Death Proof
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Eagle Home, Rs 299
Rating: ****
This one's from the connoisseurs of kitsch. Five years ago, Quentin Tarantino, who is forever referencing B-grade Hollywood in films such as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, hooked up with Robert Rodriguez, the maker of Desperado and Sin City, to produce a double-bill called Grindhouse, after the American slang for cheap potboilers. They co-wrote the two films and then directed them under individual names: Rodriguez made Planet Terror while Tarantino put out Death Proof. In both, there's 'bad' special effects, overdone gore and chase, bumper-sticker dialogues, and women who are used as baits for prowling men. Making a 'bad' film, however, isn't easy; and sitting through one may be even tougher. One of the 'techniques' Tarantino uses to give Death Proof the patina of B-grade is jumping shots. Scenes skid and often repeat a whole 'retake'.
And this is how it gets to the all-too-expected series of events: two sets of beautiful girls on a night out are haunted by a failed stuntman with a gash down the left of his face, Mike, played with a rare authenticity by Kurt Russell. (Tarantino makes his customary cameo as a barman.)
Believe me, it's enough to draw you in. Tarantino plays the balladeer of the B-grade also with a genre-specific soundtrack including Ennio Morricone's 'Paranoia Prima' and T. Rex's 'Jeepster'. If you can get the films the songs are borrowed from, you'll get the originals from which this is a fan's collage.