Death Proof is made to look like a lost B-movie from the 70’s. The characters live in a very dated world, although all carry mobile phones and ipods. As always Quentin Tarantino has offered up a selection of very well rounded characters, especially the protagonist 'Stuntman Mike' played by Kurt Russell. The film is split into two separate halves set 18 months apart, each with a different gang of girls having to face Stuntman Mike's vicious attacks in his death proofed car. It's described by the director as a slasher movie with the car as the weapon, buts it’s no Duel (Stephen Spielberg 1971)!

The film has been aged in the lab to make it look older, the prints now bearing big scratches through them, which put me off a little when I first heard about them, but they give the film a really artistic effect. Lots of scenes have various colour transitions from black and white through over saturated colour to just about normal colours. The film also has frequent jump cuts, multi angled shots repeated of large action and an effect of the film being “stopped” by the projector for a freeze frame of the action.

For a Tarantino movie this film does not have as much action as his recent Kill Bill films, but the dialogue is well crafted, and resembles in form; Reservoir Dogs, with extremely long shots of up to 7 minutes, and yet they never drag. The first half an hour wasn’t great but by the end of the film you’ve forgotten that, this film definitely has the single greatest ending! I didn’t originally ever want to see this film as it put Sin City 2 on hold, but I have forgiven it, I will definitely watch it again, but this film really has to be seen on the big screen as it’s a reminiscence of forgotten films of yester-year.

By David Price

Death Proof
interviews
Quentin Tarantino
Kurt Russell
Rosario Dawson
Zoe Bell