Caught the uncut version of Tarantino’s Deathproof on DVD over the weekend. Actually a bit of a blast, faux-70’s styling with dodgy edits, scratchy film, wandering colour balance etc. Check out the dents on 1970 Dodge Challenger – they get less as the crashes get worse.
Deathproof features a deranged killer named Stuntman Mike – Kurt Russell – who stalks a group of young women as they spend their night in Austin, Texas, bar hopping, teasing boys, and getting trashed. Stuntman Mike proceeds to kill the girls by crashing into them head on with his death-proof muscle car. Of course, he walks away unharmed.
Months later in Tennesee, he targets another group of young women but this time, he picks the wrong targets (they’re in the film industry, so you must know….)
The first part of the movie is awash with Austin locations – there’s talk of The Dobie Theater, Guero’s, Lake LBJ. And the main action takes place in Austin’s real-life Texas Chili Parlor -although this venerable establishment is shown with a parking lot and a back porch (it doesn’t). Tarantino added these himself for his own fictional version of the restaraunt. The movie is (self) referential to a t – Abernathy, played by Rosario Dawson, mentions she had a thing for a director named Cecil Evans. Cecil Evans is the name of a transportation coordinator for films in Austin.