September 18th marks the first individual title release of Quentin Tarantino's DEATH PROOF on DVD, as culled from his double feature retro-cinema production GRINDHOUSE — the ambitious but underperforming experiment in reproducing low-budget exploitation films in all their gritty glory, as co-produced with PLANET TERROR director Robert Rodriguez.

DISC ONE

Driving solo now, DEATH PROOF makes its home entertainment debut in this 2-disc special edition release, extended in an unrated version not seen in its U.S. theatrical release this past spring. I won't recap the entire story and review as originally published in my theatrical article from April, but you're welcome to read it first and come back to the DVD review if you prefer. Note that some plot spoilers may occur in reading either of these reviews by nature, but in both articles I try to preserve most of the fun and surprises the film has to offer.

This expanded DVD version of DEATH PROOF contains approximately 23 minutes of scenes added to the 90-minute edited feature which appeared in the GRINDHOUSE double feature. A good portion of these extra minutes arise from two scenes, one infamously (and comically) curtailed in theaters, and the other an omitted scene setting up the second act of the film.

As audiences will recall, just as Arlene "Butterfly" was winding up her hips to give Stuntman Mike the lap dance of a lifetime in an Austin bar, DEATH PROOF abruptly interrupted the moment with a "missing reel" film insert clip. The gag earned big laughs in theaters, but now Tarantino has restored actress Vernessa Ferlito's choreographed, clinging seduction of Kurt Russell in all its hip-grinding glory. No longer a build-up of sexual tension diffused by a non sequitur punchline, Arlene's dance certainly turns up the heat as she dares to get close to such a dangerous man.  This personal interaction raises the stakes in this deadly game, and Stuntman Mike takes full advantage of the ploy, which makes his ultimate betrayal of Arlene and her friends all the more horrific in the act one climax.

Another lengthy added scene opens act two of DEATH PROOF in a black-and-white sequence cut from the U.S. theatrical print.  Stuntman Mike encounters a new group of female prey parked next to his new death proof muscle car at a convenience store.  While Kim buys supplies for the road trip to pick up Zoë, Stuntman Mike eyes the girls' car as Abernathy sleeps in the backseat and Lee serenades her iPod, both oblivious to their stalker.   He surreptitiously taunts Abernathy before peeling out of the parking lot, setting his sadistic game in motion.  The black-and-white look ends abruptly as the scene returns to full color, elaborating on the playful friendship between the women before they hit the road and resume action as seen in the theatrical release.

Other shorter scenes and moments are added to DEATH PROOF, including a brief extension of Stuntman Mike getting his pre-kill kicks photographing his new "girlfriends" outside the Austin bar before stalking them on the road.  More bonus footage broadens the scene with Earl and Edgar McGraw, contemplating the horrendous-but-unproven motives of this high-speed murderer — giving Tarantino aficionados more of the Michael Parks cameo they love and expect.

While the restored lap dance adds an increased element of the thematic exploitation factor, it really doesn't advance the plot any besides raising Stuntman Mike's creep factor another notch.  One can argue that its original omission for the "missing reel" laugh better sold the Grindhouse gimmick of dilapidated projection prints and delivered more value to the audience.  Many artifacts remain from the deliberate 'destruction' of the film image and soundtrack for that old-school cinematic touch, but the go-for-broke attitude behind cutting Arlene's dance as a 'missing reel' added that extra layer of surreal fun to the film, which restoring the scene now lacks.  Perhaps it's a gag that works much better in theaters where films are actually projected than it would streaming forth from your TV, but I prefer the original missing moment as it was presented.

The additional black-and-white scene with Stuntman Mike at the Circle A store does benefit the story much more, since it establishes what a premeditated killer Mike is.  As with other prototypical late '70s/early '80s slasher villains like Michael Myers, the game of stalking his prey, building suspense into sheer terror before he finally strikes his victims, deepens Stuntman Mike's psychopathic profile.  He derives thrills from the hunt, not just the climactic act of murder, and so Stuntman Mike appears more believably insane than before.  This scene of toying with his prey in tiny but disturbing fashion also front-loads the character with dark misdirection, which heightens the comic revelation of Mike's true nature in the finale chase as his intended victims turn the table on him.

Overall, the extended DVD version of DEATH PROOF certainly aids in the film standing on its own, apart from the original GRINDHOUSE double bill conceit first seen by audiences. If you didn't catch that experience in theaters, you'll never know what you missed. . . but that also may mean you won't miss the difference.  While it's far from Tarantino's best film, its flares of daring re-invention in the retro-slasher genre shine through, and DEATH PROOF deserves merit and purchase alone for its astounding, shot-for-real car chase finale, the likes of which truly haven't been seen in a generation of moviegoers.  Only time will tell if the future DVD release of Robert Rodriguez's PLANET TERROR will deliver the four missing GRINDHOUSE fake-film trailers to help complete the double feature experience seen in theaters this past April.  Fans can only hope it delivers those goods.

DISC TWO

This second bonus disc is loaded with eight extras: seven making-of featurettes and a related DVD release trailer about stuntwoman Zoë Bell.

Stunts on Wheels: The Legendary Drivers of DEATH PROOF
Director Quentin Tarantino hosts the first of seven making-of featurettes, this focusing the very real, very dangerous car chase stunts designed for DEATH PROOF. Legendary Hollywood stunt coordinators and performers including Buddy Joe Hooker, Jeff and Tracy Dashnaw, Zoe Bell, Steve Davison, Terry Leonard and Chrissy Weathersby, who all provide their own personal experiences on the film. Actors Kurt Russell and Tracy Thoms also get due credit for their on-screen driving in these exciting chase moments, though they gratefully defer to their talented driving doubles.

The stunt teams provides entertaining details on how they created the horrific night road collision, including test runs of the head-on cannon roll crash. But the bulk of this informative extra focuses on the 20-minute chase finale of the film, as Stuntman Mike's intended victims turn the table on their pursuer with pulse-pounding results. Viewers can't help but gain respect and appreciation for these fearless stunt performers who truly lay their lives on the line to enact these cinematic crashes without the faked safety of CGI illusions which, sadly, have turned these living Hollywood legends into a dying breed of daring artists.

Introducing Zoë Bell
Quentin Tarantino relates his first meeting with Zoë Bell, the New Zealander stunt woman who doubled for Lucy Lawless in the XENA sword-and-sorcery series. This featurette includes clips from DOUBLE DARE, a filmfest favorite documentary about two generations of stuntwomen. It was during production of this documentary that Tarantino hired Zoë Bell to double Uma Thurman for KILL BILL, beginning their continuing partnership up through DEATH PROOF.

As much as Tarantino relied on Bell to perform extreme stunts like the ship's mast gag as she rides the hood of a speeding Dodge Charger, Zoë confesses she found the daunting task of acting a major role (as herself) in the film more challenging and scary than any crash, flip or fight. This Kiwi's abundant charm and energy off-camera easily illustrate why Tarantino cast her in, truly, the role of her life.

Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike
Hollywood veteran Kurt Russell was tailor-made for the role of Stuntman Mike, and vice versa as director Tarantino explains it. Having grown up in the industry from a child star and maintaining a varied, vital career, Russell literally grew up in the studio era which spawned the type of character Stuntman Mike would be, both in real life and in DEATH PROOF. Accordingly, Russell's experience helped create the character (and hilarious character reveal) in the film, backed up by the actor's own familiarity and skill behind the wheel of fast cars. It's little surprise that Tarantino's villain would have celluloid running through his cold-blooded veins, and Kurt Russell plays the character like no other actor could.

Finding Quentin's Gals
Less a making-of look at DEATH PROOF per se, unless you count Tarantino's personal casting choices of his female leads in the pre-production phase, this featurette interviews the director and why he cast his two groups of women for their roles. Building the first team of his Gals — Sydney Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito and Jordan Ladd — illustrates how Tarantino tends to seek out and cast actors that he's met either socially or professionally to find the right type, look or attitude to fit his scripted characters. In the case of Ferlito, for example, Arlene's tough New York persona was informed by the actor rather than the page, so Tarantino adapted her role accordingly.

Casting the second group of Gals struck me as having more purposeful design in it, as their roles in the last half of the film demonstrate. As noted in Zoë Bell's featurette, Tarantino had her in mind while writing his script, to gain that rare filmmaking opportunity of casting a lead actress who could do all her own highly dangerous stunts on-screen. Rosario Dawson tells the tale of how she and friend Tracie Thoms both auditioned together for the roles of Abernathy and Kim, then anxiously waited for a phone call about getting the parts. You'll also learn how Mary Elizabeth Winstead won the role of Lee by surprising Tarantino with her interpretation of the part in auditions. This and The Guys of DEATH PROOF are the least production-oriented bonus features on disc 2, but enjoyable enough for the tales told in them.

The Uncut Version of "Baby It's You" by Mary Elizabeth Winstead
As the title implies, Tarantino let's an entire take play as Mary Elizabeth Winstead sings a cappella with her iPod, as featured in one of the additional scenes added to this expanded edition of DEATH PROOF. Enjoy her velvet voice and interpretation of the tune, informed by the brief backstory of how it ended up in the film as told in the previous featurette.

The Guys of DEATH PROOF
A second segment on casting the secondary male roles in the film, including Eli Roth, Michael Bacall and Omar Doom as a trio of horny but hapless guys attempting to pick up the Gals. Tarantino favorites Michael Parks and his son James return as Earl and Edgar McGraw in their inimitable repertory style and function, though the two appear only in clips from the film. This featurette might be the weakest of the bonus extras as little more than an additional piece of the making-of puzzle, though takes of Eli Roth's character making fun of Stuntman Mike at the bar provide a few laughs.

Quentin's Greatest Collaborator: Editor Sally Menke
An integral though often invisible contributor to the success of Tarantino's films is his longtime filmmaking partner, editor Sally Menke, though the director spares no superlatives in giving her due and deserved credit. He reiterates and expands upon his prior discussions about writing scripts alone, but in effect working with Menke in an editing bay truly results in the final draft of his stories thanks to her contributions. Also included is a fun Tarantino tradition in which he, the cast and crew send impromptu messages and comments in scene marker moments before takes. An entertaining featurette, but unfortunately it contains no material of Menke actually editing the film with Tarantino, which would truly let his collaborator shine in her own post-production glory. This omission may be due to DEATH PROOF originally having a drastically short four-and-a-half week editing schedule, but watching these two work within those tight boundaries would have been a genuine bonus for film fans.

DOUBLE DARE trailer
As you might guess, this is the trailer announcing the DVD release of the documentary DOUBLE DARE, featuring veteran stuntwoman Jeannie Epper who, among many other credits, doubled Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman. Now also a leading stunt coordinator, she trained Kiwi stuntwoman Zoë Bell, who was most noted for doubling Lucy Lawless as Xena in the popular sword-and-sorcery series. It was during production of this documentary, as Bell trained under the tutelage of Epper, when Tarantino cast Bell to double Uma Thurman for KILL BILL. While not directly connected to the making of DEATH PROOF, the documentary touted here would make a nice DVD adjunct for fans of Zoë Bell and stunt performers in general, a group on whom Tarantino lavishes praise throughout these bonus featurettes.