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    		•

    FILMS

    Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
  • Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Michael Parks, Sonny Chiba, Chiaki Kuriyama

  • Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

    • I love Resevoir Dogs, True Romance and Pulp Fiction. I love them, unreservedly, even though in the years following Pulp Fiction's release, it seemed to be a popular view not to like it. Or to not like Quentin Tarantino. Because it was so popular and because he was so popular. When something tastes like a cult-favorite and it gains notoreity among even the most mainstream of audiences, it's an easy thing for a fanboy to say, "Well, it's not really that good."

    Blah blah blah fuckin' blah.

    You and I both know that this is bullshit. His movies are, generally, that good.

    And lest you paint me as an over-zealous Tarantino fan, I will let you in on a few things. A) I don't remember much of Jackie Brown, as it was a largely forgettable movie. B) I find Tarantino, himself, to be a poor to mediocre actor. He always looks like he's trying way too hard. C) There's one degree of seperation between me and Tarantino. I'm not saying this to elevate myself, but rather to lower him. I have a friend who worked in Lawrence Bender's office and, long story short, my friend told me something that wasn't terribly surprising: He found Tarantino to be a big dork. Nice guy, but extremely dorky.

    So there. My hand is on the table.

    But let's put all of that aside. Now that I've made it clear that I don't find him to be the be-all end-all in movie-making we can move along. I find that Tarantino makes a very specific type of movie for a very specific type of audience.

    And damn-it all to hell if I ain't his target demographic! For which I am eternally grateful.

    And so it was with more than a little reservation when I got excited about Kill Bill. I didn't think that Tarantino would be able to recreate the same sense of cool as he did with the other three flicks. I cringed at the thought that we might, weeks from now, be quoting Kill Bill, only to find that in six weeks people who loved the movie, discovered it was popular, and then jacknifed their opinion, saying, "Poo poo on you Quentin. It's not that good."

    It had been so long since we've had an original (well, original in Tarantinoland, meaning, he's stealing from the best of the past) Tarantino flick, that, well, one couldn't help but think he was Don McLean singing "American Pie" and wondering where his second hit was. (Or, in Tarantino's case, his fourth hit.)

    Well, it's here. It's Kill Bill: Vol. 1. It not only hits. It hacks. It severs. It smashes and chomps. It slices and dices. It makes chili and fries.

    Spoiler warning: Hey dumbshit?! Did you see the movie yet? No? Then stop reading.

    I may be edging near hyperbole, but I'll go ahead and say it anyway: I believe Tarantino is one of the sneakiest bastards around. He's tricked a lot of people and I'm not entirely sure they've realized it. There are a lot of people who don't like foreign films. Lazy assholes don't like to read. There are also a lot of people who don't like "cartoons." Lazy assholes don't know that "anime" and "cartoons" are related but only in the same way that Tiger Beat and Playboy are related.

    And riding his popularity of Pulp Fiction, he wooed an audience into the theater and dumped 10 minutes of anime on them, and a shitload of subtitles. I love that subversive little weasel.

    This may not seem like such a big deal to you. And if it's not, it's probably because you don't mind the above subjects. Or, you're just a contrary asshole who will wants to disagree with whatever I write. You can stop reading now.

    (BTW: If this review seems a little harsh to you, screw you! It fits the movie, you dumb sonuvabitch. Go watch Lizzy Maguire, you nancy-boy poof.)

    OK, let's get down to brass tacks: Here are a few things I noticed while watching Kill Bill: Vol. 1...

    Tarantino seems to enjoy pitting opposite themese or emotions or visuals against one another. Take, for instance, the overly stilted and formal dialogue between Vivica A. Fox and Uma Thurman over coffee after their knife fight. They're speaking in this very formal way, and yet interlaced in it is a load of explicit, not to mention loud, profanity. "Fuck yous" and "Listen, bitches" reverberate across the kitchen countertop and yet, I'd have to go back and listen more carefully, but I'm not sure they use a single contraction. (I could be wrong on this point.)

    He also crosses hysterical moments with gut-wrenching moments, i.e., Uma Thurman, having just revived from her coma, taps the side of her head. We hear a ptang of her knuckles on steel. the look on her face made me laugh. She has a steel plate in her head. Funny. Ha ha. And then she remembers her unborn baby. She reaches down to her stomach and finds it flat. She screams. And the camera doesn't cut away. She screams and rubs her hands on her belly, and still the camera refuses to leave her to grieve. It's a pretty hard scene to watch. Cudos to Uma for the performance.

    And then we have the most obvious comparison: horrible violence matched against hilarity. Uma, the bride, massacres and butchers and mains and decapitates dozens of people and yet, at the end, she spares the one Yakuza who is just a boy—but not without a warning. She bends him over her knee and spanks him with the flat of her blade. The room below is litered with bloody, writhing corpses, and The Bride scolds this one young, scared boy on the nature of right and wrong.

    There is also over two hours of style in this film. Everything from the Tarantinoisms and the trademarks (Red Apple cigarettes, the square box, "mad dog," etc., etc.) to the visual look the Kill Bill are worth mentioning. But there is just too much to say, "Hey this part was cool." Any attempt at a list would be an exercise in exclusion, because the movie was just That Damn Cool.

    If you don't like Tarantino, you won't like Kill Bill. If you don't like samurai movies (or cowboy movies, for that matter—the two are very closely related), you don't like Kill Bill. If you don't like blood, gore, violence, swearing, or smartly written scripts, you won't like Kill Bill. If you don't like visually stunning cinema, then you won't like Kill Bill. Anime? Subtitles? ... No? Then stay the fuck home.

    But if you do like any of these things, then get your ass out to the movie theater and fork over some of your hard-earned cash for half a movie, you damn tightwad.