DEATH PROOF talks the talk

My love of DEATH PROOF isn’t the chase scene, which is what everybody talks about regarding this film - after all it is amazingly effective and technologically exceptional. It isn’t the movie’s jarring structure (hey, it is two movies in one movie that’s the second part of - well - one movie known as GRINDHOUSE, which was released on Good Friday 2007 and disappeared less than three weeks later). And it isn't because of the subversive editing by Sally Menke (Menke’s editing propels the story but also emulates a film that’s been excised by the razor of some mad grindhouse projectionist*) or Quentin Tarantino‘s wonky direction and drive-in aesthetic that has been in development since 1992’s RESERVOIR DOGS.

Where DEATH PROOF had me was with its dialog despite naysayers who complain that the film is too leaden with talk-talk-talk, and that its dialog is too leaden with Tarantino. But what would a Tarantino film be if it wasn’t heavy with “Tarantino-isms?“ Just another day at the movies in my book. Aren’t these nuggets why we go to Tarantino movies in the first place? And isn’t there much pleasure in quoting Tarantino lines amongst your friends and neighbors after the fact? And what barber shop visit would be complete without at least one dropped Tarantino bon mot?

What’s especially juicy about the dialog in DEATH PROOF is that its spoken predominantly by women and, in fact, DEATH PROOF is the third “woman’s” movie that Tarantino has directed (JACKIE BROWN, KILL BILL VOLS. 1 & 2). Since I’m writing this from a male perspective, I really don’t know if the way the women speak in DEATH PROOF is realistic but, like most men, I’ve not been privvy to the inner circle of conversation between two or more women - particularly when the conversation revolves around the subject of sex and men - so I’m buying it here - like Tarantino - with the use of imagination. I imagine these women would sound like this.

Especially during the scene where Jungle Julia (Sydney Poitier), Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), and Shanna (Jordan Ladd) drive to Guero’s Taco Bar in the city of Austin, Texas. I’m fascinated by this conversational string, which hits on no less than five topics in a span of less than five minutes. Its in this banter that signifies character and DEATH PROOF is all about character not - as suggested by viewers and critics - action. Action in DEATH PROOF is an extension of character both in the film’s first and second half.DEATH PROOF is a schizoid affair. Dark vs. light; yin vs. yang; old school vs. new school, on and on.

Infuriating, maddening, hilarious, astounding, vile, violent, deranged, profane, unrealistic, hyperreal. Its a bunch of movies in one - a cinematic mash up of exploitation, horror, and action culminating into one of the greatest car chases on film since - well, you name it. But I’m not addressing the car chase here, I’ll save that for some other time because the chase needs to be observed, addressed and analyzed particularly in conjunction with the second set of characters Tarantino introduces in the film‘s second half.

The drive to Guero’s scene consists - by my count anyway - of 60 shots (give or take) inside the car composed of varying angles, medium shots, close-ups and disorienting perspectives. Each of the women gets about 20 shots apiece, with maybe an extra few focused on Julia because she’s the leader of this pack. Her leadership is signified by owning the back seat of the car - she’s sprawled and radiates feminist bravado (overshadowed later by a vulnerability as she’s left hanging on text messages sent by a phantom male named Christian Simonson). Julia’s a local Austin DJ and billboards featuring the leggy disc jockey are scattered throughout the city (in one billboard Julia is dressed in that yellow Bruce Lee jumpsuit Uma Thurman sported in the House of Blue Leaves/Crazy 88 slaughter sequence in KILL BILL VOL. 1; in another she's dressed like Raquel Welch in 1972's roller derby epic KANSAS CITY BOMBER).

Every time they drive by one of her billboards, Julia’s posse - as well as Julia herself - scream in unison and thrust their fists in the air. By the time they reach a third billboard, Julia feigns weary embarrassment by this girlish behavior but they cheer again because you get the feeling if they don’t, Julia will pout or worse. The goal here is to appease Julia, celebrate her minor celebrity and, basically, kiss up to her even though they do snipe at one another.

Shanna is the driver of the car and the conversation, which really revolves around Arlene’s sex life (or lack of) with snide interjections by Julia. Julia’s Cleopatra position, lounging as her chariot transports her along the street as they pass her radio show billboards, speaks volumes about her position within this inner circle.

Conversation in the car driving to Guero’s Taco Bar, consists of:

• Scoring weed; subsequent argument ensues because Julia isn’t holding.
• Julia’s possible relationship - the phantom filmmaker named Christian Simonson she text messages later, who seems to have promised her that he’ll call. And Shanna’s teasing that the only way Julia will hit with the filmmaker is by sleeping with him, which Julia neither denies or admits to.
• Julia turning the conversation toward Arlene and the “date” she had the night before. The date consisted of, basically, Arlene “busting the guy’s balls a little bit,” in the name of getting respect. Julia comes to the conclusion that Arlene and the guy didn’t do “anything” but wants the lowdown as to what they did do.
• Arlene admits that what they did do was “the thing,” which, by Arlene’s definition is “everything but” and Shanna asks if guys like "the thing" and Arlene states, "well they like it better than no-thang." They then talk about meeting “the boys” at Guero’s and Arlene says that maybe they’ll have some pot. Julia says “fuck that…I don’t want to be a) depending on their ass or b) dependent on their ass…we don‘t score for ourselves we‘ll be stuck with them all night…”

Where guys might put on a façade of machismo and “scoring” - these girls practically boast about their lack of - by choice - “getting any.” They tease each other, push each other to admit that they‘re doing it with some guy, but they hold true to their self-actualized course of not actually doing it. And that by not doing it is equal to self respect.

Women - in movies - tend to orbit around the man’s world as reactionary figures. In DEATH PROOF, the main man - Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) - is confused and angry (not to mention sexually stunted and enthralled with his own checkered past) that the women he encounters don’t revolve around him and, subsequently, he lives his life in “death proof” cars (used as murder weapons) but he can’t shield his psyche from pervasive female rejection.

*Projectionists in grindhouse theaters found in Chicago's loop or New York City's 42nd St. (the Deuce) area during the 1970s were known to display their handywork by cutting frames or whole scenes from movies that played at the theaters where they worked. Depending, of course, on the projectionist's proclivities - some chopped clips from films to satisfy their own moral make-up or prurient desires.