Pitchfork

Grindhouse is a celebration of cult cinema, not cineplex fare, so it shouldn't be surprising (at least in hindsight) that the movie didn't catch on with mainstream audiences out for a night of predictable laughs and/or emptily sadistic gore. In fact, the double feature's success might have seemed a little perverse and would definitely have drained it of at least a little of its seedy, garish luster.

That's too bad, because the world needs a little Jack Nitzsche and Smith in its life, just like it needed Dick Dale and "Jungle Boogie" 13 years ago.

If you don't think you've heard any Nitzsche, just pull out your copy of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want"-- he did the famous choral arrangement. Or listen to Neil Young's Harvest-- he did...just about everything. Or go see Death Proof. "The Last Race", Nitzsche's 1964 instrumental single, scores the opening credits*, with Stuntman Mike's death car roaring through the Texas countryside. The song's revving guitars and menacing bassline create a surf fanfare whose grandiosity is almost silly. "The Last Race" sounds like Aaron Copeland popping the clutch and telling the world to eat his dust.

Stream: > Jack Nitzsche: "The Last Race" [WINDOWS] [QUICKTIME]

A good portion of Death Proof takes place in the bars around Austin, all of which apparently have nachos to die for and exquisitely stocked jukeboxes. Along with T. Rex's "Jeepster" (whose car associations seem especially sinister in this context) and Joe Tex's "The Love You Save May Be Your Own", Smith's cover of the Shirelles' "Baby It's You" plays in the movie mainly to make you think Austin is the coolest place on earth. A slinky guitar and tight rhythm section kick the latter song off with a seedy groove, made sticky by the organ, but it's Gayle McCormick's performance that makes the song a classic of sexual desperation. "It's not the way you smile that touches my heart," she sings, knowingly. "It's not the way you kiss that tears me apart." Like Stuntman Mike's murderous motives, the song's obvious subject matter is never stated outright, which only makes it kinkier, and it's a sign of Tarantino's growth as a filmmaker on Death Proof that he just lets it work its magic rather than staging a half-hour conversation about it á la "Like a Virgin".

*One piece of movie trivia: "The Last Race" also scored the credits of the hokey teensploitation flick Village of the Giants in 1965, starring a young Beau Bridges and a post-Opie, pre-Grand Theft Auto Ronny Howard.