Death Proof (2007)

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Writer:

Quentin Tarantino (written by)

Release Date:

31 May 2007 (Hungary)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

A White-Hot Juggernaut At 200 Miles Per Hour!

Plot:

Two separate sets of voluptuous women are stalked at different times by a scarred stuntman who uses his "death proof" cars to execute his murderous plans.

Plot Keywords:

Stuntman | Revenge | Female Bonding | Face Ripping Off | Dark Humor

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Kurt Russell	...	Stuntman Mike
Zoe Bell	...	Herself (as Zoë Bell)
Rosario Dawson	...	Abernathy
Vanessa Ferlito	...	Arlene
Sydney Tamiia Poitier	...	Jungle Julia (as Sydney Poitier)
Tracie Thoms	...	Kim
Rose McGowan	...	Pam
Jordan Ladd	...	Shanna
Mary Elizabeth Winstead	...	Lee
Quentin Tarantino	...	Warren
Marcy Harriell	...	Marcy
Eli Roth	...	Dov
Omar Doom	...	Nate
Michael Bacall	...	Omar
Monica Staggs	...	Lanna Frank

Also Known As:

Grindhouse Presents: Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (USA) (DVD title)
Grindhouse: Death Proof (International: English title)
Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (USA) (complete title)
Quentin Tarantino's Thunder Bolt (USA) (informal alternative title)
Quentin Tarantino's Thunder Bolt! (USA) (working title)
Thunder Bolt (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

114 min (international version) | Japan:113 min | USA:90 min (edited version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

Norway:15 | Finland:K-18 | Singapore:M18 (cut) | France:-12 | UK:18 | Italy:VM14 | Ireland:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Australia:MA | Australia:MA (2007) | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:16 | Hungary:18 | Sweden:15 | South Korea:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Brazil:16 | Japan:R-15 | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Spain:18 | New Zealand:R16 | USA:R (No. 43396) | Australia:MA (Original rating) | Canada:18A (Canadian Home Video rating) | Netherlands:16 | South Africa:16LV | Argentina:16 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

The complete list of songs contained in the jukebox is as follows: 01. Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft / Ellie's Love Theme (From Shaft (1971)) 02. Barry White - You're the First, the Last, My Everything / Can't Get Enough 03. Bob Dylan - George Jackson (Acoustic) / George Jackson (Big Band) 04. Stevie Wonder - Lately / If It's Magic 05. The Chi-Lites - Have You Seen Her / Oh Girl 06. The THP Orchestra - Theme from S.W.A.T., Pt. 1 / Oh Girl 07. Stevie Wonder - I Ain't Gonna Stand for It / Knocks Me off My Feet 08. Bloodstone - Natural High / This Thing is Heavy ("Natural High" is heard in Jackie Brown (1997)) 09. Don McLean - American Pie, Pt. 1 / American Pie, Pt. 2 10. Sweet - Little Willy / Man from Mecca 11. The Isley Brothers - Take Me to the Next Phase, Pt. 1 / Take Me to the Next Phase, Pt. 2 12. The Miracles - Love Machine, Pt. 1 / Love Machine, Pt. 2 13. Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues / She Belongs to Me 14. Honey Cone - Stick Up / V.I.P. 15. Earth Wind & Fire - Shining Star / Yearning, Learning 16. Amii Stewart - Knock on Wood / When You Are Beautiful 17. Honey Cone - Want Ads / We Belong Together 18. Kool & The Gang - Hollywood Swinging / Jungle Boogie ("Jungle Boogie" is heard in Pulp Fiction (1994)) 19. Bob Dylan - Band of the Hand / Theme from Joe's Death (From Band of the Hand (1986)) 20. The Sweet - Wig-Wam-Bam / New York Connection 21. Friends of Distinction - Grazing in the Grass / I Really Hope You Do 22. 'Marvin Gaye (I)' - Trouble Man / Don't Mess With Mr. T (From Trouble Man (1972)) 23. Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again / Rita May 24. Pacific Gas & Electric - Are You Ready? / Staggolee 25. Donna Summer - Love to Love you Baby / Need-A-Man Blues 26. Michael Zager Band - Let's All Chant / Love Express 27. Santa Esmeralda - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood / You're My Everything ("Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is heard in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)) 28. Jigsaw - Sky High / Brand New Love Affair 29. George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag / Pretty Little Dreamer ("Little Green Bag" is heard in Reservoir Dogs (1992)) 30. The Sweet - Blockbuster / Need a Lot of Lovin' 31. Eddie Floyd - Good Love, Bad Love / Things Get Better 32. Joe Tex - The Love You Save / If Sugar Was as Sweet as You 33. Bob Dylan - Gotta Serve Somebody (Long Version) / Gotta Serve Somebody (Short Version) 34. Dick Dale - Misirlou / Eight Till Midnight ("Miserlou" is heard in Pulp Fiction (1994)) 35. Lee Williams - They Told a Lie / I'm Tore Up 36. William Bell - Formula of Love / You Don't Miss Your Water 37. Dinah Washington - Mad About the Boy / Stormy Weather 38. The Box Tops - Cry Like a Baby / The Door You Closed to Me 39. The Checkmates Ltd. - Black Pearl / Lazy Susan 40. The Sweet - Fox on the Run / Miss Demeanor 41. The Delfonics - Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time) / La-La Means I Love You ("Didn't I" is heard in Jackie Brown (1997)) 42. Brothers Johnson - Get the Funk Outta Ma Face / Tomorrow 43. Bob Dylan - Hurricane, Pt. 1 / Hurricane, Pt. 2 44. Abba - Waterloo / Watch Out 45. 'T. Rex (I)' - Jeepster / Life's a Gas 46. Melanie - What Have They Done to My Song Ma? / Ruby Tuesday 47. Commander Cody - Hot Rod Lincoln / Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar 48. Robert Mitchum - The Ballad of Thunder Road / The Tip of My Fingers ("Ballad" is the theme from Thunder Road (1958)) 49. Dean Martin - Rio Bravo / My Rifle My Pony and Me (From Rio Bravo (1959)) 50. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - Hold Tight! / You Know What I Want.

Goofs:

Continuity: Before Stuntman Mike drives crazy with Pam, they stop at a stop light and his window is up. Before he throws the pictures out the window the window is down. Stuntman Mike was never shown opening the window.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Arlene: [shouting to Jungle Julia] Hold on, I gotta come up! I gotta take the world's biggest fuckin' piss!

Movie Connections:

References Ghost (1990)

Soundtrack:

Riot in Thunder Alley

It's a bit of a mess, but like all car crashes, you can't help but stare at it.

Clunky editing, grainy filming, laughable stories, ultra-violence and exploitation in the guise of feminism and blacksploitation. Not the most appealing of conventions when it comes to the modern cinema audience. Perhaps this explains, to a certain extent, why the old drive-in formula of watching back-to-back trashy hardcore exploitation films was lost on American audiences. Grindhouse took a paltry $4.2 million on its opening weekend and has thus far failed to make back even half the double movie's budget. This despite most critics who went to see it having nothing but praise for Tarantino and chums. But apparently only seeing the numbers, Quentin and co-director Robert Rodriguez decided it would be best to split their respective stories apart, and release them as two movies in the UK, flying in the face of Grindhouse logic.

The first of these films, is Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's homage to the likes of producer Roger Corman's Deathrace 2000 and director Jack Hill's Switchblade Sisters (1975), with Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike having an unhealthy obsession with crashing into cars driven by young ladies. An appropriately stupid premise tailor-made for a grindhouse market. Why then does the film seem so incidental when attempting to recreate the vibe of a Corman-style trash fest? The long and short answer is that this isn't really a grindhouse film. It is a Tarantino film with the ghosts of so many bad old movies hovering over it. Yes you get the grainy film footage, and the purposefully poor editing that raise the chuckles they crave. But that quickly fades away, and Tarantino very quickly moves into familiarly talkative territory akin to hit men talking about European hamburgers or bank robbers musing about the veracity of Madonna's hit single "Like A Virgin". Although this is not entirely a bad thing, it is not inherently valid for this type of material. Tarantino can't help but overload his scenes with meaningless meandering, almost as if he has reached the point of aimless directorial swaggery. One scene, for instance, involves one of the girls buying a magazine at a gas station. A simple interaction that goes on forever it would seem, failing to tell us anything about the characters or indeed the plot. At least Pulp Fiction had meaning behind the mundanity of its own inhabitants. I did often wonder if much of this was down to Tarantino having to bulk up his film after splitting it from Planet Terror. It has the veneer of a movie in desperate need of a good editor, much in the same way that Kill Bill vol. 2 needed a good spit shine. And then we have the actual car scenes. Well barring the ultra-violent central car crash that splits the film's two female groups, and the climactic car chase (expertly executed) Death Proof is nothing more than a girls gone hiking film. Again, blame the editing, for an awful lot of this movie creates a hugely diverting story of girls pontificating the kind of popular interests that only Tarantino would make them do, such as a love for the film Vanishing Point or Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch. Is it stylish? Absolutely. No Tarantino film could ever bore you aesthetically, or indeed talk you to death with insipid dialogue. Even if it is uneven and ponderous, listening to these characters waffle on about nothing in particular is still executed smoothly and embodies that Tarantino air of coolness. Maybe the inevitable release of Grandhouse as a whole will win over my heart more. It's a bit of a mess, but like all car crashes, you can't help but stare at it.