Movie Analysis:
"Grindhouse"
FINALLY,
AN EXPLOITATION FILM
YOU CAN ENJOY WITH YOUR DATE!
Analysis
by Armando Saldaña Mora
There's this principle in Dramatica that states that stories told
from a Female Mental Sex perspective (i.e. Intuitive Problem Solving)
will be enjoyed mostly by an audience with Female Mental Sex (most
women), while stories told from a Male Mental Sex perspective (i.e.
Logical) can be enjoyed by both mental sexes (both men and women).
I could verify
this last weekend, watching GRINDHOUSE.
GRINDHOUSE is
actually two movies set up as a retro-style double feature—PLANET
TERROR, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, and DEATH PROOF,
written and directed by Quentin Tarantino . For those of us who
remember a childhood of sneaking into restricted movies in the
70s, this show is a special treat. They nailed the atmosphere—from
the psychedelic background on the "Coming Attractions" card,
to the cheesy animated short that uses cute animals to warn that
this movie is not intended for children.
Rodriguez and
Tarantino achieve something that is, in my opinion, very, very
difficult: to intentionally make fun of a genre that is unintentionally
funny. This has been previously attempted with Mexican wrestler
films (NACHO LIBRE) or Chinese martial arts films (ENTER
THE FIST)
and the results have been rather poor. GRINDHOUSE delivers. This
is the best highbrow humor delivered through the worst lowbrow
storytelling.
Dramatica-wise,
both stories are intentionally incomplete storyforms with lots
of plot holes and inconsistent characters. This is done with the
virtuosity of Mozart composing a musical joke. These guys break
the most basic rules, but only to achieve the most comical effect.
What is evident
is the Mental Sex of each of the stories (some minor spoilers follow).
PLANET
TERROR uses a straightforward Male-Mental Sex. It also plays with elements
that are the base of the most radical macho culture: strippers,
weapons, and gory carnage. But it does it with such tongue-in-cheek
satire that the whole audience (both men and women) laughs, cheers,
and applauds at the fast-paced line of gory excess. The audience
enthusiasm runs throughout the movie. Two hours of belly laughs
and "oohs," "aahs" and "eewws" at
the explosions, bloodshed, and mutant transformations
on the screen.
Then DEATH
PROOF starts.
It has a very
different pace. Filled with long dialogue scenes, subplots and
a careful review of who the characters are and the nature of their
relationships. It has the longest amount of exposition I've seen;
two full acts before the action really starts.
The audience,
who laughed and cheered for two straight hours, falls silent. The
men (like me) are thinking, "Where are the car chases?
Where are the explosions?" But women are captivated
by this tangle of stories of unfulfilled love and
caring-for-each-other.
Then I realized:
DEATH PROOF is a Female Mental-Sex story. It's a gore-and-guts
chick-flick.
Taking a step
further than KILL BILL, Tarantino creates what
could be the first movie in the Chick/Gore genre. This is another
story of justice and revenge in women's terms. A timeless tale
of girls who meet insensitive men—who also happen
to be serial killers—and then follow them and
rip them apart.
By the end of
the second act, Tarantino gets the biggest reaction I've seen in
an audience with the most insignificant plot point (the phrase "so let's get him").
All the women in the audience jumped out of their seats and cheered
for two full minutes.
By the end of
the third act even us men were cheering and jumping along with
the women (which is something I've seen frequently when men watch
a
emale Mental
Sex story. Is not that we don't enjoy it, but we need to watch
it to the end to fully understand it.)
Don't expect
GRINDHOUSE to break office box records or win a dozen awards (very
few films about zombie fighting strippers do that) but you may
expect it to become a classic. It is a well made film, an absolutely
entertaining experience and a good confirmation of a Dramatica
principle.
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