Post by klep on Jul 5, 2021 12:33:17 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/5: Death Proof
CARS WEEK!
CW: Sexualization/exploitation of women
Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof opens on a woman's feet, because of course it does.
I let out a sigh when I saw it. Tarantino's.... appreciation for women's feet is well known because it's something he indulges in almost every one of his films. But Death Proof is probably the film where he does so the most. A significant amount of the film has bare feet somewhere in the frame, frequently dangling out the windows of a car.
But Death Proof is also the movie where this level of exploitation is most, well, not excusable but at least explicable. Death Proof was the second half of Tarantino's collaboration with Robert Rodriguez on Grindhouse, a double feature paying homage to the theaters of their younger days which would solely show cheap (in budget and quality) exploitation films. And there is a lot of effort in Death Proof put to emulating that kind of film. The negative is purposely damaged in many places (particularly in the film's first half) to make it look like it's been run through a projector too many times. There are awkward jump cuts where burned-through frames have been removed, and a portion of the film is randomly in black & white. So when Tarantino focuses on a woman's feet in Death Proof, he knows exactly what he's doing.
Death Proof starts off following a group of women around Austin, TX as they spend the evening together, ending up at a bar. The women aren't exactly scantily clad, but they are heavily sexualized nonetheless as the camera repeatedly draws attention to their curves, their bare midriffs, and yes their feet. It's a lot of filler of the kind you'd expect in a grindhouse movie - conversation can be shot very cheaply, after all, and their night culminates in one of the women giving Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike a lap dance on a dare. Afterwards the bargoers start to break up to leave and that's when Mike gives the camera a shit-eating grin and we learn what his game is - he's a serial killer who uses his "death proof" stunt car to murder women - which he does in a spectacular and gruesome fashion appropriate for a grindhouse flick. It's halfway through the film, and all of our protagonists are dead.
So Tarantino introduces a second group of women for the second half, as Stuntman Mike picks a new group of victims. But this group is different. This group includes two seasoned stuntwomen (Tracie Thoms as Kim and Zoë Bell as herself), and they turn the tables on Mike in a thrilling pair of car chases that end with Rosario Dawson's Abernathy dropkicking her boot into Mike's face. This second half feels significantly different from the first. The women are less overtly sexualized (not non-sexualized, but less) and are clearly competent badasses capable of meeting Mike on his own ground. It looks more empowering, like a rebuke to the crass exploitation of the film's first half.
And it's likely that's what Tarantino thought he was doing. Death Proof came as part of a wave of works really started by Buffy the Vampire Slayer which were lauded as feminist because they were centered on female characters with agency who were capable and rarely reduced to hapless damsels. But something kept poking at the back of my mind. Because this kind of Strong Female Protagonist can be its own kind of fetishization. That doesn't mean you can't make a movie centered on strong, independent, and capable women but it does mean you have to pay attention to what they're doing in the story. The most famous example of Strong Female Protagonist As Fetish Object is probably Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, but the fetishization doesn't have to be that explicit in order to be present. In Death Proof's case when you have your Strong Women spend most of their screen time talking about sex and introduce one of them bare feet first it does raise questions about what your goals truly are. The group even leaves cheerleader-costumed Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) alone with a guy in the middle of nowhere after falsely suggesting to the guy that Lee is a porn star - a move which felt quite gross.
And that can be the tricky thing about Tarantino movies. So much of what he does is brilliant. In this film, for example, his casting of Kurt Russell was inspired, the car chases that cap the film are truly breathtaking, and his genuine love of movies comes through in touches like casting stuntwoman Zoë Bell as herself to prominently feature in the second half. But there's always these moments of fetishization or possible fetishization that make you question just how much of himself he's putting up on screen. I know I for one would be quite comfortable knowing a little less about what turns Tarantino on.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/12: Cool Runnings
BEAT THE HEAT WEEK!
Next week we seek a reprieve from the summer sun as we follow Jamaica's first bobsled team to the Calgary Winter Olympics with 1993's Cool Runnings. Join us next week as we discuss one of John Candy's final roles. Cool Runnings is available on Disney+ and for rent at the usual places.
CARS WEEK!
CW: Sexualization/exploitation of women
Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof opens on a woman's feet, because of course it does.
I let out a sigh when I saw it. Tarantino's.... appreciation for women's feet is well known because it's something he indulges in almost every one of his films. But Death Proof is probably the film where he does so the most. A significant amount of the film has bare feet somewhere in the frame, frequently dangling out the windows of a car.
But Death Proof is also the movie where this level of exploitation is most, well, not excusable but at least explicable. Death Proof was the second half of Tarantino's collaboration with Robert Rodriguez on Grindhouse, a double feature paying homage to the theaters of their younger days which would solely show cheap (in budget and quality) exploitation films. And there is a lot of effort in Death Proof put to emulating that kind of film. The negative is purposely damaged in many places (particularly in the film's first half) to make it look like it's been run through a projector too many times. There are awkward jump cuts where burned-through frames have been removed, and a portion of the film is randomly in black & white. So when Tarantino focuses on a woman's feet in Death Proof, he knows exactly what he's doing.
Death Proof starts off following a group of women around Austin, TX as they spend the evening together, ending up at a bar. The women aren't exactly scantily clad, but they are heavily sexualized nonetheless as the camera repeatedly draws attention to their curves, their bare midriffs, and yes their feet. It's a lot of filler of the kind you'd expect in a grindhouse movie - conversation can be shot very cheaply, after all, and their night culminates in one of the women giving Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike a lap dance on a dare. Afterwards the bargoers start to break up to leave and that's when Mike gives the camera a shit-eating grin and we learn what his game is - he's a serial killer who uses his "death proof" stunt car to murder women - which he does in a spectacular and gruesome fashion appropriate for a grindhouse flick. It's halfway through the film, and all of our protagonists are dead.
So Tarantino introduces a second group of women for the second half, as Stuntman Mike picks a new group of victims. But this group is different. This group includes two seasoned stuntwomen (Tracie Thoms as Kim and Zoë Bell as herself), and they turn the tables on Mike in a thrilling pair of car chases that end with Rosario Dawson's Abernathy dropkicking her boot into Mike's face. This second half feels significantly different from the first. The women are less overtly sexualized (not non-sexualized, but less) and are clearly competent badasses capable of meeting Mike on his own ground. It looks more empowering, like a rebuke to the crass exploitation of the film's first half.
And it's likely that's what Tarantino thought he was doing. Death Proof came as part of a wave of works really started by Buffy the Vampire Slayer which were lauded as feminist because they were centered on female characters with agency who were capable and rarely reduced to hapless damsels. But something kept poking at the back of my mind. Because this kind of Strong Female Protagonist can be its own kind of fetishization. That doesn't mean you can't make a movie centered on strong, independent, and capable women but it does mean you have to pay attention to what they're doing in the story. The most famous example of Strong Female Protagonist As Fetish Object is probably Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, but the fetishization doesn't have to be that explicit in order to be present. In Death Proof's case when you have your Strong Women spend most of their screen time talking about sex and introduce one of them bare feet first it does raise questions about what your goals truly are. The group even leaves cheerleader-costumed Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) alone with a guy in the middle of nowhere after falsely suggesting to the guy that Lee is a porn star - a move which felt quite gross.
And that can be the tricky thing about Tarantino movies. So much of what he does is brilliant. In this film, for example, his casting of Kurt Russell was inspired, the car chases that cap the film are truly breathtaking, and his genuine love of movies comes through in touches like casting stuntwoman Zoë Bell as herself to prominently feature in the second half. But there's always these moments of fetishization or possible fetishization that make you question just how much of himself he's putting up on screen. I know I for one would be quite comfortable knowing a little less about what turns Tarantino on.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/12: Cool Runnings
BEAT THE HEAT WEEK!
Next week we seek a reprieve from the summer sun as we follow Jamaica's first bobsled team to the Calgary Winter Olympics with 1993's Cool Runnings. Join us next week as we discuss one of John Candy's final roles. Cool Runnings is available on Disney+ and for rent at the usual places.
The Next Picture Show Podcast is taking the week off.