Death Proof & Tarantino

So yea, I love Tarantino flicks. I love them. I truly believe that PULP FICTION is the finest American film ever made. At any given time, I can watch that movie in its entirety. I can flip it on at any point in its running time and watch it the rest of the way through, loving every second of it. There are so many things to discover in it, so many elements to rediscover that you just sit back and marvel at its quality, its sense of humor, its deconstruction of "time" as it pertains to film.

Then there is the dialogue. Tarantino always writes great language, but Pulp Fiction takes things to a new plateau. Every character has something to say and a unique way to say it. Every conversation is like a tennis match, and when Travolta says, "Goddamn, that's a pretty good fuckin' milkshake," you smile because it sounds so perfect. He interweaves profanity as poetically as Mamet, if not more so, and uses repetition, slang, and pop-culture references to create his own universe, where even low-life scumbags are articulate.

I'm not sure that he can do wrong. I sometimes question his loyalty to Robert Rodriguez, a stylist who can't tell a story half as well as Tarantino, but I really think he makes amazing movies.

He has an energy, an over-the-top glee in his filmmaking that makes you think Tarantino is behind the camera laughing his ass off at what he's getting away with. Now, I know that he borrows elements from many other movies, but he is paying homage, not stealing, and everybody references some form of pop-culture when they tell a joke or a story. He's a junior Mad Scientist, just throwing different elements into the pot, stirring, and producing a Fizzy Volcano for a class presentation that wows all the kids.

I love JACKIE BROWN. I LOVE, absolutely LOVE the Kill Bill Saga. RESERVOIR DOGS? Amazing. TRUE ROMANCE (he wrote) contains a scene between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken that ranks up there with anything he's done. FROM DUSK TILL DAWN? Yea, it kind of sucked, thanks to the Rodriguez factor, but the first forty mintutes are vintage Quentin.

And now, Taratino is back with DEATH PROOF - his own grindhouse version of a slasher flick - and it feels like our boy has come home. This movie contains so much energy, so much infectious fucking energy, that you cannot help but listen and smile. Tarantino is clearly having some of the most fun he's had with a script - the exchanges here are perfect. There is one in particular, a scene where Kurt Russell (awesome) imitates John Wayne, and you can't see where he's going with the punchline, you can't predict what he will say next, but how he wraps it up is so amazing that you immediately want to hear it again. I suggest that this short sequence is up there with WALKEN VS. HOPPER and the entire BONNIE SITUATION portion of Pulp Fiction (hands down, Tarantino's finest hour).

I don't want to ruin this movie for anyone. I think it can appeal to anybody who sees it. It is violent, as these type usually are, but it is done with so much style, so much consideration and with such wit, that I immediately could list it up there near my favorites.

By the way; I'm a freak. When I watch this movie with friends, nobody understands the references to VANISHING POINT. Nobody knows the importance of the CHARGER. I saw VANISHING POINT when I was like ten on ENCORE. When you can really pick out Tarantino's references, you know that you're a freak.