fact, the dialogue in most carsploitation movies is pretty poorly written. The point of this is to not take away from the gloriously choreographed car-chases and car-crashes. With Tarantino's film, we get about 90% decently-written dialogue, and about 10% car-chase. Not the proper ratio for success within this genre.

Besides this, the film is incredibly conflicted. It can't make up its mind as to whether it's a dialogue-driven-Tarantino-drama, a creative new take on the slasher film, or a blatant homage to the carsploitation genre. The film moves from one genre to the next in a helter skelter fashion that's very untypical of its filmmaker.

The performances in Death Proof are all handled well by capable performers (including the then-newcomer Zoë Bell), but the problem rests within the dialogue. While decently written, the film's dialogue is nowhere near Tarantino's best work. The character's in the first half of the film are obsessed with 1970s music, the character's during the second half of the film are obsessed with 1970s movies, and the film's antagonist is obsessed with 1970s television. This is all cool and everything, but it comes across as being too much of the writer's voice, and not enough of the character's. Also, the scene with Michael Parks right in the middle of the film is totally unnecessary. He's a very fine actor, and I know Tarantino likes to use him in the recurring role of Texas Ranger Earl McGraw, but in this film his presence is totally unnecessary.

All-in-all, Death Proof boasts some terrific stunt work and beautifully shot car-chases and crashes, but falls short in comparison to Tarantino's other works - mainly due to its inner-conflict concerning its own genre identity.

6.5/10