Kill Bill

Kill Bill

Written by Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman (Character: The Bride)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino has always been a bit of a phenomenon for me. I've heard many complain about how stale and boring a lot of modern films are, a sentiment to I only partially agree. I recently watched the film Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, and while I did like it I felt that it lacked something more compelling. The protagonist was, while well acted, boring, the cinematography and soundtrack felt very bland and uninspired, and the ideas the film presented weren't really explored in a way that films like Blade Runner 2049 and shows like Altered Carbon explore their subject matter.

Enter Tarantino who is famous, and in some circles infamous, for his indulgence. Inglorious Basterds was a blood soaked romp through occupied France filled to the brim with long scenes of small talk that stretch on for upwards of ten minutes or more, wanton violence and cruelty, and one of the largest body counts of the past few decades. Django Unchained was the same way with characters arguably even more despicable, often times to an almost hilarious degree, than the Basterds fiendish Hans Landa. Tarantino is a writer and director with such a unique style that every one of his movies stands out from an industry that is already filled with countless legendary auteurs.

On the topic of indulgence, I think Kill Bill might be his most indulgent film ever.

Kill Bill follows the Bride (Uma Thurman), AKA Black Mamba, who is mercilessly gunned down at her wedding by Bill (David Carradine) and his Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She wakes up from a coma four years later, believing her daughter to be dead and seeking vengeance against Bill and her former team.

She hunts down each member of the Vipers, exacting her revenge as she works her way up the ladder to Bill. She goes after Vernita Green AKA Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox), O-Ren Ishii AKA Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu), Budd AKA Sidewinder (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver AKA California Mountain Snake  (Daryl Hannah) and ends her journey with Bill.

When I say that Tarantino was indulgent, I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way. In Kill Bill Tarantino indulges in insane fight scenes, jarring and often melodramatic editing and music, and comical amounts of blood and violence. The thing is it all works, really well in fact. The journey of the Bride is fantastic, one that plays out through amazing set piece action scenes that are linked together with the characteristic engaging Tarantino dialogue. A common thread I find in Tarantino's film is that I enjoy the scenes where characters sit down and talk to each other more than the actual action that many of those scenes lead up to. The Bride's conversation with Bill at the end in my opinion was even better and more engaging than the big fight with O-Ren and the Crazy 88 gang. These characters are memorable, likeable even when they're at their most masochistic, and the performances are phenomenal.

I once heard a complaint of this movie being that all of the action is in volume 1 while all of the talking is in volume 2. This is somewhat correct, as the big action scenes are both in volume 1, those being the fight with Vernita Green and the aforementioned O-Ren fight, and I will admit it does make the film (Tarantino considers this one film just broken up into two parts and I do as well, so I consider both volumes a single film) a bit lopsided in that regard. There are two cool fights with both Elle Driver and Bill in the second volume but they're both really short and while I liked both of them I do wish there was a bigger action sequence in the second half. Elle Driver is built up as the Bride's nemesis, even stating that the Bride is the greatest warrior she's ever known. It would have been great to see these two badass assassins go at it in an extended fight, forcing each to dig deep and use everything they've learned to best the other.

That isn't to say that the fights we do get in volume 2 are bad, in fact I would say they're both great for what they are, but there is a much bigger focus on characterizing Elle Driver, Budd and Bill in the second half which works pretty well for me. These characters are interesting and engaging, I hung on every word of dialogue, every action the performed. If Tarantino had to choose between a big action scene and this characterization I'm glad he went with the latter.

On the subject of characterization I do have a big complaint, that being the lack of any significant characterization for Vernita Green. We get long sequences where the other assassins are explored, whether that be their personalities or their backgrounds or both, but Vernita gets a couple of minutes before disappearing from the film with the exception of a handful of flashbacks where she doesn't even speak. It feels like Tarantino spent a lot of time characterizing everyone else and either didn't have time to give Vernita anything or just couldn't think of anything beyond what little he had already given her, which is a shame in my opinion.

I feel that it is impossible to talk about a Tarantino film without discussing the acting. I don't know how he does it, but I have yet to find a bad performance in any of his films. The casting is absolutely perfect here, with every actor giving it their all and making it seem so easy in the process.

The first to note is Uma Thurman, she was just born to play the Bride. She can be very innocent and happy one moment, distressed and mournful the next, and stoic and badass the next and it is all very fluid and believable. She is very comfortable being a badass ninja assassin who cuts down dozens of ninja gangsters and has firmly cemented herself in my Badass Action Hero Hall of Fame. My favorite line from her, presented entirely without context, was "my pussy wagon died on me."

The rest of the cast is excellent as well. Daryl Hannah's Elle Driver is perfectly evil and menacing and serves almost as a dark reflection of the Bride which I liked a lot though I wish they would have expanded on that (Tarantino wants a sequel so maybe they will do that if that film comes to pass?). Michael Madsen is excellent, one of the best Tarantino alumni. I liked his character a lot in this film, he's very quiet and stoic and while he is still a bastard at the end of the day he's a sympathetic one; he's poor, he has a job that he hates, he seems a bit lonely. I will say that he does feel a bit out of place with the rest of the Deadly Vipers given that we never see him wield a sword or show any particular skill in battle, but his character moments seem to be what Tarantino wanted to focus on so I can't say I feel particularly cheated on that front.

Lucy Liu has always been an actor I like to watch, whether it be in Afro Samurai or in the show Elementary, so I was a little disappointed that she didn't have more to do. Don't get me wrong, what we have is good but a lot of her screen time is devoted to a fantastic anime sequence that I'll go into later. She was good, but I wanted to see more of her. Vivica A. Fox was also really good in her very small part. I first encountered her in the unbelievably funny Cool Cat Saves the Kids (look it up, get some friends together and prepare to cry as you roll on the floor and erupt into laughter) so every time she was on screen I had to point at my television and loudly exclaim "There she is!" (it's a Cool Cat reference, seriously go watch that movie. You can thank me later.)

But the real show stealer is without a doubt David Carradine. Oh my God, was he great. In the first half of the film we only get small glimpses of him and we never see his face. He says a few lines and he ends volume 1 building a sense of foreboding and anticipation. We see a lot more of him in volume 2 and he is played so cool, so well spoken that he commands the scene every time he is present. As I said before, the final confrontation with Bill is arguably my favorite scene in the entire film and most of that is just Bill talking, that's how good Carradine's performance is. I would say that if there is a single reason to watch this film it's for him.

The cinematography is nothing short of fantastic. Tarantino has such a unique style that is evocative of 70's action films while also being unique to himself. I think that the best directors and cinematographers have a unique way of shooting their films where if you muted the sound you would still know who shot and directed what you're watching and I think that in this regard Tarantino stands apart from an already distinguished crowd.

The action scene that everyone knows, the fight with the Crazy 88 and O-Ren, are so reflective of the kind of silly and over the top martial arts scenes of some older films and the melodramatic one on one duels of many others that I had no choice but to be transfixed by what I was watching. There's something about watching the Crazy 88 fight that is so over-the-top and bonkers, both in terms of the gratuitous use of wire jumps and blood, to the O-Ren duel which is very slow and cinematic that really just works. After several minutes of jumping all across the arena, hacking off limbs and dousing the arena and everyone inside with gallons upon gallons of blood the following duel gives you a chance to calm down and catch your breath but still keeping the tension alive, keeping a nice pace going and fighting fatigue on the part of the viewer.

Of course, you can't talk about this film and not mention the anime sequence. It's so strange to have a movie that has so many great actors in it take almost ten whole minutes of runtime and dedicate that to a highly stylized anime that gives the background of O-Ren, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it just works. It works because the animation is incredibly fluid and feels like a professionally made adult anime (at least the few I've been able to sit through) and it too has an incredible amount of blood spraying across the screen. I don't really like anime so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I felt this was an interesting and engaging way of telling the backstory of O-Ren and I loved every second of it. My only wish is that they did something similar to this with another character, maybe Vernita Green?

What is a Tarantino film without a great eclectic soundtrack? Kill Bill delivers tons of music that either fits perfectly or doesn't fit at all, and that's the beauty of it. The use of Quincy Jones' "Ironside" is so jarring and out of place but Tarantino has created a film that fosters it perfectly, used only when the Bride is staring down her opponent. Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang" is a very on-the-nose choice but again, it just works. In the second half the song "About Her" by Malcolm McLaren is used perfectly and has been playing on repeat as I write this. I really loved the soundtrack here, perhaps even more than Django Unchained's soundtrack.

I make no attempt to hide my love for the work of Tarantino. I love everything about his style of directing and writing, I love the characters he creates, and I love the films he makes. Even his worst film (that would be Death Proof, in case anyone was curious) is still one that I love watching and I'd be lying if I said it's shortcomings really bothered me in the grand scheme of things.

I mentioned at the outset of this review that Tarantino loves to indulge in violence, and that's something I'd like to talk about. While I've got a lot of thoughts on the nature of violence in Tarantino's films, especially his later work, I feel that everything here is so unbelievably over-the-top to a comical degree that it manages to steer far clear of disturbing or tasteless. Seeing the Bride cut down seemingly hundreds of ninja gangsters is fun, it's funny. They're nameless, practically faceless, and they're evil gangsters. The assassins who have much more characterization are treated more "seriously" (notice the air quotes) when they fall.

It's weird, but this film made me realize that there are really two camps that Tarantino's films fall into in my mind: the more fun, less gritty side and the more cruel, more disturbing side. I would say the split occurs after Death Proof with that film and his earlier ones being in the former and everything else being in the latter. Don't let my wording make you believe that I can't handle the violence or I don't like those movies because of it, but I believe that the nature of violence in Tarantino's films shifted at Basterds and has made me examine it with a more critical eye. That could very well be the point, as there is strong evidence, in my opinion, to suggest that Basterds is a critique of cruel ultra-violent filmmaking and the public's uncritical consumption of it and in Django to provide a stark pull-no-punches view of the Antebellum South. But part of me misses the indulgent but fun violence of his earlier work.

I loved Kill Bill, have I made that obvious? I think this film is a marvel, and absolute gem that everyone who worked on it should be proud of. I enjoyed every single second of this film and I think provides a case study for the Tarantino style. I also find it a very interesting film with which to compare Tarantino's other works. Really, this movie is the whole package, and I can't recommend it highly enough.