‘Death Proof’: the movie that made Quentin Tarantino “depressed for a month”
Indie cinema boomed in the 1990s, with a new generation of filmmakers emerging in America, echoing the developments made in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the New Hollywood period carved out a new path for the mainstream. Movies made on small budgets without the interference of a major studio system proved successful, and Quentin Tarantino was one of the main filmmakers who established himself during this era-defining time.
With the release of movies like 1989’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape by Steven Soderbergh and 1993’s Dazed and Confused by Richard Linklater, independently-made cinema became more popular than ever before, to the point that the term ‘Indiewood’ was coined to describe the phenomenon. Tarantino released Reservoir Dogs in 1992, ripping up the rulebook with unconventional stylistic choices, dialogue-heavy scenes, and excessive violence. It asserted him as one of the most vital figures in ‘90s cinema, leading him to release something even more successful: Pulp Fiction.
The film was a turning point for independent cinema, demonstrating that relatively small budgets, like Pulp Fiction’s $8million, could still produce box office smashes. The film grossed over $213m and remains one of the most beloved movies from the ‘90s. Posters of the movie are stalwart features of many young cinephiles’ rooms, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a strong opinion on Tarantino’s sophomore feature.
Despite the overwhelming success that Tarantino experienced during the start of his career, he hasn’t always had such strong luck. He followed Pulp Fiction with Jackie Brown, which was a moderate success, before earning considerably more acclaim with Kill Bill. Yet, three years after the release of Kill Bill Vol 2, Tarantino made a movie as part of a double bill with his friend Robert Rodriguez, and unfortunately for the pair, the project flopped.
Tarantino’s entry to Grindhouse was called Death Proof, with Kurt Russell playing a stuntman who uses his car to viciously murder women. The film was made on a budget of $30million, but it only managed to gross $31m. Perhaps viewers didn’t want to watch a movie where women were consecutively getting brutally murdered, or maybe the idea of watching it as a double bill with Rodriguez’s Planet Terror was simply too time-consuming.
When Tarantino realised that the movie had underperformed, he felt heartbroken. It was the first time that one of his films hadn’t been widely enjoyed by the public, and he couldn’t help but feel as though his fans had let him down. Talking to The Telegraph, Tarantino revealed, “I was depressed for a month. It was like I had a broken heart like somebody broke up with me. And somebody did. The American public!’”
After Death Proof, Tarantino made Inglourious Basterds, which remains one of his most acclaimed films, grossing $321m against a budget of $70m. Finally, the American public was back on his side. Clearly, not every film is going to be a massive hit, but Tarantino can be safe in the knowledge that Death Proof is now considered somewhat of a cult classic, particularly to exploitation fans.
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