Max Riffner

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My New Obsession

I saw Grindhouse this weekend, and all I really want to do (besides purchase a 1973 Chevy Nova and paint it matte black with a skull on it), is talk about how brilliant Death Proof was. Planet Terror was great; it was solid exploitation. I just thought Death Proof knew the rules of the genre and did something new, while Planet Terror stayed mostly in the genre rules and rocked the house very well.

I’m already planning on seeing it again this week. I haven’t laughed that hard at a movie in a long time.

But I don’t really want to talk about it.

I want to talk about genre beats. Or what are basically notes you have to hit in a genre piece. Warren Ellis has been talking about this at length about CSI: Miami and the sunglasses of justice bit – how it is a crucial moment in cop and sci-fi pieces (putting the sunglasses on represents the beginning of the story).

You could pretty much watch any Tarantino movie and see these in action. He knows genre back and forth. And if you’ve seen a lot of movies (like him), and then watch his, you can easily pick up on them. And then, you can see why, yes, it is important for that beat to be right there at the right time.

For example in Death Proof, Kurt Russell spins the Nova around, parks, and waits, revving the engine, and Tarantino comes in for the windshield shot, and this is right out of Mad Max. It is a perfect beat because you know in about 5 seconds, here comes the shit on a roaring V8 cracker of doom. And that is when you know that the driver is that connected to the car. I’ve seen this same shot in many flicks, and they all prominently feature cars.

I’ve thought about this on the back burner all weekend, but now? It is all I’ve been devoting spare brain power to.

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