The One About Quentin Tarantino Working Class Progressive Cinemas Greatest Open Secret. (Part Three Of Three)

February 5, 2010 by Toriach

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Welcome back to the third and final part of a special series looking at the films of Quentin Tarantino and the Working Class Progressive themes hidden underneath their sexy, bloody, hipster exterior.

In part one, I looked at his earliest movies Reservoir Dogs, and Pulp Fiction, discussing how they are at their core an excellent observation of working class life.

In part two, I talked about Jackie Brown, and Kill Bill, and how they added a celebration of women, and parenthood, to the still clear themes of working class potency.

And now we wrap up by talking about one of his least popular and one of his most popular films.

Death Proof:

Cover via Amazon

Before I go forward I have a confession to make. I did not like Death Proof. If you are a Tarantinophile, then you know that DP was part of the "Grindhouse" experiment that he under took with Robert Rodriguez. It is the most self consciously stylized of all of his movies, doing things like faking scratches, bad splices, etc to replicate the C grade films he loved and still loves. Personally while I appreciate his intentions I wish he hadn't. Because unfortunately it has kept what is really a neat little film from finding the audience it deserves. I am glad that I forced myself to watch it, for this article. Well with my Mea well and truly Culpa’d on with the show.

What it looks like it’s about:  A sadistic stuntman stalks and murders some young women, using his car as his weapon of choice.

What it's really about: I will say right up front that this is probably the Tarantino movie with the least depth to it. Don't, however confuse "least" with none. One of the things that may prevent some people from relating to the characters is because Tarantino has drawn a little more closely upon his knowledge of the world in which he works, namely Cinema/Hollywood. For many people they can look past the surface conceit of Gangsters, Assassins etc and see the deeper themes, but the minute the movie involves "Hollywood types" suddenly people ability to identify goes right out the window. A big part of Tarantino's message in this movie is a reminder that for every huge name in Hollywood, there are a lot of people who are very much working class, and while they may make more than a Wal Mart checker, they are not really getting rich, and they are doing what they do, for their love of it, and their pride in doing their jobs well. This is especially true of stunt people.

What I find interesting is that the movie can really be seen as a battle, first of a working class man against elites, and then against his fellow workers. The victims in the early part of the film are largely portrayed as middle class. The only one who is really shown to have a job is Jungle Julia and she is portrayed as someone who is more interested in becoming famous than in the work itself. As a result they fall victim to the misdirected rage of Stuntman Mike.

But then Mike makes the mistake of setting his sites on women who are working class just like himself. And he to put it simply gets his ass handed to him. But these women do not triumph because they are women. No they triumph because they are tough and resilient.

Progressive themes: Tarantino pulls no punches in his writing and directing and Kurt Russell pulls none in his performance. Stuntman Mike, is a sexist creep, and a coward, When he has the upper hand he is cool and confident and the instant he loses that upper hand he is a whiny little cry baby. Because of the nature of the movie (It's essentially a classic 70's style horror movie) to make Mike scary there has to be victims, and of course those victims are female. But when it turns into a Tarantino movie is when he picks his next set of victims they are aside from their obvious working class backgrounds, they are not markedly different from the first group. In fact there are reprises in dialogue and shot set up that are meant to lull us into a false belief that the girls are doomed.

Instead they turn the whole thing on its ear. Not content to let this asshole get the better of them, the three women stalk him, destroy his car, and ultimately beat him to death. Now of course that’s not a surprise from the two stunt women, but what is important is that the most “girly” of the three, who is a hair dresser, is right there with the other two, beating the holy living hell out of Mike’s sorry whining ass.

Another interesting thing is that Tarantino sends a clear message that Working Class does not mean ignorant or stupid. The guy with the white Dodge challenger is shown to be a racist idiot, clearly separated from the girls who are working class, intelligent and well spoken. For being a racist idiot, he is duly punished by having the car he’s trying to sell, that the girls took for a test drive, smashed to pieces by Mike who is a sexist pig.

Finally we come to Tarantino’s most recent and in my opinion best film to date.

Image via Wikipedia

What it looks like it’s about: A group of soldiers use brutal tactics to terrorize the Nazi’s, while at the same time a Parisian cinema owner with a darkly troubled past plots revenge against those responsible for murdering her family.

What it's really about: This movie nearly makes explicit what his other movies offered implicitly. Aldo Raine's Basterds are all working class, and they are shown to be incredibly effective, where the elites are ultimately well intentioned bumblers. The plan goes off the rail at every turn because of the British Lieutenant, and the German cinema star. It is ultimately two of the Basterds, and the least likely two that make their plan against the Nazi’s at the movie theater come off.

But there is a new dimension in this movie. As Kill Bill shows with the scene between Budd and the "titty bar" owner, the stifling rage one feels having "The Boss" ridicule and demean you for no other reason than because he can, Basterds in it's opening relates to the terror of knowing that your well being, your very life is at the mercy of some government functionary. Who in the working classes has not felt the pain of interviewing for one kind of government assistance or another, whether it's food stamps, unemployment benefits, or help with paying for college. Almost all of us have sat there and had to pretend to be calm and collected, trying to figure out what the person across from us wants to hear, so as to not have our lives disrupted. And many of us have come away feeling as if we’ve sold ourselves out in trying to become what will be acceptable rather than in being our true selves.

There are of course some who would be surprised to hear an avowed Progressive talking about the terrors of government officials. But that is only because they don't understand Progressivism. Progressives don't believe that Government is all by itself the best and only solution to society's problems. Rather we believe that since Government unlike businesses is meant to be directed by the will of the people rather than the "market" or the "shareholders" it has a better chance of solving problems. But we are not unaware of what happens when the people do not stay on top of the government and MAKE it serve the people. That’s why to this day Naziism is the best metaphor for government run amok.

Progressive Themes: Once again we have a celebration of the power of women. Shosanna crafts a plan to destroy the Nazi elite completely independent of the Basterds, and carries it out with no real help except for her lover and a film printer that she terrifies into helping. Again however this is no ice princess. She is shown to be a very human young woman. Her terror at having to sit and make polite small talk with the man who murdered her family is palpable. Your heart breaks for her and how brave she is forced to be.

Tarantino also adds very important moral note that is largely absent from his other films. The few Nazi's that the Basterds let live, are marked by having a swastika carved into their foreheads. Because as Aldo explains he wants to give them something they can never take off. This is a very clear statement about the idea that if you do something horrible, then you should be made to pay. You should not be allowed to simply go on with your life as if nothing has ever happened. Some people only looked at the surface of Basterds and assumed it was a celebration of Bush Jr.'s pro torture anti responsibility ethos. But rather it is a repudiation of it. It is a clear statement that those who do horrible things should be made to suffer consequences for having done those things. Sadly the likelihood of a group like the Basterds carving a big old T in the foreheads of Dick Cheney or George Bush is pretty much non existent. But at least for a couple of hours we can take refuge in a world in which evil is punished and true justice is dispensed. Politicians be damned.

Well I've run out of films to talk about. I'm hoping that Tarantino is working on correcting that shortage even as we speak. What will his next work bring? What will the underlying themes be for the dutiful cinephile to mine? I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

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