Death Proofis far from the most iconic Quentin Tarantino film, but of his catalog, it very well may be the purest distillation of his signature style.Quentin Tarantino’s moviesare known for their strong characters, lavish displays of violence, and hyper-stylized slant on reality that produces an unmistakable quality infecting everything he touches.
Perhaps the single most obscure Tarantino film, if such a thing can even be conceived, isDeath Proof. Billed alongside theRobert Rodriguez filmPlanet Terrorin the double-featureGrindhouse,Death Proofhas a remarkably simple plot.
Kurt Russel’s Stuntman Mike runs innocent women off the road and kills them for his own sick pleasure with the help of his custom-reinforced “death proof” cars. However, he bites off more than he can chew when he targets a female friend group willing to stoop to his level of depraved violence.
The 2007 film hasn’t left much of a legacy in Tarantino’s career, being by far the single most overlooked part of his patentedTarantino 10-movie canon. But givingDeath Proofa closer look reveals it to be by far the most distilled down and lean example of Tarantino’s winning formula that has earned him so many accolades.
Death Proof Isn’t The Best Tarantino Movie, But It’s Pure Tarantino
No Other Tarantino Movie Boils Down His Style As Much
Death Proofhas all of the essential elements of a classic Tarantino film on full display. First and foremost, the stunning violence present in all of his work is just as audacious as ever here, with bombastic crashes, brutal kills, and unique chases fixing all the bells and whistles audiences have come to expect from the polarizing director.
Many Tarantino films put an emphasis on the revenge fantasy, andDeath Proofhas one of the most satisfying vengeance arcs in any of his movies, with Stuntman Mike’s ultimate demise being simultaneously one of the hardest to watch andmost brutal kills in Tarantino’s repertoire.
Death Proof Is Pure Tarantino, For Better And For Worse
As beloved as they are, Quentin Tarantino’s films are far from having mass appeal, andDeath Proofis the perfect summation as to why. For better and for worse, all of the typical tropes associated with the director are present, which come with their fair share of downsides and upsides.
On the positive, the aforementioned gratifying revenge-centric violence as as phenomenal as ever inDeath Proof.The performances Tarantino is able to consistently coax out of intimidating actors are also all phenomenal, with Stuntman Mike quietly being one ofKurt Russell’s best charactersdespite how deplorable he is. The film simply oozes typical Tarantino charisma.
However,many of the common criticisms of Tarantino’s work can very easily be applied toDeath Proof.For one, Tarantino might strike a fine balance in films likePulp Fictionwith “pointless” dialogue that doesn’t meaningfully move the story forward, nevertheless providing color to the characters. But inDeath Proof,these kinds of conversations can go on for painfully long.
Tarantino’s sexually charged camera is also as ravenous as ever, ogling its female characters worse than Stuntman Mike does at times. Tarantino manages to escape culpability for this as the tale technically features empowered female characters killing a predator who would victimize them, but that doesn’t change the fact thatTarantino’s infamous foot fetishis as egregious as ever here.
Why Death Proof Has Kind Of Been Forgotten To Time
Despite being such a condensed and refined example of Tarantino’s signature style,Death Proofis easily the most unheard of film in his acclaimed career. Looking at the circumstances surrounding the film’s release and subsequent legacy can explain whyDeath Proofis so lost in the cinematic legend’s busy filmography.
For one,being packaged withPlanet Terror, Death Proofwas overshadowed by its more alluring sibling right from the start. Unlike Tarantino’s half-hearted commitment to making Stuntman Mike a slasher villain, Robert Rodriguez fully embraces the lunacy of a zombie-infested planet, and Cherry is one of the most iconic female action movie protagonists of all time.
Out-competed by its shared co-header inGrindhousein both compelling female characters and pulpy horror madness,Death Proof’s legacy was further hurt by Tarantino’s ownadmission thatDeath Proofis his weakest film. If the director himself viewed the film as a failure, there’s little chance that others could ever champion it further.
Thus,Death Proofhas fallen into obscurity ever since its 2007 release, feeling like a relic of the past in both its tone and simplicity in a time in which movies were about to change forever. The more sanitized blockbusters that would follow in 2008 created a new world for popcorn cinema thatDeath Proofsimply didn’t have a place in.
Where Death Proof Ranks Among Quentin Tarantino Movies
Rearing Up The Back End Of Tarantino’s Work
For what it’s worth, I don’t believe thatDeath Proofis Tarantino’s worst film. There’s still a lot to appreciate about its simplistic charm, and, in my estimation, the movie actually edges out Kurt Russell’s other appearance in Tarantino’s filmography,The Hateful Eight.IfDeath Proofis a neat consolidation of Tarantino’s style, the drawn-out Western is an over-indulgent mess.
That being said, there aren’t any other films in Tarantino’s catalog I’d personally rank any lower thanDeath Proof, with perhapsKill Bill Vol. 2orJackie Browncoming next at a very distant third place. Whatever its uneven legacy, there’s no denying thatDeath Proofis the purest, most unfettered product of Tarantino’s trademark essence.
