I was going through a cubby in our entertainment center and I found a copy of Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof that I bought about a year ago and didn’t watch.
So I watched it. And liked it. I enjoyed the sensation of being in an early 70’s drive in watching a cheesy flick.
First question: why does the first half resemble a movie at the drive in (lines, crackles, blips, and bad edit skips, etc.) but the second part of it is rather smooth like a modern DVD? Is this Quentin Tarantinos way of making us appreciate the modern media, or just another of his endless brain teases?
Second question: in the theatrical release there were allegedly trailers for fake movies. I didn’t see any on my DVD. did I miss them or aren’t they included on it?
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The Rant:** the online card catalog for my local library indicated they had the next half of the double feature, Planet Terror on the shelves. But I went there and looked, and looked, and looked to no success. Librarian told me it wasn’t checked out, therefore it was stolen.
I will never understand thieves, but I really, really don’t understand taking something from a library. Who the #$%& steals something they can use for free?
My recollection is that most of the fake trailers were *between *the two features, with maybe one or two before the first one. If your disk is just the second feature, they might well have just left them off. Too bad, because they were quite good.
By the by, my favorite part of Death Proof is where Stuntman Mike mentions the name of his brother.
I’d recommend you find a DVD of the entire thing. *Planet Terror *was excellent. Rose McGowan with a machine gun leg… Yowza!
For your second question, I’d guess that is just Quentin being Quentin.
Your rant is spot-on. I’ve experienced the same thing. The world is full of people who need to die in a fiery highway crash!
There is no complete Grindhouse package. Just the two movies, separately, minus the trailers. Look online for them, or hope for an expensive fanboy package somewhere down the line.
Don’t have a theory for QT’s inconsistency of stock. Seemed arbitrary to me, though I loved the movie overall.
Yeah, I love these movies. I saw them together in the theater before the distributors/whoever started splitting them up. It was a riot. Planet Terror really struck a chord with me because I have fond memories of being a little kid and getting zombie movies from the video store to watch late at night with my dad, and Planet Terror really reminded me of some of those old movies (though even more over the top with the machine-gun leg thing and all that).
It’s pointless to try and guess Tarantino’s motives, but my guess is the “cinema” had two prints of the movie; one old and cheap and the other one was a new decent print. The second reel of the crappy film broke “yesterday” or maybe during the 2 o’clock matinee and hasn’t been repaired, so “tonight”, we, the audience, get to see the first reel in crap-o-vision and the second reel will be new print. Following a hast re-splice, the whole film will be shown in crap-o-vision until the whole thing is unwatchable. Then the new print can go into rotation.
I’m getting pretty tired of people like you and my son doing/saying things to make me feel old!
I was almost 20 before there was a “video store” anywhere near where I lived. Video tapes (VHS or BETA, depending on what machine you owned) were $6 a night or 2 for $10. Six dollars in 1980 is like $15 now.
But more to the OP, back in '80 there were still a lot of drive-in movies around, and they were a lot of fun to go to. Which is why I really liked the Grindhouse flick. Brought back some good memories.
I can’t imagine being forced to watch the Grindhouse movies separately and without the fake trailers. I’m so glad I saw it in the theater, intact. The only thing that would have made it 100% perfect would have been to see it at the Drive-In.
My theory wrt the First Question: Think about the juxtaposition between the first half and the second half of the movies. QT is making a point here with the quality of the film as well as with the story lines.
In the first half, the women act more like victims in some ways. They talk the talk about being powerful and independent, but all they really want is attention from some boys. They manipulate and obfuscate (“I will make out with you for five minutes only.”) to try to get what they want. Stuntman Mike takes great delight in terrorizing and creeping out the women: he sees them as weak victims and for the most part, they play right into his manipulations.
In the second half, you see a group of women who are truly in control of themselves. They are no more interested in trying to get men or trying to manipulate them. (“Hey, why don’t you break a brother off a piece?”) Zoe Bell is the personification of the opposite personality from the women in the first half of the film. She is an empowered, independent opposite of a doormat as demonstrated with her mad baseball bat skills and her mad negotiation skills.
I think the difference in the film quality is a visual cue that Group A from the first half is operating with an old school boys vs. girls mentality while Group B from the second half is operating from a more modern perspective about gender roles. Further evidence of this is when you see Lee, the cheerleader, left behind and we never find out what happens to her. Modern women have not only sold out their cheerleader friend, but also left behind the cheerleader stereotype.
Someone on IMDB posted this, which I think sums up what I’m trying to say nicely:
I think you might be on to something, but an alternative explanation is that Tarantino wanted to evoke the scratches and pops of the cinemas of his childhood, but didn’t want that stuff distracting from the spectacular visuals he created for the second half.
Grindhouse was greater than the sum of its parts. Thank goodness I got to see it in the theatre. But I’ve since seen the standalone versions, which are each great. The standalone cut of Death Proof is a lot longer, BTW.
One of the premium channels (Starz or Encore, I think) sometimes shows the entire Grindhouse theatrical version (and also puts it on their On Demand service) in addition to the two individual movies in their expanded editions as seen on DVD. That’s pretty much the only (legal) way to see the whole thing until they get the expensive fanboy package out somewhere down the line.
