‘Death Proof’: the movie that made Quentin Tarantino own up to being “a leering bastard”
Quentin Tarantino’s films have been the recipient of intense scrutiny and analysis over the years, with critics diving into each element on screen, from the brand of cigarettes used to the music choices and portrayal of marginalised people. After the Cannes premiere of Pulp Fiction, while the sprawling epic enthralled some audience members, others were outright disturbed by the extreme violence and conversational dialogue style as this was happening, marking a clear divide in the reception of his work.
In recent years, he has only continued to lean into this niche, building a devoted fan base and circle of critics who question the meaning behind some of his creative choices. However, among many things, he has been heavily criticised for his portrayal of women, with the director claiming that there was only one film in which he shot his female characters disrespectfully.
Death Proof, directed by Tarantino in 2007, is a slasher comedy about a group of women who are pursued by a murderous stuntman who tries to kill them. Much like many of his films, it follows the style of the exploitation genre, with lurid violence and the exploitation of current trends.
The director has always fiercely defended his work, often blinded by his personal failings and becoming aggressive when faced with vague criticism of his work. But in this rare case, Tarantino admitted that he wasn’t the most gentlemanly with his depiction of the female characters in Death Proof, which might just be his horniest film.
When discussing claims that his work is misogynistic, he said, “I don’t think my work is misogynistic. I had a lot of female friends in their mid-to-late twenties and early thirties. For the past five or six years, they’ve been really important in my life, and I hung around with a lot of different girl posses. So I’m the one guy with the four girls, and I got a really good sense of their dynamic, how they talk. So this was my girl movie, my way to write girls now, not me remembering what girls were like in college… but I directed it like an exploitation film. Every other movie I’ve ever done, I’ve always been a gentleman about how I shot women. Not in that movie. I was a leering bastard in that one.”
It’s interesting that Tarantino’s main defence for not being a misogynist is that he has female friends. Famously, every sexist has been born from a woman, so this argument is a little redundant – simply knowing a woman does not excuse you from perpetuating misogynistic behaviour. While he might be able to admit that he wasn’t always respectful with his perspective/gaze in Death Proof, the idea that he has ‘always been a gentleman’ in how he shoots women is lacking in self-awareness.
In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, for example, Margot Robbie famously played Sharon Tate. However, her role is nearly entirely silent while the camera ogles her, with long shots that pan across her whole body and focus on her bare feet in the cinema. When asked about her limited dialogue, Tarantino rebutted that her character is the heart of Hollywood and her presence is more about capturing the life and spirit of the town.
However, when considering Robbie’s talent and capabilities as an actor, the idea of being reduced to a silent heartbeat is somewhat insulting. There is no universe in which Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, would be given a ‘leading role’ that exists in the same capacity of merely ‘adding life’ to a film – for an actor of his level, it would be insulting. Perhaps Tarantino could do with a little more education on the topic of basic feminism in order to assert his sweeping claims of creating multi-dimensional female characters.
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